Open on a positive note

As long as your crisis doesn’t involve the possibility of lost lives or irreparable damage, try starting your statement off on a positive note. Miss Universe smartly managed to number-drop an astounding figure of live fan votes. Praise your event’s participants for their enthusiasm. Thank your customers for their concern. Or let your users know how much their support so far means to you and your team. That said, now is not the time to over-hype it. Don’t fall back to the comfort of your product pitch, or key messages in direct conflict with the incident. In a food poisoning crisis for example, asserting that “We produce the freshest milk.” is different from saying “We are committed to producing the freshest milk.”