Death and taxes may be life’s two guarantees, but credit union executives may want to tack on one more guarantee – a crisis.
With constant threats of breaches, cyberattacks, external and internal fraud schemes, natural disasters lawsuits, and whatever else that may go wrong, it’s a guarantee that sooner or later your credit union is going to face a crisis.
How you manage the communications of that crisis can make or break your valuable reputation, according to credit union executives and experts.
Trying to communicate a crisis on the fly is akin to floating a boat with holes; it will sink.
“I’ve had people who will call me and say, ‘Anthony, I saw you talk six months ago. We’re in a crisis and we need your help,” Anthony Huey, president of Reputation Management LLC in Sarasota, Fla., said. “The first question I ask is, you did what I said, right? You developed a crisis communications plan? The ones that say no, I’m honest and say, I can walk you through the steps and give you some other guidance, but a lot of what needed to be done should have been done already by now.”
Having a crisis communications plan enabled Stacie Wyss-Schoenborn, president/CEO of the $248 million Central Willamette Community Credit Union in Albany, Ore., effectively manage a crisis when criminals attached a skimming device on an ATM, siphoning funds from member accounts.
A plan, Wyss-Schoenborn noted, allows executives to keep up with the rapid pace of an unfolding crisis and, more importantly, to stay in front of the story so that it doesn’t lead to bad press, ugly rumors, hearsay and angry, confused or anxious members.
“Philosophically, my best practice is that I want to communicate the credit union’s story because it’s your story to tell,” she said. “When you get in front of that story you control that story. I could have said, no, I have no comment and who knows where the story would have gone?”
In the Aug. 31 edition of the CUTimes, read more insights and ideas on managing a crisis and how to develop simple communications plan that can benefit your credit union.
