H-E-B, the famed Texas grocery chain founded in 1905, has steadfastly served customers through tornadoes and hurricanes, thanks to crisis planning unmatched by its rivals. This foundational ethos is a key component of the company’s pandemic and influenza planning it started in 2005 and has refined since. Texas Monthly reporters talked with employees, executives and customers to create a spellbinding roadmap of how H-E-B sprang into action weeks before the first coronavirus case in Texas was confirmed.
Source: Texas Monthly, March 26, 2020, Link. One thing we learned from Hurricane Harvey is that our customers want to hear from us. They want to hear our perspective, they want to know what we’re doing, what we’re thinking, how we’re helping our communities.” PDF of article is here. Link.
Whoever is managing their crisis communication is on top of it.”
INSIGHTS: This article should be required reading for anyone involved in crisis planning and communications management. Learning how H-E-B continues to engage external information sources, employees, vendors, suppliers and customers is a real-time lesson of the value that ongoing planning for crises yields.