Communicating COVID-19 to Employees, Customers and Public

by | Mar 21, 2020 | Advice and Counsel, Crisis Communications, Employee Communication | 0 comments

We recognize that this is a historic time with the Coronavirus impacting all plans for businesses, nonprofits, organizations — every aspect of our daily work and personal lives — all over America!  And, beyond our borders.

With this in mind, we want to remind you that we are still “open” — using CDC social distance practices — and stand ready to assist with your actions to communicate to employees, customers and the public.

So, please contact us if you want to go over your actions to communicate going forward. Using our expertise to help during a crisis is not about commercial advantage or profit. It is about doing the right thing for our country and showing our company’s true values and citizenship.

Lessons learned from past experience as a senior public relations practitioner for 911, Katrina and other national crisis situations has taught me:

  • Times of crisis can be confusing and frightening, resulting in an amplification of speculation, conspiracy theories, and fiction.
  • Use only OFFICIAL sources for facts and information.
  • Rumors and mis-information will continue to increase as the length of this unprecedented circumstances continue.
  • Again, please DO NOT share information that is not from official sources, i.e., federal, state, county and city.  You should start with this site:

Whitehouse
https://www.whitehouse.gov

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov

Coronavirus.gov is the official app of the US Government and Coronavirus (COVID-19) Joint Task Force including the agencies of the CDC, White House, Health and Human Services, and FEMA.

John Hopkins University for the Number of Global Cases
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

 

Each state has an official website to get resources, updates and what you should know.  Here is ours in Colorado:  https://covid19.colorado.gov

Some of have asked what the US military is doing.  Here is a FOX news clip that provides excellent information.

Finally, the need to provide a hopeful and caring message in your dialogue with employees, customers and the public is key as you continue to respond to this situation.

Stay safe. Remain healthy.

Mike

Michael B. Perini, USAF-Col. (Ret)
President & CEO
719.651.5943
mike@periniassociates.com

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