Less than one month after Moon Mission Media (MMM) began working with Gold’s Gym Houston, they and their community of members faced the historical challenges of Hurricane Harvey in the summer of 2017.
In the health club business, it’s crucial to maintain quality communication for the members and communities you serve. This is true during regular operations when construction impacts group fitness classes or community or club events are made available to members and more.
It is even more important during periods of crisis where the communities your club or gym serves are inundated with challenges and even life-threatening circumstances.
Following are some of the strategies MMM employed to help the Gold’s Gym Houston community of members during the entirety of the hurricane and the aftermath.
MMM Crisis Communication Strategy
Crisis Communication Plan
Clear communication to members of club closures, updates, re-opening updates / permanent closures
Community announcements of food shelter, donation centers, and special offers
Post Crisis Updates.
Post-crisis support - Identifying the stakeholders - chain of communication command. checks and the balances.
Public Relations: We answered everyone. Even the haters. sometimes the situation was easily diffused, others escalated but many times just knowing that they reached a human and are being tended to cover a multitude of issues.
Location Closing communication strategy and protocol
PR Issues & Protocol - plan for follow-up on the club level. Protocol to have an answer special cases, FAQs, and accountability for specific question / or complaints with a clear deadline for resolution
Public Relations to proactively avoid angry members, low ratings, bad reviews, complaints, and or trolls
Personal follow-up to resolve high tension issues
Updated profiles and contact information appropriately.
About Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, hit Texas on August 25, 2017, caused $125 billion in
damage according to the National Hurricane Center. More than any other natural disaster in U.S. history
sans Hurricane Katrina and needed more than $125 billion in federal relief.
13 million people were affected from Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky and as of October 13, 2017, at least 88 people died from the storm.
Harvey hit land three times in six days. At its peak on September 1, 2017, one-third of Houston was underwater. Two feet of rain fell in the first 24 hours. Flooding forced 39,000 people out of their homes into shelters.
Dallas created a mega-shelter for 5,000 evacuees out of its main convention center.
Federal forces rescued 10,000 people trapped in homes or on flooded highways. A flotilla of private boats rescued an unknown number of additional victims. The Houston Police Department's Dive Team rescued 3,000 people in four days. Houston police officer Austin Huckabee said he and four other officers saved 40 people in the first 24 hours.
We will be sharing more case studies in the future so stay tuned.
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About Moon Mission Media
Moon Mission Media is rethinking marketing. We dissect your marketing efforts to build or turnaround your brand into a long-term success story. Moon Mission Media is a boutique strategic marketing advisory group with a network of specialists who have been guiding brands collectively for over 50 years. With expertise in technology, franchising, fitness, health, and wellness, the principles of Moon Mission Media have advised and managed leading global, national, and regional brands on strategy, marketing, creative, technologies, and communications successfully for years.
Case Study by Moon Mission Media Team Member
Brandi Bergeron