What Is Crisis Communication? Definition, Steps, Examples

Crisis communication is how an organization or person shares information with the public and other stakeholders during an unexpected event that threatens its reputation, operations or the people it serves. It covers what is said, who says it, when and through which channels, and it aims to limit harm, keep trust and correct inaccurate claims while facts are still emerging.

That definition lines up with the CDC's Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) manual, which describes crisis communication as providing facts to the public about an unexpected emergency that is beyond the organization's control, involves the organization and requires an immediate response. The CDC adds that the content, form and timing of what you say can either help contain the harm or make the situation worse. This guide covers the definition, how it differs from related terms, the stages, and what it looks like in practice, with hypothetical examples labeled as such.

We are Reputation Resolutions. We sell crisis services and we are not a law firm, so nothing here is legal advice. Some organizations handle crisis communication in house. Others bring in a crisis communications firm when the story moves faster than their approvals do. Either way the underlying ideas are the same, and they apply to a small business as much as a large one.

What is crisis communication in management?

In management, crisis communication is the information-handling part of crisis management. Crisis management is the broader job of preparing for, responding to and recovering from a threatening event, which our guide to what crisis management is covers. Crisis communication is the part that decides what the organization tells people and how. Management decides what to do. Communication tells people what is being done and what they should do.

The two have to agree. A statement that promises something operations cannot deliver becomes a second problem on top of the first. That is an editorial point, not a CDC finding, but it is the reason communication belongs at the leadership table and not only in the marketing department.

How crisis communication differs from related terms

The CDC separates four kinds of communication by who speaks, how much time pressure there is and what the message is for. The table is adapted from the CDC's introduction chapter.

• Crisis communication

  Who communicates

  A member of the affected organization

  Timing

  Urgent and unexpected

  Purpose

  Explain and persuade

• Issues management communication

  Who communicates

  A member of the affected organization

  Timing

  Anticipated, timing partly controlled by the communicator

  Purpose

  Explain and persuade

• Risk communication

  Who communicates

  An expert not directly affected

  Timing

  Anticipated, little or no time pressure

  Purpose

  Empower decision-making

• Crisis and emergency risk communication

  Who communicates

  An expert who is affected

  Timing

  Urgent and unexpected

  Purpose

  Explain, persuade and empower decision-making

The CDC describes issues management communication as similar to crisis communication, except that the organization has foreknowledge of the coming problem and can choose when to announce it. Many reputational problems start there. If you know a damaging story is about to publish, you are in issues management and the timing is partly yours. Once it breaks unexpectedly, you are in crisis communication.

In everyday use, crisis communication, crisis PR and reputation crisis work overlap, and no standard separates them. We use crisis communication for the information work. For the media-led version see our page on PR crisis management, and for the wider scope see crisis management.

Who crisis communication is for

The CDC stresses that communicating in an emergency is more than informing a general public. Different audiences have different priority needs depending on how close they are to the event, and they receive messages through different channels. Ready.gov names customers, employees and their families, and regulators and local officials as groups who will want information when a business faces an emergency. For a reputational crisis, add reporters, partners, lenders and the people searching your name. Each group needs the same facts, framed for what it must decide or do.

The six principles

The CDC builds its framework on six principles, which we paraphrase here:

- Be first. Crises are time-sensitive, and the first source people hear from often becomes the one they prefer.

- Be right. Accuracy builds credibility. Say what is known, what is not known and what is being done to fill the gaps.

- Be credible. Do not trade honesty for convenience.

- Express empathy. Acknowledge the harm and what people are feeling.

- Promote action. Give people meaningful things to do, which the CDC says calms anxiety and restores a sense of control.

- Show respect. It matters most when people feel vulnerable.

For how to turn those into decisions about audiences, channels and timing, read our guide to crisis communication strategies.

The stages of crisis communication

The CDC describes a communication rhythm with four phases: preparation, initial, maintenance and resolution. Its text names the last phase recovery in one place and resolution in its diagram. The table summarizes the tasks the CDC lists for each phase.

Three objectives run through every phase, according to the CDC: community engagement, supporting people's decisions and evaluation. For a business, that means listening to the people affected, giving them what they need to decide, and checking whether your messages landed.

The steps in practice

This sequence is our editorial synthesis, not a CDC procedure, and it works for most reputational events:

- 1. Confirm what you know. Separate verified facts from rumor and assumption.

- 2. Decide who is affected. Rank the audiences by closeness to the harm.

- 3. Name a spokesperson and an approver. One voice, one review path, agreed before you need it.

- 4. Issue a short first statement. Acknowledge, say what you are doing, and say when you will update. Our holding statement examples show the shapes this can take.

- 5. Set an update rhythm. Keep to it even when the update is that nothing has changed.

- 6. Monitor and correct. Track coverage, social posts and questions, and fix factual errors quickly.

- 7. Review afterward. Record what worked and what did not, and revise your written plan.

A written crisis communication plan is how you make steps 3 and 4 fast. Have your own attorney review any statement that admits fault, names a person, mentions legal action or involves regulated personal information.

Examples

The first three are hypothetical and are not client results.

- A dental practice and a viral review. A patient posts a detailed claim about billing. The practice confirms the facts internally without disclosing any patient information, replies once with an offer to talk by phone, and does not argue in public.

- A software company and an outage. Customers cannot log in. The company posts a dated status page that says what is affected, what is being done and when the next update comes, and emails customers the same text.

- A nonprofit and an allegation about a leader. Counsel reviews first. The statement takes the concern seriously, describes the process now under way, names a contact and gives an update time. It does not characterize the facts.

One sourced example comes from the CDC. During a 2003 blackout in Michigan, two neighboring health departments gave conflicting guidance about restaurants. The CDC says this led to intense media scrutiny and public confusion, and some restaurants lost business. The lesson is consistency across everyone who speaks. For more cases drawn from public reporting, see our crisis communication examples.

What crisis communication is not

It is not spin. The CDC says honesty and truthfulness should not be compromised during crises. It is not legal advice or a substitute for counsel. It is not the planning document, though a plan supports it. And it is not content removal, although the two often run side by side.

The CDC also lists five pitfalls: mixed messages from multiple experts, information released late, paternalistic attitudes, not countering rumors and myths in real time, and public power struggles and confusion. Most are about coordination, not wording.

The online layer

A modern crisis leaves a record. The statement you publish, the coverage and the social posts all become things people can find later. A dated, factual statement page on your own site gives readers and search engines a source written in your words. Where content about you is false and qualifies under a platform's policy or the law, removal may be possible, but it is never guaranteed and depends on the publisher. Suppression and monitoring are separate work. Our reputation crisis management page explains the search side, and our guide to recovering from a PR crisis covers the weeks after.

Who does it, and when to get help

Ready.gov, the US government's preparedness site, says the need to communicate is immediate when an emergency occurs, and that developing a plan in advance lets business leaders respond to those needs promptly. Planning ahead is the single biggest advantage you can give yourself.

Consider outside help when the story is moving faster than your approvals, when it is spreading across platforms, or when part of it is content that may need to be removed at the source. Reputation Resolutions has worked on reputation problems since 2013, is A+ BBB accredited and a Google Partner, and has clients in 40+ countries. We work alongside your counsel and existing advisors, not in place of them. Start with our crisis communications services page.