PR Crisis Radar

PR Crisis Radar: practical plan

First-hour incident response

0–15 minutes: contain and verify

Name an incident lead, preserve reports and batch identifiers, pause affected inventory if safety or quality risk is plausible, and route to the responsible quality and legal teams. Record what is known, unknown and still being checked. Do not speculate about cause or scale.

15–30 minutes: assess exposure

Confirm product, batch, dates, distribution, complaint count and severity. Check support, returns, retailer and quality records. Identify potentially affected customers through authorized systems and follow applicable reporting requirements with qualified counsel.

30–60 minutes: prepare

Draft customer guidance with a direct contact path and next update time. Ensure frontline teams receive the same verified facts. Assign a spokesperson and approval owner.

Holding statement

“We are investigating reports about [product/batch]. We have paused [specific activity, if confirmed] while our quality team reviews the information. If you purchased [identified product], contact [verified channel] with [batch detail]. We will share an update by [time].”

Update only after facts are verified. Preserve records, avoid blaming customers, and escalate immediately if credible injury or regulatory concerns emerge.

Measurement and review

Record the baseline, source, date range, denominator and owner. Use one primary measure plus quality guardrails; compare like-for-like cohorts and disclose missing data. Treat estimates as scenarios, not observed outcomes.

Risks and controls

Check relevance, consent, disclosure, workload and downside before scaling. Keep an evidence trail, obtain human review for material commitments, and pause if trust, quality or compliance signals deteriorate.

Next steps

1. Confirm the goal, audience and available capacity.
2. Gather the minimum evidence for a first test.
3. Assign an owner, budget and review date.
4. Run a small pilot, record outcomes and decide whether to iterate, expand or stop.