Crisis is inevitable in the business environment with the unpredictable economic conditions we have today. When something like fraud, management error, or technological problems occur, and leadership gets quiet, well people panic. During such critical situations, communication in business is a must.
Poor communication during times of crisis can cause confusion or misinformation, which can in turn damage your business reputation. The thing is, it’s not the crisis that actually breaks the business, it’s the silence. Is your company going through a crisis? This article will show you how to speak up and bring your workers together. We will discuss strategies to improve communication during a crisis to reduce its effect on your business.
What is Communication in Business During a Crisis?
Understand what a Business Crisis is
The thing with business crises is that they are unfavourable situations that are unplanned. They are situations that can cause instability in your business or ruin your business. Such unstable situations include disruptions of supply chain, trade wars, pandemic outbreak, fraud, and embezzlement of allocated funds.
Inflation, natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes, can also cause crises for businesses. All these cause limitations of production and transportation, increase in costs of raw materials and affect international trade.
Communication in Business during a crisis is passing information about situations that have threatened to affect your business reputation, outcomes, or operations. The purpose of communicating during a crisis is to reduce or control misinformation and confusion at your organization.
What could go wrong with Bad Communication in Business?
Bad communication in business affects your business efficiency and productivity. When your employees do not understand their roles or there is misinformation, this can alter the business workflow.
I remember the experience I had working with a company that did not communicate with the employees. Everyone knew something was wrong as the consistent monthly salary just stopped. No warning, no excuse, no discussion, no communication at all. This happened for months with no feedback, even after asking what was going on. I watched as the secretary leave the company and remembered her being disappointed.
She was so sad, as she had been working in the company for so long. She expected a feedback or a “situation is been handled” message, but got nothing. I watched her leave and eventually I left. Months later, I discovered the company was having issues with getting disbursements of funds. Both for on-going and completed contracts due to change in government.
The following are things that could go wrong with bad or no communication in your business:
- Bad communication could affect your relationships with prospective business partners
- Bad communication in business can lead to decreased satisfaction among customers and affect loyalty among employees
- It could also pass a wrong narrative about your business to the public
- It could affect future collaborations with excellent and profitable brands
- Bad communication in business can limit the progress of your business
How to Improve Communication in Your Business
Here is how to improve communication in your business when it’s going through a rough patch.
1. Develop a Good Communication Team
Prepare an excellent, reliable, capable and efficient team. This team should include team leads of every department including customer service and security unit. The team develops a strategic plan, creating templates for communications for both internal and external purposes. They provide detailed communication strategies for every worse case scenario. Your communication team must be equipped to plan to face and deal with unplanned situations.
Also, they set out a communication plan to follow through the crisis phase. According to Harvard Business Review, “Companies with an up-to-date communication plan are 2.5x more likely to recover quickly after a crisis” (HBR, 2023). Your plans must not just be about communicating to the public, you must ensure you have an effective internal communication strategy. There must be regular internal communication to ensure team communication best practices in your organisation.
2. Prepare to give Regular Updates
Develop an effective plan to provide updates through emails or the internal website on a regular basis. Your communication officials should send regular and clear messages to the employees through internal means of communication. There should be an internal forum where employees can ask questions and learn how to handle certain situations. To learn more about content that will grow your business, sign up for more business growth strategies at the Simplvest newsletter.
3. Be Compassionate and Show Empathy
Business during times of crisis can cause frustrations and other emotions to your employees and stakeholders. They may feel scared, angry, or sad, your communication strategy must include and convey empathy and a compassionate tone.
When addressing people affected with the crises, ensure that you show you care about them and their feelings. Provide feedback also about how effectively the situation is being handled.
4. Track the Media and Pass out a Consistent Message
Watch out for the media communications. Check peoples’ reaction to your messages and ensure no wrong information is spread about your business. You want to ensure that the media conveys your organisational transparency appropriately.
Also, ensure you send consistent messages; do not send out messages that are contradictory. Ensure any message passed out undergoes a review by your communication team. Consistent communication in business will show your transparency and help remove confusion or stop false information from spreading. By doing this, you build trust with your officials and customers.
5. Use Different Communication Options
During a business crisis, use different means of communication channels such as e-mail, phone call, social media posts, or media. In relation to your shareholders, physical communication if possible is a better option. This will allow you pass a clear message directly to them.
Conclusion
The companies that handle crises well with good leadership and communication, don’t just survive them. They often come out stronger. Their teams trust leadership more. Their customers stick around and build a culture that speaks loyalty and safety.
As a business owner, you should communicate with your workers. You must have good and clear communication with them, and it has to be consistent. Even when a crisis comes, good communication in business may help your business to survive. Do not make your employees feel forgotten or left out, instead take the opportunity to have a strong workplace collaboration.
So in times of crises, let’s try not to sound perfect but present. Head over to Simplvest for more guides that will benefit you and your business.
