Have you planned for a crisis?

What is your plan for a crisis? It’s generally not a question of if, but when, a crisis will hit your credit union. It’s highly likely your team has an operational plan to cope with most potential crisis situations, but what about your communications strategy?

Chances are, that isn’t something you have planned for, but you absolutely should. Taking the time to craft a plan before a crisis hits is the key to a proactive response, instead of a reactive one. Proactive planning allows you to protect your credit union’s brand, reputation and member relations by providing information that helps your key audiences know the situation and what you and your team are doing to resolve it.

Public relations professionals are trained to help outline the strategy and basic communications templates needed in many different types of crisis situations. Employee theft, natural disaster, data breaches, robberies, and other scenarios are all very real possibilities for your credit union. Typically, the plan will include recommended strategies, questions to help gather the kind of information needed to manage the situation, and basic initial messages.

If you don’t have a communications plan as part of your crisis response, don’t despair. Working with your League/Association is a good place to start. Chances are, there is a person on the team with this kind of experience. If not, they should be able to connect you with a contact that can help get a plan developed.

At the Mountain West Credit Union Association, that is a key function of the Public Affairs department. I work with individual credit unions on crisis response, as well as plan and message development. Because as the member credit union, when you are in a crisis, the last thing you need to be worried about is how the situation is going to be communicated.

Plan, prepare, and practice. Then, when a crisis hits, you, your team and your credit union will be ready.