Top 10 Crisis Management Software Solutions

Business marketers sector-wide know full well that crises can strike at a moment’s notice.

Whether it’s a high-profile data breach, a public relations fiasco, or a conflict of interest, organizations must be prepared to respond quickly, effectively, and transparently.

Businesses and their customers have never been more intertwined in the age of social media, and brands have to be exceptionally cautious about every move they make. Failing to do so opens them up to heavy scrutiny from buyers, stakeholders, and partners alike.

Crisis management software has emerged as an irreplaceable and critical tool for businesses of all sizes. It enables them to mitigate potential damage during critical events, be it financial or reputational. Based on the type and severity of the incident, it can also coordinate the most appropriate responses and communications.

What is Crisis Management Software?

Crisis communication software includes features designed to help organizations prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises.

Think of crisis management tools as a de-facto command center for keeping everyone informed, coordinated, and equipped during critical situations.

They are often initiated to work in tandem with a managed cyber incident response solution, with one team neutralizing and isolating a threat while the other works emphatically to handle all internal and external communications.

Centralizing information and streamlining workflows when a crisis hits allows teams to take decisive action quickly while maintaining clear communication with stakeholders, staff, and consumers.

Modern crisis management solutions often integrate prevention measures with reactive tools. These preventive features can include advanced sentiment analysis, trend monitoring, and early warning alerts that can identify potential issues or conversations before they manifest and evolve into full-blown problems that could warrant the start of a crisis.

 Just one accusation or complaint can evolve into a full-fledged crisis, so organizations should consider adopting a tool that gives them proactive and reactive capabilities, allowing them to manage and contain organizational risks.

Top Features of Crisis Management Tools

These crisis communication tools typically offer a suite of features. These include (but are not limited to):

• Multi-channel communication tools to send updates through various channels like SMS, email, social media, and even phone calls
• Real-time collaboration tools for teams to share information, assign tasks and coordinate efforts
• Logging, monitoring, and tracking tools to update the status of ongoing incidents
• Tools to generate reports and dashboards for quick, decisive data analysis during and after a crisis
• Cloud-based systems for dispersed teams to access critical files while off-site
• Data security management tools to handle and safeguard sensitive information and audit trails
• Functionalities for real-time alerts and notifications for pre-defined staff and key stakeholders
• User-friendly tools to curate, edit, and approve communication materials such as press releases, social media posts, and more

The 10 Best Crisis Management Tools Solutions

When identifying the right crisis communication and management software, it’s important to ascertain the scope of what solutions are out there. Here is a breakdown of the top ten most recommended software for your business’s crisis management needs.

1. Mention

While primarily known for its media monitoring and social monitoring capabilities, Mention plays an invaluable role in crisis management and prevention.

As a tool, it provides alerts on brand mentions across news sites, forums, and social media channels, giving organizations ample time to review and assess whether these conversations warrant addressing or investigating.

Mention helps organizations identify discussions where issues may arise, perhaps regarding a brand’s customer service standards, financial activity, or even ethical issues surrounding their product manufacturing, distribution, and sourcing.

The tool’s reporting features and detailed sentiment analysis enable teams to gauge public opinion and adjust their incumbent crisis management strategies accordingly. They also provide social media management features. Integration flexibility also allows it to work seamlessly with other important business tools, making it a valuable addition to any company’s online reputation management and crisis prevention.

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2. Meltwater

Meltwater provides powerful media, social and consumer intelligence capabilities which prove incredibly valuable for organizations managing potential risks in the digital space. Its platform offers real-time insights into online conversations and social media monitoring, giving businesses ample time to detect potential negative conversations early. Customizable alerts, plentiful integrations, and AI-led processes also simplify the process for users, making crisis management easy alongside growth strategies.

3. Cision

Cision, an AI-powered PR and monitoring platform, offers plenty of flexible and customizable media analytics and measurement platforms to make crisis resolution more straightforward. Cision’s suite of reporting and analytics tools allows organizations to detect and track mentions across various media channels, empowering them to manage their brand reputation more easily and remotely.

4. Konexus

Konexus is a cloud-based critical event management and emergency notification platform, prioritizing ease of use and remote accessibility. It offers multi-channel communication tools and plenty of alert templates for common emergencies, with real-time incident reporting and offline access readily available. Konexus is best suited for organizations looking for simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

5. WebEOC

WebEOC is a multifaceted web-based emergency operations center (EOC) solution, excelling in multi-agency coordination and situational awareness dashboards. With chat rooms, task management features to streamline communication and collaboration, and controlled public information sharing through various channels, WebEOC is ideal for larger, multinational organizations dealing with complex incidents.

