Mohit Aggarwal 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.