Every business owner experiences a crisis. It’s not a matter of if, but when.Whether you received a call that one of your technicians has been arrested for a crime or your home service company faces a disgruntled customer complaining about your business on social media, you’re bound to face a crisis that could hurt your reputation.

However, if you have a public relations partner who understands the trades, you will already be prepared for such a crisis.

What Is a Crisis?

Before you sound the alarms, make sure your crisis is something that would get the attention of your customers, the media or other stakeholders.

Some potential issues your business may experience that could quickly escalate into a crisis include:

An employee is badly injured at a jobsite.

A customer feels your company overcharged or performed shoddy work and starts posting about it online.

An employee is accused of stealing from a customer.

An employee is caught on a customer’s security system mistreating a pet or doing something improper at the customer’s site.

An employee could damage a gas line or underground pipe or be involved in an accident with your company truck.

The business makes a false statement or an improper comment on social media.

A disgruntled employee targets your business in a violent rage.

While many of these issues might be handled in-house, some may garner public attention on social media or even become the subject of a news report or investigation.

Many business owners instinctively know when an internal issue will balloon into a full-blown public crisis and when to sound the bell.

You can’t always predict this, so it’s good to be a Boy Scout and always be prepared.

A PR partner with home services business experience will help you develop a complete crisis communications strategy to help you get through the disaster.

What Does a Crisis Plan Do?

First, a crisis plan should provide you with some peace of mind. Having a plan if a crisis happens is the first step toward ensuring you and your business make it through the crisis with as little damage as possible.

Second, a crisis communications strategy should be all-encompassing and include a variety of scenarios that your home services company can look to for guidance. While you can’t predict every scenario, you should plan for the following:

Designate a crisis communications team: Your crisis communications team should consist of members of your company’s leadership, your PR partner and your legal representative. This team needs to be ready to respond quickly to provide talking points and necessary information to your company spokesperson, your employees and the media.

Pick a company spokesperson: Decide in advance who will serve as the company’s spokespeople, post info on social media and act as a liaison between your crisis communications team, your company spokesperson and the media.

Have press and social media statements written and approved quickly: If you find yourself in a crisis, the best thing to do is to have a statement written and ready to go to the media should it escalate to that point. You should have responses ready to go out on social media, too. It’s a good idea to get in front of any crisis by providing your response and critical information.

What Is Media Training?

Having a designated crisis communications team and company spokesperson doesn’t mean your team or the spokesperson knows how to deal intelligently with the media.

Media training isn’t a simple luxury. For many businesses, it’s a necessity, particularly when your company is faced with a business crisis. Media outlets want to talk with someone who is calm and has the information they need.

You can supply the information to your media spokesperson, who will also need training and practice to become effective on camera and in interviews.

Your PR partner should be able to provide your team members with media training to help them develop the general communication and delivery skills they need to successfully handle media interviews. Typical media training includes tips on speaking effectively before the camera, preparing for interviews and shaping the narrative.

Since practice makes perfect, it’s helpful if the person you choose to speak for your company during a crisis is also the person who normally deals with the media. Not only are the media already aware of this person and their role, but this means your spokesperson has already had practice speaking to the press when there isn’t a crisis event.

Ongoing Reputation Management

Finally, one of the best ways to soldier through a crisis is to have a positive reputation to begin with. 

Your plumbing or HVAC company lives and dies by your reputation, so you need to nurture and manage it every day.

This means you need to consistently train your employees on the methods of good customer care and be transparent in your pricing, services and policies.

You can improve your reputation in your community through ongoing public relations. Enhance your online presence by regularly updating your blog and keeping up with your social media posts. Communicating with your community and offering them tips and news are good ways to build a rapport with them.

One of the biggest ways to boost your reputation in the home services industry, however, is by keeping up with your online reviews. If you aren’t already regularly reading and responding to your reviews, you are missing an opportunity to improve your local standing.

According to recent statistics, 95 percent of consumer read online reviews before purchasing a product or service; they are reading your company’s reviews even if you aren’t. Not only should you encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews, but you should also regularly respond to all reviews, especially the negative ones.

If potential customers see that you care enough to provide an empathetic and thoughtful response, it helps mitigate negative feelings.

However, with so many online review sites, such as Google and Yelp!, you may find it difficult to keep up with all the reviews. That’s where a PR partner can help. The team can wordsmith responses and ensure that you’re always kept updated on what your clientele is saying.

No matter how you choose to protect your standing, make sure you plan for the crisis that’s coming; you don’t want to be caught off-guard when the inevitable happens. A crisis plan helps you protect your business, your reputation and your brand.