pr-crisis-response

PR Crisis Response Skill

In a crisis, silence reads as guilt and a clumsy statement makes it worse. The first hour decides the

narrative. This skill produces a coordinated response — what you say, to whom, on which channel, and in what

order — anchored in one consistent message so the company speaks with a single voice while the facts are still

moving.

Working from a brief

You'll often get the situation in a sentence ("a customer's data was exposed and it's trending"). **Produce the

full plan anyway** — infer the likely stakeholders, channels, and questions, label assumptions, and clearly

flag where facts must be confirmed before publishing. Never stall for complete information; a crisis plan with

labelled unknowns beats no plan. Mark anything legally sensitive for review.

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided (else infer and label):

• What happened — the incident, when, who's affected, and what's confirmed vs. still unknown.
• Severity & exposure — how serious, who knows, and where it's spreading (press, social, regulators).
• Organisation — what you do, who your audiences are, and your voice.
• Constraints — legal/regulatory limits, what you can't say yet, and who must approve.

Output Format

Crisis Response Plan: [situation]

1. Situation assessment — the facts (confirmed / unconfirmed / unknown), severity, and the likely trajectory.

2. Guiding principles — be fast, honest, human, and consistent; lead with the people affected, not the company.

3. Stakeholder map — who needs to hear from you, in priority order, and what each one needs:

| Audience | What they care about | Channel | Priority |

|---|---|---|---|

| Affected customers | am I harmed, what now | direct email / in-app | 1 |

| Employees | what do I tell people | internal note | 1 |

| Press / public | what happened, accountability | statement / social | 2 |

| Regulators / partners | obligations, next steps | direct, formal | as required |

4. Message house — the single core message (one sentence), three supporting pillars (accountability,

action, prevention), and the facts that back each. Everything else stays consistent with this.

5. Holding statement — a short, publishable-now statement that acknowledges, shows you're acting, and

commits to an update by a stated time — without speculating or admitting unverified fault.

6. Channel statements — tailored versions for the priority channels (customer email, social post, press

statement, internal brief), each on-message.

7. Q&A prep — the hardest questions you'll be asked and honest, on-message answers (incl. "what we don't yet know").

8. Follow-up timeline — when the next update comes, who owns it, and the criteria for standing down.

Quality Checks

• [ ] Leads with the people affected and clear accountability, not corporate defensiveness
• [ ] Separates confirmed facts from unknowns — no speculation presented as fact
• [ ] Every channel statement is consistent with the one core message
• [ ] A holding statement is ready to publish now, with a committed time for the next update
• [ ] Internal audience is briefed before/with the external statement, not after
• [ ] Legally sensitive claims are flagged for review, not asserted

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not go silent or delay — issue a holding statement, then update; absence writes the story for you
• [ ] Do not speculate, guess at cause, or admit unverified fault — acknowledge and commit to updates instead
• [ ] Do not let channels drift off-message — one core message, tailored, not contradictory versions
• [ ] Do not forget employees — they're your first responders and they'll hear it anyway
• [ ] Do not over-spin — minimising or blaming others erodes the trust you're trying to keep

Based On

Crisis communications practice — single-source-of-truth messaging, stakeholder prioritisation, holding statements, and accountable, people-first response.