Category: crisis planning

As more cities opened up, communities met virtually for roundtable #13 to discuss this week’s triumphs and tribulations.

Check out the recap of our discussion below. Please also join us for our next sales & marketing roundtable, coming up this week.

Join the next roundtable on June 25!

You are welcome to join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, June 25, at 12 p.m. ET.

You don’t have to be a client to join — all are welcome. For call-in information, email .

Last Monday, we organized a virtual forum where communities exchanged ideas about engaging residents during the coronavirus shutdown. Check out their creative solutions below.

We’re holding another Resident Life roundtable soon, and all are welcome to attend.

Join the next Resident Life roundtable on April 20!

We thank everyone for participating, and we invite you to join the next session, Monday, April 20, at noon ET: Resident Life discussion

You don’t have to be a client to join the session — all are welcome. For call-in information, email .

Many of our clients were asking how other communities were handling the coronavirus crisis, so we gathered virtually at a roundtable to share our challenges and solutions. The response was enthusiastic, so we held roundtable #2 last week. For those who weren’t able to attend, we’re including some nuggets from that conversation below.

We’re gathering for another roundtable this week, and all are invited to attend.

Join the next roundtable on April 9!

We thank everyone for participating, and we invite you to join the next session, Thursday, April 9, at noon ET: Marketing and Sales discussion

You don’t have to be a client to join the conversation — all are welcome. For call-in information, email .

Since the coronavirus hit, we have been in contact with clients all over the country who are facing the same challenges. Many of them have asked how other communities are handling this unprecedented event. To help communities come together and share their knowledge, we coordinated a roundtable discussion. Last week, 26 clients from 11 different states met over the phone to discuss their marketing challenges and solutions during the coronavirus crisis. We will hold two more sessions next week. All are invited to attend. (You don’t have to be a client to join.)

Here is a sampling of the insights that were shared:

Join the Next Roundtables on April 6 and 9!

We thank everyone for participating, and we invite you to join the next sessions. 

Monday, April 6: Resident life and resident engagement discussion
Thursday, April 9: Marketing and sales discussion

Both events to be held at noon EDT.

You don’t have to be a client to join the conversation — all are welcome. For call-in information, email  .

We know that every community and business in the aging services space is trying to stay ahead of safety and communications for the COVID-19 virus while juggling the needs of residents and staying connected with prospects. This led us to think about some free and easy tips that can keep current and future residents engaged and upbeat as much as possible while their movement is restricted.

Here are some ideas we’ve collected that we wanted to share with you. We realize that there are many more out there, but we thought this would be a good place to start.

Keeping Residents Engaged

Educational opportunities/lifelong learning/cultural stimulation

• Online museum tours
• Free live opera audio streams
• Resources for online courses, books, etc.
• Giant panda cam (National Zoo)
• San Diego Zoo live cams
• Fast Company article featuring different options
• 450 Ivy League courses you can take online right now for free 
• Wildlife cams
• The 50 best museum tours around the world

Spiritual grounding

• Free mediation
• Church services (many options online)
• Shabbat services (many options online)

Exercise

• Planet Fitness Free home “work-ins” every day
• Silver Sneakers  Free access to exclusive classes for yoga, cardio, balance and more

Connections

• Use in-house channels to share “coffee chats” with residents.
• Ask residents to send pics of what they enjoy doing in their homes to share with others in the community.
• Encourage residents to FaceTime with each other and with their families. (Send an email to all family members encouraging them to FaceTime with their loved ones regularly.)
• Caution against reading social media or listening to “hype” on TV or the radio, and encourage residents to reach out to the appropriate person if they’re at a low point.

