Business Communication Plans Make a Difference

Recently, the northeast region of the US has experienced some highly unusual natural disasters including an earthquake, hurricane and tropical storm. Thousands of organizations have been flooded or left without power.  Immediately after the earthquake, local cell phone coverage was lost for almost two hours.  These natural disasters showed us just how vulnerable we could be in just a short period of time.

A clear plan of communication is critical for any organization for many situations.  Power outages and floods can play havoc with any normal communications.  What if the email is unusable?  How about if you are evacuated out of your building and can't make cell phone calls? All of these are situations many organizations have faced recently.

Communication plans should very straightforward and directed from the executives of the organization.  Every situation is different, just like every organization, so the plans should be clear and directed to teams for specific action.  Email is certainly one of the easiest ways to reach a large audience and disseminate information quickly in the event of an emergency.

Back-up communication plans are critical for these types of situation as well.  During the recent earthquake, SMS text messaging was one of the most reliable ways to communicate.  Smartphones that had data services with social media sites like Twitter worked, too.  Knowing this allowed many organizations to stay in touch with important contacts during these recent crises.

Other ideas include:

Set up a telephone call tree. Keep in mind that, USA Recently reported that, "More than one in four U.S. homes, or 26.6%, had only a wireless phone as of June 2010, up from 13.6% in 2007."

Some organizations could establish a private group on Facebook. This would offer an alternative portal and communication framework especially for small and medium businesses. Company updates could still be shared even if internal IT issues were problematic.

Again, use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook again as backup media to reach customers and partners.  

Executives and managers should write and share a plan that includes:
• Scenarios likely for your region
• A printed list of internal contacts, e.g. employees
• A printed list of external points of contact, e.g. customers, vendors, and partners
• Test your plan with your company and be prepared to modify it on an annual basis

Timely and directed communication from your organization can provide much needed continuity during a crisis and speed up the recovery time as well.