Crisis BRE

As natural disasters and other crises continue to impact more and more of our communities, the IDM team is thinking through how you, as economic development or chamber professionals, might help your communities through the issues and challenges caused by natural disasters or other community crises in the very first week of the crisis.  

IDM does not have a crystal ball related to response in a crisis, but we strongly suggest you consider a proactive communications plan with your stakeholders built around the old public relations acronym RACE (research, action, communication and evaluation). 

When a disaster affects your community - first focus on RESEARCH.

We are not talking about formal research. This is about asking your stakeholders questions, assessing how individuals and organizations are doing, and identifying common and challenging issues and needs. Focus on your major employers, small businesses, and the financial community (banks, credit unions, financial investors). 

At this initial stage in a crisis, people often process uncertainty and fears by simply talking about how much nobody knows, how the crisis is impacting them personally, and what information they have heard or seen on the Internet. Your “To Do” for the first week is to pick up the phone and/or send emails to ask three or four simple questions (below). This information gathering is research with a purpose.

You are signaling that you, your board and your organizations…somebody…is taking time to think about their firm/organization and ask how the crisis is impacting their operations, customers, employees, suppliers, family, and own stress level. 

NO ONE EXPECTS YOU TO HAVE ANY ANSWERS. Limit your research to just taking notes and identifying gaps and common issues. Call and email as fast as you can; whenever you can; and from wherever you are (e.g. car, home, between meetings). Unless you can make an easy referral, do not worry about doing more than asking questions. The news is that you are quickly forging relationships, opening up lines of crisis communication, and circling issues that you can start to address the next week.

Here are some sample questions for stakeholders for you to consider. Develop your own list of three to four questions and begin right away.

Employers/Businesses 

• What are the biggest challenges you are having related to the [crisis]?
• How are your customers/suppliers being impacted?
• Are you receiving the information and assistance you need from public officials?
• Is there information you need or would like to share with the rest of the business community or our public officials?
• Obviously, there are a lot of unknowns. What is likely to be the [crisis’] impact on you over the next 30-60 days? How does that change if the timeline extends to 90 days?
• What about your employees?  
• Are there ways the [city/chamber/EDO] could assist your business?

Financial Institutions (in addition to business questions)

• Has your board or leadership discussed the impact of the [crisis] on your clients/customers?
• How are you handling calls from worried customers?
• Is there anything we can do to help with communications?
• Are you planning on any customer accommodations because of [the crisis’] impacts (low interest loans, late payment easing, etc.)?
• From your perspective, what are likely to be the short-term financial impacts/challenges we could begin seeing within our community/county in response to a prolonged recovery?

We also recommend reaching out to your local emergency manager and state resources to serve as a liaison for your businesses - you can help them distribute information to your local business community.