Maintaining relationships with prospects

It’s important to always look for opportunities to follow up with prospects in meaningful ways, and the coronavirus pandemic is one of those (unfortunate) opportunities. Call your prospects to check on them during this health crisis, and ask if they are doing okay. Do they have food in the house? Is there anything they need? If they are local, drop off soup, muffins, toilet paper or other necessities on their doorstep. Recommend Netflix movies, documentaries, comedy shows or online live theater performances that might appeal to them. Give them ideas on how to stay safe, entertained, occupied and healthy. They will be grateful that you thought of them during this extremely stressful time.

In addition, we recommend virtual marketing events, where you can share details, floor plan walk-throughs, advice and just somebody new to talk with.

Social distancing doesn’t have to mean social detachment. During these troubling times, we all have to find new ways to stay connected.

Today’s blog post is from Kim Lehman, Varsity’s PR strategist. Kim has 25+ years of experience working collaboratively with businesses to build crisis communications plans and activate them.

You never know when your community will undergo a crisis that will create news coverage and public scrutiny. To deal with a man-made or natural disaster without damaging your community’s reputation, it’s imperative to have a well-thought-out crisis communications plan in place. The last thing you want to do in an emergency is to be scrambling to react. By having a crisis communications plan, you minimize chaos and create better communications with your external and internal audiences.

What is a crisis communications plan?

A crisis communications plan is simply the physical, concrete plan that outlines the responsibilities, protocols and key message points of an organization when reacting to a crisis situation. The plan will guide your community in sharing information with your key constituents during an emergency situation in a timely matter. Key constituents should include employees, residents, residents’ loved ones, traditional and social media, the community at large and other business partners. One common myth is that, if a community has an emergency preparedness plan, then the community is covered. On the contrary, a crisis communications plan goes far beyond an evacuation strategy.

Steps to creating an effective crisis plan

1. Form a team

First, identify the key people that should be part of the crisis communications team, to include a core team and subgroups. For example, your core team would include the CEO, the executive director and the communications director. Then, create subgroups for each particular type of incident. For instance, if you had a hacking incident, the IT director would be part of your subgroup. For an employee crisis, the HR manager would be involved. By putting the right people in place, your organization can be prepared to deal with a crisis more effectively.

2. Make an organizational chart

Create a chart, listing the core team and the subgroup team members. Then, compile the contact information for all team members. Identify a meeting place — whether that’s a physical conference room and/or a designated 1-800 conference call if all members of the team are not in one physical location.

3. Create scenarios

Get in a room with the core team and talk about every scenario that could possibly happen at your community, from a flu outbreak to an active shooter or a power outage. Create an exhaustive list of these potential situations.

4. Designate your spokespeople

For each scenario, choose a spokesperson and make sure that he or she is familiar with the talking points. The people you designate will depend on the scenario and also on their level of ability to communicate with the media. (Remember to always media-train your spokespeople!) Always choose someone who can articulate the message efficiently and help put the community in a positive light.   

5. Identify communications channels

Outline all of the current ways you deliver your information to external and internal audiences. You will want to use different channels for different scenarios. For example, internal statements may be delivered via an intranet; press releases may be sent via email to journalists; and social media posts may be placed on social media channels.

6. Create written statements

For each scenario, you should create an external statement to send to the media, an internal statement that you will send to employees and a potential Q&A. While you won’t have all of the details of a particular scenario, it’s nice to have the foundation of a statement so you aren’t rushing to write something during a crisis situation when stress levels are high. Be sure to keep the finished materials organized together — whether in a physical binder or in an electronic file.

7. Update your plan regularly

Once you’ve got your plan in place, I recommend updating the plan every six months. Spokespeople, phone numbers and other details change frequently. Update your communications plan when you change the batteries in the smoke detectors and during daylight savings time.

Did this process sound time-consuming? It can be. Crisis communications planning takes a lot of effort, and many organizations don’t want to spend the time and resources to do it; however, the consequences of not having a plan in place far outweigh the time you spend on it. And there’s nothing like the feeling of knowing that, should a crisis occur, your community will be well prepared to deal with whatever comes your way.

If you’d like to talk more about crisis communications planning, please contact us!