As a start-up, Hotmail enjoyed relative immunity as consumers flocked to the free email concept. Once Microsoft bought the company, however, things changed in a big way. Minor
problems could be come major crises in an instant, and Hotmail didn't have a crisis plan in place to deal with them. Microsoft brought in Weber Shandwick's (then Shandwick)
Silicon Valley office to help build a detailed plan.
Key elements included:
- Crisis levels. The team identified three problem categories: developing
incidents, serious incidents and disasters. They established generic definitions,
examples, and procedural guidelines for response to each. - Actions. The plan laid out steps for every employee in every crisis scenario.
One fundamental rule: Whoever first received notice of a problem, whether
through a user complaint or a press call, should gather all the facts possible
about the issue, promise to report the matter and notify the crisis team.
Once alerted, the crisis team would review the problem and decide whether
the PR strategy should be proactive or reactive. Then the best communications
methods and channels could be identified and appropriate messages developed. - Recipients and messengers. Anyone - from receptionist to customer service
representative to high-level manager - could be first to find out a problem
was brewing. So the team identified possible contact points and established
a response protocol geared toward each level of responsibility.