Our Work
The Three Phases of Crisis Communications
- Anticipation: The Comprise team thinks of this phase — crisis preparedness — like building a communication savings account. We help organizations develop positive, sustained brand narratives and earn positive coverage, creating a communications buffer or safety net before potential challenges. A proactive approach like this establishes credibility that can be “withdrawn” during difficult moments.
- Action: When a crisis strikes, every communication matters. Guided by The Comprise Formula™ to crisis communications — ownership, empathy and repair — our response team springs into action, identifying relevant stakeholders and communications priorities before crafting messaging that balances strategy and transparency to address immediate and evolving needs.
- Analysis: In the aftermath, we don’t just wipe our foreheads and move on. We conduct comprehensive postcrisis audits, identifying what worked well, what didn’t, strengths and potential vulnerabilities to flesh out refined strategies for future preparedness. And then the cycle starts over.
Companies sometimes deflect, saying, “This wasn’t our fault” or “That’s not what our CEO meant.” But we believe the best approach is to own it, understand why folks are upset and make the situation right.
The (Hypothetical) Results
Imagine a technology company’s CEO makes an ill-advised social media post dismissing concerns about artificial intelligence bias that big industry outlets began to pick up. Traditional responses might involve denial (the classic “my account was hacked”), deletion, defensive responses or radio silence from the company.
Our approach? Take ownership, show empathy and repair the problem.
- Ownership: Acknowledge the mistake directly, admitting the post was wrong, dismissive, technically incorrect and failed to acknowledge legitimate concerns about bias in AI systems. Take responsibility.
- Empathy: Demonstrate a genuine understanding of the potential negative stakeholder impacts, from divestment in your company to losing customers or worse. Follow up recognizing researchers, advocates and community members working to make AI more equitable, acknowledge their work and validate others’ experiences.
- Repair: Develop a concrete plan that outlines specific, actionable steps to meaningfully correct the issue. In our example, consider hosting a webinar with leading AI ethics researchers to discuss the topic, donating money to study and mitigate algorithmic bias, implementing mandatory training on AI ethics and bias, etc.
Why this approach works: By directly acknowledging responsibility for the mistake, recognizing the potential impact and taking concrete actions to fix it, this company can transform a potentially damaging incident into a catalyst for positive change. Heck, showing this level of maturity might even strengthen stakeholder trust beyond precrisis levels.
The Results
The art of successful crisis communications is like a long-snapper in football — you only notice when something goes terribly wrong. The best crisis comms teams precisely execute their craft so that the work remains invisible to casual observers while underpinning overall success.
The Comprise Way® to crisis communications delivers what matters most:
- Managing media and protecting — sometimes even improving — brand reputation on 100% of our crisis communications projects.
Beyond metrics, the true value lies in proactively preparing for something that might never happen. And if it does, you can transform potential reputation threats into opportunities for actual stakeholder connection through meticulous preparation, strategic response and continuous refinement. We help organizations maintain their stature and occasionally emerge stronger than before. Because in crisis communications, the best stories are often the ones that don’t make headlines.