FOLLOW-UP AND EVALUATION

Following an incident, it is important to communicate. Company's public relations office will work with senior management to:

• Send letters to affected audiences as needed. Inform them of the results. It does little long-term good to inform these audiences of the situation if they are not advised of the outcome.

• Send thank-you notes to appropriate people who helped the company manage the crisis, such as police or fire departments, hospitals, colleagues, etc.

• Carefully and rigorously evaluate all decisions and actions taken during the crisis. Determine what went right and wrong. Make recommendations to avoid repeating errors in responding to future incidents, and to avert developments leading to crisis situations in the future.

• Review your organization's crisis communications plan to determine if it was effective. Make changes to it where appropriate based on the review.