Crisis Management and Communication Emerge as Critical Competencies in the Gas Utility Sector
While gas utilities have always made safety and crisis management a top priority in their interaction with the communities they serve, the introduction of new communications technologies and channels of engagement have created new opportunities to connect, inform and direct key stakeholders through critical incidents to mitigate risks and protect the lives and property of consumers, employees and other stakeholders.
To discuss recent developments in crisis communications for natural gas providers, we caught up with Jake Rubin, senior director of public relations and executive communications with the American Gas Association.
Here is what he had to say:
Q: On the heels of a period of time for the energy industry, how have you seen the gas utility sector apply crisis communications?
Jake Rubin: It is important to recognize that the safety of our customers and communities has always been a top priority for the gas utility industry.
Natural gas utilities deliver essential energy to nearly 187 million Americans. Any event, even one that affects a small percentage of consumers is crucial given that natural gas is a vital service. Delivering natural gas also comes with some safety risks.
That is why all American Gas Association (AGA) members respond to each unplanned service interruption with a crisis management plan designed to ensure the safety of customers, members of the community, and employees.
Emergency messaging strategies are a critical part of the plan. They are constantly drilled and further developed to respond to natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and any other event that interrupts service or creates dangerous situations.
Q: How does the industry drill and develop its crisis communications strategy?
Rubin: Managing crises effectively is typically very complex and can often involve many different state, local and first-responder communities. The overall success of safety initiatives relies heavily on the quality and coordination of joint communications efforts.
Every member of AGA conducts frequent tabletop exercises and training sessions with local authorities and first responders in their service territories. Included in these drills are the operational teams and communications staff of gas utilities.
The relationships that are forged between utility communications teams and those of first responders—such as firefighters or police officers—go a long way toward honing the effectiveness of crisis communication operations. Alignment with public information officers of agencies and departments likely to be involved in addressing natural gas-related emergencies lays the foundation for establishing consistent and clear communication. This is essential to quickly getting time-sensitive information out to the right audiences during an incident.
Q: Are there any new areas of opportunity that gas utilities are exploring to improve the effectiveness of crisis communications?
Rubin: Utility providers are exploring how they can lean into innovative tools to relay critical messages. Some of our members have their own smartphone apps and many use social media to report service disruptions or get safety messages to customers.
This is proving to be a fruitful area for improving the industry’s performance through disruptive developments. Effective crisis communication efforts should empower customers by equipping different members of the community with the information they need to take the most appropriate action based on the circumstances in which they find themselves.
True success is often tied to education and outreach that happens before disruptions take place. Once a crisis hits, customers have limited bandwidth, and there is only so much utilities can do to communicate. The more we can do to prepare key audiences ahead of incidents, the better prepared they will be to understand what options are available in times of crisis.
A good example of industry efforts towards training communities is what to do when people smell gas, which can be the first sign of a dangerous situation. First of all, I would note that methane, the natural gas people use in their home, does not have an inherent smell. For decades, the industry has added a chemical called mercaptan as a safety measure to alert consumers of a gas leak.
In more recent years, AGA members around the country have launched communications campaigns to condition consumers to call 911 or their utility when they smell a gas leak. This was initiated because customer were reflexively calling 911 and so the industry and first responders adapted and built the capability to respond.
These are all examples of initiatives that harness innovations developed by individual utilities so that they can be applied by the rest of the industry.
AGA members excel in sharing leading practices. As our members develop new strategies and new technologies to better connect with key stakeholders when crises hit, the industry will aggregate and share those practices with the rest of the community.
