How to Rebuild Your Brand’s Trust After a PR Crisis

When a crisis befalls a public figure or entity, the spotlight can feel unforgiving. Even before the facts are fully known or a statement has been crafted, followers start voicing their disappointment. Questions in headlines start generating more questions. And brand handlers start second-guessing everything they’re planning to do, as fearful of making a misstep as of the initial calamity itself.

What’s really at stake? Brand trust. And it’s such a valued commodity because, in our social media driven marketplace, it’s what every public person or company relies on most to secure their place in their industry.

Given the importance of brand trust, it’s no surprise that shaping it and sustaining it is a core component of my field of public relations. And one of the most critical lessons I’ve taken from the field is how to rebuild trust when it’s been damaged or is under attack.

In a nutshell? You don’t have to craft the perfect apology or settle on the right platform to post it or hire the slickest fixer. Rather, you need to start with a foundation of honesty and then build subsequent steps from there.

People do not lose trust because you made a human mistake. People lose trust when your response to it doesn’t feel real to them. So once you understand that authenticity followed up by reinforcing actions can reshape the story in your favor, you can come out the other side of a brand crisis with your reputation intact.

Why brand trust is the new holy grail

Since the dawn of the U.S. economy, that economy has been evolving. There was a time when profits formed the core of market dominance; at other times, infrastructure advancements, private equity investments or technological superiority were the largest predictors of success, along with everything in between, like clever advertising campaigns and exceptional customer reviews.

But now brand trust is the end-all-be-all currency across all sectors and organizations because consumers are far more concerned about who they’re doing business with than what the business transaction is.

Brand trust is the difference between a nearly full and a nearly empty hotel, a sold-out fashion show and an empty runway, a well-attended product launch and a flop. And in today’s culture, that trust is intimately tied to:

• Transparency
• Accountability
• Growth
• Consistency
• A narrative that is believable and that resonates

So when a brand hits a glitch? It’s not enough to just apologize and wait until the news cycle passes anymore. People want clarity and openness; they’re not buying outmoded forms of communication, like formal-sounding press releases. They want to feel like the brands they follow and invest in are sufficiently self-aware to grasp the consequences of their decisions. In fact, the very survival of the brand depends on the public’s personal belief in it.

Steps to take when belief is shaken

Brand trust is eroded when your public can’t relate to you. Brand trust survives when your response to adversity feels human and grounded. That means being intentional with your words, being genuine in your behaviors and founding your whole response strategy on efforts that ring true and in alignment with both brand and client values.

Step 1: Authentic Acknowledgment. Before any kind of public reset can begin, you have to candidly recognize what has happened. This isn’t the time to be general or vague. You want to stay away from ineffective clichés such as, “We’re so sorry if anyone was offended.”

Authentic acknowledgment is specific. It takes accountability. It provides a direct answer to the most pressing question being posed: “Do you understand why this matters?”

If you can convince your base that you do understand, you’ve taken the first, most important step to recovery. You won’t be canceled when you’re fully accountable; on the contrary, you’ll create space in which to be free to tell your own story, in your own way, in your own voice.

Your audience wants to believe you. To help them get there:

• Take ownership of your brand and what it stands for
• Resist the urge to go on the offensive and to get defensive
• Illustrate true understanding of the situation
• Use a colloquial tone and language, not lawyer-speak

Step 2: Consistent Actions. You can’t rebuild brand trust with a single post. Your audience wants to see evidence of your integrity on the issue at hand, and that proof comes in the form of a steady, dependable set of behaviors that align with your messaging. It’s more of a long game than a one-and-done first-aid intervention, and so you’ll want to plan out your game plays.

They might include temporarily pausing any partnerships that have become suspect, doing direct outreach to whatever communities have been affected by the crisis to cultivate true understanding of their position and working time into your agenda for restorative efforts instead of just concentrating on “business as usual.” That’s the goal, of course, to get back to business as usual; but first you have to implement changes that reflect the apology you’ve issued.

So this phase of rebuilding brand trust is where strategy intersects with sincerity. An effective crisis intervention plan will meld human fallibility with displays of actual improvement. In this way, reputation management and preserving brand image grow in unison.

Step 3: A Well-Paced Reentry onto the Public Stage. Time away from the limelight isn’t always required to stage a “comeback,” and yet there are situations where lying low for a while — after you’ve made your public stance clearly and heartfully known — is a smart move. It gives you time to think. To regroup. To redirect your course.

You don’t want to disappear for months on end, which runs the real risk of creating a void that the online community is only too happy to fill with their version of things. But neither do you want to make yourself a target when you haven’t forged a shield yet.

When it’s time to reemerge in the public eye, the key is to do so with intention. For example, if you came under scrutiny by a particular or marginalized group, doing a candid interview with a trusted journalist representing that group is a wise measure. If it’s time for a social media update, preparing foolproof content for the post keeps control in your hands. If you had a data breach, announcing a new partnership with a respected cybersecurity firm will go a long way toward reestablishing your credibility.

The point here is to show your public that you have learned from the crisis and have no intention of ever repeating the same mistake again.

Reconstructing the narrative in your own likeness

All of these steps amount to reconstructing the narrative. Not ignoring the narrative, not denying or rewriting it, not spinning it. Rather, your aim is to discover (or rediscover) what the public connected with about your brand in the first place … and rebuild from that bedrock.

This starts with comprehending the emotional weight of what happened — really holding it and empathizing with those affected. Once you do this, a shift in the story is possible, one that is powered by meaningful momentum and revealed as visible growth. Ensuring that the brand’s values are being upheld will give consumers renewed trust in your mission and motives, which is the basis of everything that comes after.

When does trust come back? When your words and actions match. Not just once, but over and over again. It is in that space of concurrence where the healing happens.

When a crisis befalls a public figure or entity, the spotlight can feel unforgiving. Even before the facts are fully known or a statement has been crafted, followers start voicing their disappointment. Questions in headlines start generating more questions. And brand handlers start second-guessing everything they’re planning to do, as fearful of making a misstep as of the initial calamity itself.

What’s really at stake? Brand trust. And it’s such a valued commodity because, in our social media driven marketplace, it’s what every public person or company relies on most to secure their place in their industry.

Given the importance of brand trust, it’s no surprise that shaping it and sustaining it is a core component of my field of public relations. And one of the most critical lessons I’ve taken from the field is how to rebuild trust when it’s been damaged or is under attack.