A crisis communications strategy is a necessity for businesses of all sizes. A PR crisis can happen at any time, so it is essential to have a plan in place to help your organisation work through this as efficiently and effectively as possible.
A PR crisis is characterised as something that will negatively impact the reputation of a company through increased negative public attention. While a crisis can arise due to a variety of reasons – such as personal negative publicity or serious financial losses – managed service providers (MSPs) and technology businesses in the IT channel are particularly at risk of technological crises. A single supply chain attack targeting one MSP could cascade across its client network, leaving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) vulnerable to disruption, breaches or ransomware.
In 2023, a report by the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) worryingly found that nearly one in five UK businesses have no PR support, either internally or externally. In addition, one-third of businesses had never used public relations to navigate a crisis.
Crisis management is about being prepared. Working with a PR agency to create an extensive and organised plan puts your business steps ahead of potential future crises.
The importance of having an effective crisis communication plan is highlighted by incidents such as the CrowdStrike outage in July 2024. There are countless examples of these incidents reported in the media with cyber-attacks, data breaches and security compromises hitting even the most distinguished companies. What’s more is that the threat is only growing with the ever-developing complex landscape of technology. Crisis communication planning is now, more than ever, essential in the technology space, and having a PR agency to lean on in a crisis can be a great tool in the belt.
The security breach of Mascot, an SME book publisher in the US, for example, perfectly demonstrates the positive effect of crisis communication. While their clients were targeted by being invoiced for incorrect and substantial payments, their recruitment of PR support provided a detailed and expert crisis plan, including immediate identification and solution of the issue and effective communication with their clients. This not only maintained the strong foundation of their relationships with their customers but also preserved the company’s reputation – it enhanced public perception of their company as being extremely trustworthy and reliable, despite difficult circumstances.