As a car wash owner, you understand your day-to-day operational needs, but are you aware of the potential crisesthat can arise and significantly derail your business? In this day and age, every organization is susceptible toexperiencing a “crisis,” from the biggest multinational corporation to the smallest mom-and-popshop. Whether it’s a major pharmaceutical conglomerate or the donut shop around the corner, there’sone objective when it comes to crisis management and communications: get through it with minimal damage to yourbrand and to your reputation within the community.

So what constitutes a “crisis?” Disappointing weekend sales may hurt your bottom line, but that’snot the definition of a crisis. A situation becomes a crisis when it adversely affects someone else.

Let’s say, for instance, that you discover an employee is undocumented and he or she is subsequentlydeported. Although this situation may not receive media attention, the owner (read, you!) still needs toeffectively communicate with your other employees to lessen their concerns and address the inevitablerumors.

When a customer writes a bad review online, it’s not a crisis, since one bad write-up is not going to tanka car wash, and there’s no way to control negative online reviews beyond encouraging satisfied customersto let their views be known.

Owners and operators need to focus on those emergency situations that could cause the car wash to incur prolongeddamage.

Many times, a crisis could be averted if the company takes the time to consider all the potential crises thatcould occur and develop a plan to address them. Conducting contingency planning, putting yourself and yourmanagers through the paces of a realistic crisis scenario, can help a lot. It forces everyone to thinkresourcefully as a team before anything happens.

You can figure out how a potential crisis is preventable by simply adjusting your operational methods. Could theundocumented employee crisis been avoided if you used the E-Verify system to confirm the employee’seligibility?

Here’s another scenario: Since car washes include multiple moving cars, there is a heightened risk foraccidents to occur on and around the premises. Every owner, therefore, needs safety-first guidelines and a planon how they’re going to react if a mishap takes place — either two vehicles colliding or apedestrian getting hit by a moving car.

Implementing a site safety plan is a great tool to mitigate this risk. Your plan would include rules to staysafe, such as never running and always looking both ways before crossing a potential traffic area. The safetysigns should be visibly posted for customers and employees to see.

Your safety plan should also establish protocols such as assessing any injuries and how quickly — to callmedical personnel if necessary. There’s only one way to ensure that everyone knows what to do in theseunfortunate scenarios: practice it with your employees. And if it doesn’t go well, do it again — andagain — if need be.

So what happens if you’ve done your “crisis homework” and something big occurs and yourbusiness is caught unaware?

First and foremost, you need to gather as much information about the situation as you can. For instance, you maylearn that a customer saw what he thought were chemicals being discharged from the car wash into the surroundingarea. The customer then jumps onto Twitter and tweets the incident. Local news begins to pick up the story.Suddenly, you’ve got a newspaper photographer in your parking lot and a news crew supposedly on itsway.

What to do? If you know for an absolute fact that chemicals were somehow discharged from the site and that theleak has been contained and does not pose a threat, then you might want to get in front of the situation, bytaking responsibility, and assuring everyone that there’s no health risk involved.

But that’s only if you’re sure. If you’re not certain, the best practice is to continueinvestigating — and not go public until you have more complete information.

Why? The golden rule in crisis communications is never give a statement without knowing the facts.

Say the “chemical” observed by the customer turns out to be harmless soap. If you jump the gun andmake a statement before knowing that the fear is unfounded, it could make the situation far worse. You mighthave to eventually release a statement saying that your original statement was incorrect, which could ding yourreputation in the community.

Many companies feel they need to get in front of a potential crisis and make statements when little to noinformation is available. But often all that does is hurt the organization’s credibility, obscure what thepublic needs to know, and trigger questions that the company is unable to answer.

However, if the substance was indeed a chemical, you might want to step forward, provide correct information, andcommunicate what will be done to prevent the problem from happening again. Yes, admitting fault is always aconcern. However, by taking responsibility, you are in control of the narrative and you take away at least someof the power of the rumor mill.

And always keep in mind: What one person considers a crisis may not actually be a crisis. If your car wash getsrobbed or community members complain about traffic buzzing around the car wash, don’t jump into crisismode without thinking it through to the end.

Gather as much information as possible before you issue statements or conduct an interview. If the situationthreatens the organizational reputation of your business and its many important relationships, then it’stime to call in professionals. Crisis communicators can bring an independent and objective point of view to thesituation. Remember: they are focused on the goal, which is to get you through the crisis with as minimal damageas possible.

Unfortunately, crises happen. Yet, with some planning and foresight, you can prevent certain crises — andbe prepared for others.

Jessica DeCrane is a crisis communications specialist working on urgent issues for LEVICK, a strategiccommunications firm in Washington, D.C. Reach the agency at info@levick.com or (202) 973-1300.