Crisis Communications Starts Before the Crisis: 5 Questions for Building and Maintaining Trust Now

Crisis communications is the ongoing work of building stakeholder trust so an organization can protect it when an unexpected event threatens its reputation or business goals. That work starts long before an incident. To prepare, ask five questions: What counts as a crisis for us? Who are our key stakeholders? How much trust do we start with? Who needs to be involved, and when? What does an effective response look like?

A key part of a communication professional’s job is to build and preserve stakeholder trust, especially before a PR crisis hits. Trust is becoming harder to achieve and can have a direct impact on business outcomes. In fact, 87% of shoppers will pay more for products or services from brands they trust and 40% of Americans will not return to a brand once they’ve lost trust in it.

At a recent PRSA event, Tom Logue, Associate Vice President and Senior Crisis Communications Counselor at AKCG, led a tabletop workshop on managing crisis communications. The session provided practical insights for making decisions about crisis communications and covered how to know if you’re in a PR crisis, what questions to ask, and tips to effectively manage a crisis.

Here are five questions he shared that you can work through now and revisit regularly, so your organization is ready if an issue arises:

1. What counts as a PR crisis?
Agree on that definition before you need it, including who decides when an issue becomes a crisis. With those criteria in place, your team can step back and assess an issue’s potential impact instead of reacting in the moment. Overreacting and rushing to issue a statement or respond on social media can be detrimental. Sometimes it’s better to monitor a situation and see what stakeholders are saying before responding publicly.

2. Who are our key stakeholders?
Start by identifying which stakeholders you need to communicate and maintain trust with. Knowing your specific stakeholder groups, understanding their concerns, and recognizing how each group has a different relationship with the organization should be a part of crisis communication planning. Some may be advocates, critics, or disengaged audiences; others may only emerge as stakeholders when a crisis occurs.

3. How much trust do you have going in?
Communications professionals face a tougher landscape today. There is declining trust in leaders and institutions, people are more distracted, individuals are less likely to hear out perspectives that differ from their own, and there is widespread compassion fatigue. In fact, in the U.S. only 54% of people trust businesses to do what is right.

Today, many people will look at an organization in a PR crisis with increased skepticism. Social media can also amplify outrage and misinformation. Businesses cannot assume they will be trusted, heard, or given the benefit of the doubt.

It’s also important to consider the organization’s history when responding to a crisis. For example, is this issue something that has come up before? Has the organization made this mistake repeatedly? Stakeholders will notice and call this out.

4. Who needs to be involved and when?
Different types of crises call for different counsel and expertise, so decide now who gets brought in for which scenarios. This could be leadership, legal, HR, or others. Mapping these roles in advance, and keeping contact information current, means the right people can quickly offer perspective and get on the same page about next steps. For example, if a crisis involves employee misconduct, HR should already know its role. If there’s a data leak, your cybersecurity and IT teams need to be included from the start.

5. What does this look like in practice?
There are practical tips to keep in mind for effective crisis communications:

• Prepare in advance: Understand institutional vulnerabilities and history, develop a crisis plan, and test it.
• Communicate early and often: Do not wait for every fact. If you cannot provide a complete answer, provide an honest and consistent one. Silence creates a void others will fill, often with misinformation. Provide the information you have, what you’re doing now to take action to address the issue, and a plan to follow up with more details.
• Consider who needs to hear this information from you: Organizations should make sure their key stakeholders are hearing from them directly before information hits the news. A customer is going to be more alarmed to hear their data was leaked on the news than if the company reaches out directly to them first and shares what is being done to protect them.
• Be accurate and consistent: It is better to acknowledge uncertainty than speculate or issue statements that later need correcting.
• Lead with empathy and action: Address people’s emotional concerns before relying on facts and explanations. Ensure words are backed up by meaningful action.

Why trust and preparedness are the backbone of crisis response

Building and preserving trust requires ongoing effort and should be part of an organization’s everyday communications, not something considered only when a crisis hits. Companies must communicate in a way that acknowledges people’s emotions, aligns their actions with their stated values, and prioritizes two-way conversations.

A successfully managed PR crisis does not mean everyone agrees with or likes the organization immediately. It means that any damage has been contained, accountability has been demonstrated, and enough trust has been earned for stakeholders to keep listening.

Want a crisis plan built before you need one? Let’s talk.

Frequently asked questions

• What is crisis communications?
  It’s the planning and messaging an organization builds and continuously maintains to protect stakeholder trust when an unexpected event threatens its reputation, relationships or business goals.
• How quickly should a company respond to a PR crisis?
  Fast, but don’t rush. Preparedness starts behind the scenes, before anything needs to be said publicly. Plan for worst-case scenarios now so your team isn’t scrambling or reacting too quickly later. When it’s time to respond, share what you know, what you’re doing about it, and when you’ll follow up, even if you don’t have every fact. Silence lets others fill the gap.
• Should every negative issue get a public statement?
  No. Some issues are better monitored first. Responding too early can make a small issue bigger.
• Who should be on a crisis communications team?
  Depending on the crisis, different stakeholders will need to be involved. Communications, leadership and legal at minimum. Add HR, IT or cybersecurity, or operations depending on the issue.
• What’s the first step in a crisis communications plan?
  Know your weak spots and your history, map your stakeholders, then write the plan and test it.