Industry Resources Help When Handling a Crisis

A crisis can strike any company at any time. The fresh-cut produce industry is especially vulnerable to potential emergencies and the media frenzies they can incite.

Preparing for a crisis before it happens is the best way to prevent it. That’s why the International Fresh-cut Produce Association (IFPA) released its “Crisis Communications Manual and Guide for Handling the News Media” last year. The manual was intended as a template for IFPA members, who were encouraged to develop specific crisis communication plans of their own.

“There are a lot of companies out there that don’t think about this until it’s too late,” said Jerry Welcome, IFPA’s president. “It’s a good idea for them to prepare themselves.”

The 24-page manual took two or three months to put together. It wasn’t written from scratch. The information was pulled together from many sources and synthesized into an easy-to-use format, Welcome said.

“There are specific things every company should have in place that are outlined in that plan,” he said. “At the very least, they should know what they are and get the information together in one place.”

The first step for any company putting a crisis plan together is to determine what a crisis is and when the plan should be implemented. Crises in the fresh-cut produce industry – such as a food-borne illness – are pretty easy to determine, said Gene Grabowski, vice president of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C., a firm that specializes in crisis public relations. Grabowski was one of the authors of the IFPA manual.

The next step is putting a crisis team together to gather information and assigning one of them to write a first draft, Grabowski said.

“Communication with the public is key in advance,” he said. “Telling people where to go and who to call can prevent many crises from occurring, and make the ones that do occur milder.”

When a crisis strikes a company that has a plan in place, the first thing it should do is activate its crisis team. Specific assignments should be doled out to team members, such as communicating to public officials or developing a system to handle incoming media calls, Grabowski said.

If a crisis strikes a company that doesn’t have a plan in place, the first thing it should do is assemble a team – made up of trusted employees inside the company and outside counselors – and create a plan from scratch. Team members should be assigned specific tasks, he said.

One of the chief advantages of a crisis communications plan is that it creates time – time for a team to sit down and work through all the specifics of a crisis. Routine tasks, such as creating a list of essential phone numbers and assigning in advance who talks to reporters and who talks to government officials, have already been laid out by the plan, so there’s no need to worry about them.

“The plan buys us time we need to really think,” Grabowski said. “Without a plan, we have to spend precious time inventing what we’re going to be doing.”

Employees who are trained to deal with the media are essential. Good media training includes learning how reporters think and how to provide them with the information they need. It doesn’t include learning how to dodge questions, he said.

There’s a difference between dealing with the news media and dealing with government agencies. The media are there to inform the public of how a story is developing. Government agencies don’t always communicate with the public. They use a different kind of language. Government regulators need more technical, scientific information, he said.

Typically, companies or farms in the produce industry have employees who are trained to deal with regulators, but not reporters, he said.

Grabowski said there are five common mistakes to avoid when dealing with crises:

•Crafting a poor message – one that is incomplete, ineffective or insensitive.
•Using the wrong messenger – like an attorney when a food scientist would do.
•Failure to find allies – like local politicians who could speak on your behalf.
•Failure to think like a consumer – being too preoccupied with the company’s problems.
•Covering up – not necessarily lying, but not being as forthcoming as possible.

Avoiding those mistakes should be a priority, Grabowski said, but avoiding a crisis altogether is more important.

“The best way to handle a crisis is when you don’t have a crisis,” he said. “Use your peacetime wisely, before a crisis hits.”

For a copy of IFPA’s crisis communications manual, visit www.fresh-cuts.org.



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