How to Manage Customer Support in a Crisis

It can feel difficult to maintain customer support during a crisis, especially when you can be met by far more customer questions and requests for support than normal. It’s important to maintain transparency and uphold your relationship with customers during times like these, even if something means your product or service isn’t working for them. 

The most important thing is to ensure you stay calm, and that you have a properly thought out crisis management plan in place ready to implement. However, even with a plan, you can be faced with unexpected challenges, and crises themselves are often the times that show you how to improve your crisis management in the future. The most important thing is how you react and respond to these challenges to mitigate them effectively. 

What is a Crisis?

A crisis is usually an event which can disrupt service to or adversely affect many or all of your customers at once. 

This could be:

• A service disruption
• A real world emergency 
• Legal issues
• Security issues such as a data breach
• Public relations issues

Here's a step-by-step guide to ensure your customer support team is prepared to manage any crisis efficiently:

Planning for a Crisis:

1. Define What a Crisis is for You: What events are most likely to qualify as or create a crisis for your business? Brainstorm potential issues and how customers might react. A proactive approach helps identify potential weaknesses in your customer support system.
   
   
2. Define Clear Communication Protocols. Who speaks for the company? When and how should they communicate? Establish a dedicated response team and set social media guidelines to ensure consistent messaging across all channels.
   
   
3. Clear Roles: Identify who will lead and execute the plan, and what each part of your team should do.
   
   
4. Train Your Representatives: Equip your customer service representatives with crisis management skills. Focus on active listening, de-escalation techniques, and clear communication strategies. Make sure your representatives know how to handle difficult situations with empathy and professionalism. Your organisation could pre-prepare sample communications to use as templates in the event of a crisis. 
   
   
5. Unified Updates: Make sure you have established clear channels within your business so different areas can work together in a crisis and communicate updates in one voice, to keep customers in the loop and avoid creating any further confusion unnecessarily.

Your crisis plan should be: 

• Comprehensive: including both the steps you need to take and clearly defined roles for your team members during the crisis, including how to get hold of people if necessary.
• Clear and concise: easy to understand both during training and in a crisis situation.
• Accessible offline.
• Well updated over time to adapt to changing circumstances.

Reacting to a Crisis:

1. Acknowledge Quickly: Don't hide the problem. Publicly acknowledge the crisis and take ownership – a timely statement is key. Transparency builds trust and demonstrates your commitment to addressing the issue.
   
   
2. Communicate Clearly and Transparently: Deliver consistent, transparent information across all channels – website, social media, email. Explain the situation and the steps your company is taking to resolve it. Regular updates keep customers informed and reduce anxiety. Even if you don’t have all the answers, let your customers know you’re working diligently to find a solution and keep them updated on your progress. 
   
   
3. Focus on Resolution: Make resolving customer issues your top priority. Offer interim solutions, keep them updated on the progress, and work towards a swift resolution. Taking ownership of the problem and working to solve it is key to maintaining trust. While apologies are important, a focus on taking concrete steps to address the issue demonstrates your commitment to resolving the issue and preventing similar ones in the future.
   
   
4. Prioritise Customers: Show empathy, apologise for the inconvenience, and actively listen to customer concerns. Validate their feelings and acknowledge the impact on them. Consider proactively reaching out to impacted customers, even if they haven’t contacted you yet. 
   
   
5. Directly Contact Important Customers: Make sure you contact critical customers directly to demonstrate your continued commitment to their business and to their service level expectations.

Leverage Technology:

1. Monitor Social Media: Actively track mentions of the crisis to address customer concerns before they escalate.
   
   
2. Ticketing System: You could use a ticketing system to manage customer inquiries related to the crisis, ensuring no issue gets overlooked. This allows you to track progress, identify trends, and prioritise urgent issues.

After the Crisis is Resolved:

1. Update Customers ASAP: As soon as normal service is restored or the issue causing the crisis has been resolved, send communications out to your customers. Thank them for their patience, and point them to your Post-Crisis Review. 
   
   
2. Post-Crisis Review: Once things calm down, analyse what worked in your management and what needs improvement. Conduct a thorough review to identify areas where your customer support processes can be strengthened. Include a customer satisfaction survey to understand the impact on your customers. Publish your review to maintain transparency. 
   
   
3. Update Your Plan: Based on the learnings from the crisis, revise your crisis management plan to be even more effective in the future. Regularly update your plan to reflect changes in your business and potential new threats.
   
   
4. Learn from the Feedback: Use the post-crisis review to identify areas for improvement in your product, service, or customer support processes. This proactive approach helps prevent future crises.

By following these steps, your customer support team can navigate any crisis with a clear head. A well-managed crisis can even strengthen customer relationships by showing your commitment to resolving issues, listening to concerns, and prioritising customer satisfaction.

To learn more about effective crisis management and mitigating risk, check out the Mastering Crisis Management playlist on our platform by clicking below.