6. Noggin

Noggin provides an integrated incident management workspace, combining business continuity planning and threat intelligence feeds. With content management, real-time collaboration and multi-channel communication tools also in tow, Noggin is a versatile choice for organizations seeking a scalable, one-size-fits-all solution to crisis management.

7. Everbridge

Everbridge Crisis Management is part of a larger Critical Event Management (CEM) platform. It provides organizations with centralized crisis response features, including resource management, planning, and interactive dashboards for real-time monitoring. Everbridge is known for its scalability and speed, making it suitable for organizations dealing with a broad range of incidents.

8. D4H

D4H offers an easy-to-use interface with a suite of real-time collaboration and situational awareness capabilities during crises. It is designed to streamline crisis management and incident response for organizations of all sizes, with a built-in operations center and customizable forms and templates. This cloud-based platform’s adaptability to various crisis scenarios makes it a highly sought-after solution for organizations.

9. Splunk

While Splunk is primarily known for its sophisticated data analytics, it offers plenty of intricate crisis management features. It’s particularly valuable for its data visualization options and real-time threat monitoring and identification features, equipping tech-savvy teams (its best target users) to isolate and respond to complex, emerging threats with tangible data to hand.

10. Navigate360

Navigate360 provides a broad range of security and safety solutions – its mission objective, many say – which includes crisis management. Users gain access to plenty of emergency planning, threat assessment and response coordination tools, helping them communicate the extent of security incidents with relative ease. Navigate360 is arguably best suited for organizations prioritizing physical and on-site security.

How to Choose the Right Crisis Management Software 

Selecting the best crisis communication and management software is not taken lightly. There are various factors to consider when choosing the most suitable solution for your organization:

• Organization size, industry, and specific needs
• The types of crises that your organization is most likely to face
• The number of users who need access
• How scalable and flexible your solution needs to be
• The complexity of your on-site or cloud-based infrastructure
• The most essential features you need for crisis management
• Your organization’s compliance requirements (data privacy, sensitive information etc.)
• How user-friendly and fast your solution needs to be for your crisis team
• Your organization’s budget for deployment, upskilling, testing, and user base

Make sure, when shortlisting crisis management software providers, to assess vendor reputation, support services, and commitment to ongoing product development and updates.
Also take into account the capacity to do social media crisis management with the software you’ve selected.

Integrating Crisis Management Software Into Your Overall Strategy

Having the right crisis management tool is vital for preserving customer relationships and brand reputation. With the right solution, strategic marketers and business owners can track and measure the most important conversations around their brands, and respond swiftly and decisively with data-driven insights when a crisis begins materializing.

The right crisis management tool will allow you to report to executives and stakeholders about your brand reputation and implement an effective crisis management plan. You will also find it easier to manage your outlet relations, ensuring coverage when it matters most while minimizing the proliferation of negative feedback.

Bear the following considerations in mind when deciding on your next crisis management solution:

• Take the time to ensure your chosen solution complements and enhances your existing crisis management processes and procedures. An extensive overhaul can prove costly, both financially and logistically, whereas a gradual changeover may be easier to manage.
• Ensure that your team is fully equipped and upskilled to use the chosen software effectively. Conduct test projects and response drills using free trials of software to validate their effectiveness, and see whether your existing marketing and PR team can utilize the tool with minimal disruption. However, be aware that some latency will exist as they get up to speed with your new tool if they’ve not used it before.
• Confirm that you can tailor your chosen software’s alerts, workflows, analytics, reporting features and more to match your organization’s specific scenarios and business needs. Validate that your chosen tool can scale effectively alongside your brand and team.

Integrating crisis management software into your broader strategy will give your organization the boost it needs to prevent, manage, and recover from crises effectively.

Take Your Crisis Management to the Next Level

The above list scratches the surface of what crisis management software offers an organization. Regardless of your preference, centralizing communication and providing real-time situational awareness empowers your business to respond swiftly, decisively, and transparently to crises.

Software alone, however, is not a panacea. Crisis management software will take care of much of the hard work associated with brand relations, but it’s up to strategic PR communicators, marketers, and business owners to continually evaluate the software and existing processes’ effectiveness. They are part of a team that must be prepared to utilize the insights and data aggregated by the tool and act swiftly and decisively.

While the tools discussed above offer powerful and flexible capabilities, the key lesson is that prevention is better and preferable than patching a wound. This is where Mention’s innovative social listening and media monitoring tools can make a crucial difference. Mention empowers you to anticipate crises before they develop into such, allowing you to weather the proverbial PR storm.

Early detection and decisive action are vital for organizations seeking to avoid and manage issues and calm the effects of a potential crisis. Our platform helps you stay one step ahead of emerging crises by monitoring online conversations and analyzing sentiment in real-time. Learn how we can support your crisis management strategy and request a free trial of our social listening tool today.