The acute-crisis stage
A crisis moves from the pre-crisis to the acute stage, when it becomes visible outside the organisation. At this point in time, managers have no choice but to address it. It is too late to take preventative actions as any action taken now is more associated with 'damage control'.
Once the problem moves to the "acute" stage, the crisis management team should be activated. Generally, a crisis management team is a group of people who specialise in managing a crisis. However, in the situation of a small business, this role might be taken on by yourself, the business owner, and maybe some of your key staff.
Crisis management team members will need to take the following steps:[1]
Take charge of the situation quickly
Gather all the information they can about the crisis and attempt to establish the facts
Tell your story to the appropriate groups that have vested interest in the organisation, namely, the media, the general public, the customers, the shareholders, the vendors, and the employees.
Take the necessary actions to fix the problem.