Getting in front of potential issues is often beneficial: Doing crisis management right sometimes means sweating the small stuff, while informing stakeholders that they’ll need to update their passwords for your site may seem unnecessary, proactively communicating about the issue is more important than you think.

We share a lot of wrong-way examples on this blog, but when we came across this great proactive email from insurance provider AAQHC we wanted to share:

When every action seemingly holds the potential to create a storm of outrage, minimizing the level of annoyance your audience feels on a day to day basis can help create that cushion of goodwill that allows you to survive minor hits to your reputation and absorb at least some impact from more major situations.

Not only that, but by taking a few minutes to think about what questions your stakeholders might have, and to provide those answers before they ask, reduces call volume, confusion, and other areas of risk.

Erik Bernstein
erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com / www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com