In March of 2020, companies across the United States suddenly felt the impact of the pandemic. The coronavirus had been in the U.S. for a month, but by the end of March, cases had jumped at alarming rates and the number of hospitalizations and deaths were making headline news.
Window tint shops – which a month prior had been flourishing – suddenly found themselves closing up shops, sending employees home and facing several months of uncertainty. For some, the phones stopped ringing as people began to quarantine.
We all learned about the importance of crisis planning after that experience. But the thing about crisis is that you never know when another one is going to hit – nor what it will look like. A crisis management plan can help. Here are some tips for writing a management plan for your window tinting business.
What is a crisis management plan?
A crisis management plan, sometimes called a CMP, is defined as a plan that “describes how your business will react to a crisis, including who will be involved and what they will do. The plan strives to minimize harm and restore operations as soon as possible.”
A crisis management plan isn’t meant to be a document that you create and then it sits on the shelf. It is meant to be a plan that you start to implement to help mitigate risks that might hurt you should a disaster strike.
There are several essential elements that make up a crisis management plan, including a risk analysis, a plan to minimize risks, communication plans for both internal and external audiences, and more. Here is a general overview of these elements.
Creating a Risk Analysis
While no one could have predicted a pandemic would sweep across the United States, there are some scenarios that you can plan for – including a fire, natural disaster, power failure, terrorist attack, technology system failure, theft and vandalism and others.
Take a minute to jot down all of the risks that could affect your business and in what way. For each one, assess the likelihood of it occurring (including its frequency) and determine how it would impact your operations. What would your employees do if a tragedy struck? How would your customers be impacted?
In other words, think about what would happen if your computer system went down for a day or if there was a burglary or if there was a fire. Creating a risk analysis should help you determine some of the low-risk factors and high-risk factors for your business.
Identify the Steps to Minimize Impact
Once you’ve identified risks that could impact your business, the next step is to start working toward protecting your key business functions against them.
For instance, if you find that you are high risk for theft and burglary, you might want to invest in a burglar alarm and security system. (We also know that adding 3M™ Safety & Security Film to your windows will help.)
The same is true for IT Systems. Invest in anti-virus software, back up your data and ensure all maintenance agreements are in place. Print out copies of your customer database or back up your systems on a terabyte drive might also be a strategy should the internet fail.
For every risk identified in your risk assessment, look for ways to minimize those risks before disaster strikes. Add these to your plan and then start checking items off the list once you have addressed them.
Create an Activation Protocol
Be sure to identify steps that need to be taken for every risk that is identified in your risk assessment. This is called an “activation protocol.”
For instance, if you become the victim of a burglary, what steps should you (or an employee) take when the crime is first discovered? If the power suddenly goes out, what steps should your customer service representatives take to make sure that customers’ needs are being met? These need to be outlined in an activation protocol – or an operating procedure.
Protocols should do more than just tell your employees how they need to respond. They also should establish communication trees and ensure people are aware when a crisis first starts but also when it ends.
Identify the Chain of Command
When it comes to employee management during a crisis, it’s important that your employees understand and follow a chain of command. This will help communication flow more easily through the organization – which can help improve morale.
To identify a chain of command, create a well-defined organizational chart and decide who should be responsible for what part of operations – and who should report to who during a crisis.
Be sure to engage your employees early in this process and make sure that they know who they need to report to if a disaster strikes.
Communicate to Internal and External Audiences
Communication is an important part of any disaster. You want to make sure that your internal audience – including employees at all levels of operations – know what is going on. You also want to make sure that your external audience – your customers and stakeholders – know what they can expect from you.
To ensure you maintain strong relationships, your crisis communications plan should include a call for frequent messages to your audiences. Identify the channels (social media, memos, website, eblasts, local media) that you will use to deliver these messages.
You can also pre-write or draft written messages for every scenario for every audience. You will be glad that you did this if a disaster strikes because it will save you time.
Train Your Team
As mentioned, your crisis management plan should not be in a notebook that sits on a shelf and collects dust. It needs to be a working document.
Be sure to share your plan with your team and incorporate their feedback. Also, create dry practice runs for some of the risk factors. Pretend that a hurricane hit or that the power is out and train employees on what to do.
Frequent practicing makes operations much smoother if a disaster does strike. This is something many agencies do frequently, from hospitals to government (local, state and federal). As a business owner, you will find that practicing your plan will better prepare you and your team. You also may find that you need to adjust your crisis management plan after a training.
Review, Revise Your Plan as Necessary
As your company grows and morphs and changes, it will be necessary to review and revise your crisis management plan. Employees come and go. Operations sometimes shift and change. We recommend reviewing your plan at least once a year to see if anything within its contents need to be updated.
Typically, December offers some downtime around the holidays – which gives you an opportunity to create your business plan for the year, including setting goals, measurable objectives, strategies and tactics. During this time, be sure to review your crisis management plan.
Questions? Want to speak to a marketing expert? Accent Distributing can put you in touch with a full-service marketing firm. Contact Inside Sales today at [email protected].
