Crisis Communications: Recent learnings from indian Startups

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you'll do things differently.” ― Warren Buffett

Founders continue to grapple with the consequencesofthe COVID-19crisis, and realign their model to make it more relevant to the current scenario. The role played by communication at this point cannot be emphasized enough. Here's a quick snapshot of how prominent Indianstartupsreacted in the wake of a crisisand our takeon it: 

1. Early& proactive communication:

Recently, PhonePe, one of India’s leading payment system and digital wallet company found itself in the eye of the storm whenitsexclusive UPI bank partner was placed under a moratorium.This led to a halt in any form of transactions on the platform.Toenable continued access the engineers atPhonePe wouldneed to switch to anew banking partner.The company’s leadership and communications skills that followed in the next 24 hours helped convert a crisis into a means of developing an even stronger and deeper relationship with their customers by communicating transparently, frequently and proactively at regular intervals through the crisis.

The first step to successfully managing a crisis isthe speed to response– aka, the sooner you take charge of the situation, the higher your chances are to minimize its effects. PhonePe didn’t waste any time from when the crisis hit to initiating communications with their customers, providing them with clarity as well as relief, thereby preventing the crisis from snowballing into a larger problem.

Highlights from their communication strategy:From outlining the issue at hand, to detailing steps and measures being undertaken to resolve the issue, interim updates on their progress – some of these directly coming from the founders themselves, along with updates continuingto stream in even after the crisis, on the plan for the way forward, relief measures, essentially keeping customers informed through every step of the way. Their customers even took to social media to praise and appreciate the way in which they navigated the crisis, despite that their server was down for close to 24 hours – a situation that would have otherwise triggered trolls and endless complaints were it not for Phone Pe’s proactive outreach.

Key learnings:

1. Speed to response: customers need to hear itfirstfrom the company, not 3rd party sources
2. Recognize and acknowledge that there’s a problem and you’re doing your best to solve for it & regain stakeholder trust
3. Frequent and proactive communication: consistent reassurance, even when you may not have any new information to share can help prevent negative posts/trolls from users demanding an explanation, or complaints on poor customer service
4. Identify the right communication channel to reach your audiences - be it social media, a newsletter, a video message onWhatsapp, a formal press release, or any other platform. Phone Pe took to social media, as one of their primary communication channels, to alert customers of the crisis.

1. Leadership & Empathy amidst a crisis:

Ola, India's leading mobility platform, like others in the industry was adversely affected by the lockdown. Apart from their daily operations being affected, one of their key stakeholders - the driver-partner community, whose income was severely impacted due to the lockdown felt the heat even more.

Ola used this opportunity to focus on easing the burden for the driver community and launched an initiative called #DrivetheDriverFund with the objective of offering relief to the drivers by providing essential supplies as well as financial support for medical emergencies for the drivers and their families. This was done through contributions from the Ola group, investors and through a crowdfunding platform for citizens and other institutions. The fund was open to all cab, auto and taxi drivers across the country to benefit from, irrespective of whether or not they were associated with Ola. Tens of thousands of driver-families were positively impacted by the fund in these difficult times.

Separately, the company also worked with various state Governments to launch “Ola Emergency” to provide transportation to and from hospitals for all non-COVID medical trips.

Key learnings:

a) An empathetic approach to a crisis can give your brand an opportunity to truly showcase your company’s culture and values. Going above and beyond for your key stakeholders, who are a vital asset to your business, in their time of need speaks volumes about your brand, possibly more than any digital, social, print campaign could ever convey and is testament to your leadership

b) A sharp, focused and succinct communication plan designed specifically to solve for your topmost priority/key focus area - in Ola’s case looking after their driver-partnerswith medical and financial assistance trumped all other problems and they worked to solve for that as their single point agenda through the crisis

1. TheAftermath:

It is common for companies to focus on high engagement during the crisis and often lose momentum once the crisis has blown over. It’s just as important to keep your stakeholders continuously engaged even after a crisis, a constant and open stream of communication helps avoid potential disasters by apprising customers with details on the way forward.

Urban Company andVogo, two prominentstartupsin the Indian ecosystem, have both been impacted in different ways due to the coronavirus crisis, with the relaxation of the lockdown being put in place, they’ve devised new ways to make themselves more relevant and more equipped to deal with the new normal keeping customers health and safety concerns as their top priorities. Through social media, they voiced concerns that customers may have and took it head-on by launching new features and service offerings to mitigate each of those concerns, and quite literally put the words “customer is king” into action by doing so.

For instance,Urban Company used social media to inform their followers about the health and safety measures being incorporated for their service providers and customers benefit,they combined this withtestimonial videosfrom clients to further emphasize on the precautions taken and answered any other doubts that customers could have through this series of videos.

Similarly, Vogo tweeted about their newly introduced “Vogo Keep”, an initiative that delivers sanitized scooters to your doorstep for long term rental plans for essential travel – thereby allowing you to use it as your own personal vehicle, to meet with the new set of requirements in a post-COVID-19 world.

It’s important to adapt your model with new solutions or variants of existing services to serve your customers’ current requirements, and this can only be achieved through a pre-emptive communication strategy.

Key learning:

Post-crisis communication is a crucial part of the process,ascustomers need to be in the know on how your product/service offering will be different after the crisis, what specific and tangible changes will be brought about, if any, how will the user experience change, what is the underlying objective for bringing out the changes, open channels for feedback and customer FAQs, are some examples of items that should be covered.

1. Find that silver lining

Tesla manufacturing ventilators during the COVID-19 outbreak, or closer home, Domino’s deliveringAashirwadaatain addition to pizzas to meet the shortage of daily essential grocery items, to convey their understanding of the crisis and show customers how they're pivoting to adapt to a new environment while continuing to stay relevant, is a great example of finding a way to reach and serve your customers even when your primary operations may be at a standstill.

Key learning: Every crisis brings with it a set of opportunities, as a business owner you need to find a way to positively participate in the crisis – how you handle a crisis truly defines your brand and shapes how people perceive you. Without being opportunistic, coming up with a solution that demonstrates your company values as well as provides customers with a modified version of your product/service that can meet the current need brought on by the crisis, helps create organic word-of-mouth that can hold your brand in good stead in the long run.

1. Media management:

Most companies don’t publicize their PR strategy for obvious reasonsbut effective media management is an instrumental piece of the crisis communication puzzle.

Keeping a vigilant check on media coverage about your brand is paramount. Wrt to COVID-19 the consequences extends to every industry in varying degrees, information disseminated about your company by the media to your customers is important to control to ensure factual and accurate information is being reported, in order to prevent the situation fromspiralingout of control.

It's crucial to be cognizant of the changing media landscape with online and broadcast platforms exploding, with accurate identification of which form of media works best for your audiences, this also includes leveraging your own social handles / in-app communications to showcase authentic leadership.

Measures to be undertaken:

a) Put a crisis communications response team in place as your first line ofdefence

b) Preparedness is the most important part of crisis response, communicators should take the lead on ensuring preparedness by putting in place a crisis response plan along with a crisis template statement as a ready response for media queries

c) Crisis key messaging workshop for spokespeople – adapt your brands' key message if needed to make it more fitting to the situation at hand

d) Tie up with appropriate brand ambassadors and influencers to help amplify and widen the reach of your crisis key message

e) Lastly, implement a crisis communication playbook for the firm to follow across all communication touchpoints (internal & external), to ensure complete consistency and uniformity in your messaging