Page 153 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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1 134 Crisis Communication
someone has died, a member of top management may need to be the
spokesperson, in order to show that the company takes the incident
seriously and somebody in authority is making sure that what needs to
be done is indeed taking place.

Who should do the training?

In selecting trainers for crisis communication, be sure to look for indi-
viduals who are experienced in this line of work. Agencies specializing
in public relations only may not be experts in crisis training, even if
they have assisted clients occasionally.
Here are some questions to ask:

Who are some of your clients?
Can you provide references?
Do you provide crisis counsel, as well as training? (You want some-
body who knows how to handle a crisis, not just talk about it.)
Will you show me a sample training agenda?
How many training sessions did you conduct last year?
How long have you been in business?
Will you be assigning senior trainers to my sessions or only your
junior staff?
What are your trainers’ qualifications? Are any of them former
journalists?

What you’re looking for are experts who have long-term experience
in crisis communication. Caution: just having been a journalist does not
make a person a good media trainer.
Dan Molina of Shelton & Caudle says:

What we’ve found by trying out some former reporters is that many of
them just don’t get how people should prepare to talk to reporters like
themselves, let alone how to teach them to prepare messages for the
media.

The bottom line is: search for experienced trainers who have worked
with high-level executives in industries where crises are most
common, such as healthcare, energy, the automotive sector, hospitality
and government. Don’t be too concerned if they don’t have experi-
ence in your precise industry. There are two reasons for that: 1) crisis
communication needs are the same no matter what the subject matter,