Why did COVID-19 become the unprecedented crisis for governments, companies and people?
Certainly, by the last quarter of 2019, no government, business and/or individual had included in their budgets, projections or plans for 2020 «an extra» to deal with the effects of a possible global pandemic. Perhaps by that time, it was unimaginable to predict the scope and destruction that could be generated by the resurgence of a new strain of Coronavirus.
What has happened from December to date is public knowledge, it is a global affectation, with even more triggering factors in some countries than others. The truth is that COVID-19 has been and will become the most important communication crisis event in the coming decades. Its unflattering scope meets all the conditions to become the worst of the crises in today’s globalized world.
COVID-19 REMOVES WHAT IT MEETS
· Kills: Without distinction of hierarchies, social levels or power of the nations.
It broke with the stability of:
· Governments: put them to work on an emerging agenda where many governments with zero savings, outdated and weak health systems were evident.
· Companies: forced to rethink their marketing strategies and replace advertising with value content supported by the need for support people at home; as well as implement telework tools that were still far away.
· Families: rethinking the real need to maintain health, food, internet and basic services.
· It radically transforms routines: Of people, organizations and governments.
· It demands urgent solutions: exposed deficiencies and reflected uncertainty in various sectors of decision-making.
· It leads to unknown results: It provokes fear, rumors, gives room for discredit and motivates confrontations.
· Threat with serious future consequences: For life in all its aspects in the short and medium term.
In view of all the above and the reality presented by the health crisis, it is necessary for each of the institutions of society to establish transparency policies that allow their stakeholders to have reliable information based on the facts of each country and that corresponds to the real actions being taken to address the situation.
Thus, governments and companies are obliged to establish two-way dialogues with their teams and communities to ensure that all audiences feel heard and addressed.
To achieve this, it is important that the offline and online communication platforms (internal and external) of both governments and organizations are permanently updated and verified by the front line of the Crisis Committees or Special Committees.
Predicting the scope of what would happen in the world because of COVID-19 was almost an illusory task. However, what happened in China in the first days of the pandemic, forced the front line of each government or company to foresee the different and possible scenarios to be faced.
But, what to do to face this reality?
· Adapt efficiently. The time and situation demand substantial changes in the governance and administration of the country, strategies must be adapted to the new reality. To this end, public and private institutions must not only be responsible for communicating the measures being taken, but also adapt to the new situation by paying special attention to the channels of information transmission.
· Involve all parties in the process of normalcy. A crisis, of the magnitude of combating COVID-19, requires involving all parties in productive tasks. The search for the longed-for normality should be everyone’s task and people should know, in an efficient way, what they must do within the exceptional circumstances in which they live.
· Stop speculation and misinformation. Speculating at this critical time about risks in order to amplify them or, even worse, to minimize them, can become a lethal weapon. It is important that the scope of this be felt as the reason for representing the reputational breakdown of a government, as well as that of a family.
· Be careful with advertising, it is important to know when to apply it. For governments in crisis, however, publicity must be reinforced, and effective communication must be guaranteed to reach everyone through various channels; for companies, this effect can achieve the opposite. At the corporate level, this is not the time for commercial advertising or for taking unfair advantage of the situation, unless your advertising is focused on adding to and helping the crisis.
· However, we must not stop communicating. In these instances, the role of digital transformation comes to the fore again and, therefore, the role of social networks and content marketing becomes king, once again. This is not the time to stop communicating and talking to communities, it is only recommended, not to forget the tone and discretion.
Be part of the solution, not the problem!
We are talking about the fact that this crisis is followed by other crises such as the economic, social and educational, among others. This has led many instances to rethink their objectives, not only to have a higher conversion rate or generate greater economic impact, but to be an active and committed part of contributing, as far as possible, to reduce gaps in this problem.
It is time for governments, industries, companies, communication consultants and society in general to align themselves to generate strategies that go beyond confinement and that establish safe and sustainable reinsertion processes and plans. Without a doubt, it is time to reinvent and start over.