---
title: Crisis Communications Is a Moment of Truth for Trust
description: Crisis communications and reputation management are PR on defense. Done well, they not only protect your reputation; they enhance it.
---

[The Trust Signals Blog ](https://www.trustsignals.com/blog)

# [Crisis Communications Is a Moment of Truth for Trust](https://www.trustsignals.com/blog/crisis-communications-is-a-moment-of-truth-for-trust)

 Written by [Scott Baradell](https://www.trustsignals.com/blog/author/scott-baradell) | Jul 28, 2020

Like [reputation management](https://www.trustsignals.com/blog/reputation-management-is-pr-playing-defense), crisis communications is PR playing defense. I've worked crises ranging from workplace shootings to scandalous lawsuits and more, and the stakes are never higher when it comes to a brand preserving buyer trust.

I'm sometimes asked, *"What's the difference between [reputation management](https://www.ideagrove.com/approach/reputation-management) and crisis communications?"* My answer is that it's like baseball: when a pitcher faces a homerun hitter with a tie score in the bottom of the ninth, that's either going to be a crisis or a crisis averted. When a pitcher ends the season with a low or high ERA, that pitcher has earned either a good reputation or a bad one.

The biggest crisis I've faced in my career was a doozy. It was a [tech outage that affected millions of Americans](https://www.ideagrove.com/blog/this-too-shall-pass-crisis-lessons-from-1998s-great-pager-outage), and I was the face of that crisis for two full days -- on TV, in print and online. It was exhausting but rewarding. When you handle a crisis well, the halo effect for your brand can be powerful.

[Read the full story of the "Great Pager Outage" for some specific lessons learned. ](https://www.ideagrove.com/blog/this-too-shall-pass-crisis-lessons-from-1998s-great-pager-outage)

And learn more about Idea Grove's [reputation management practice](https://www.ideagrove.com/approach/reputation-management).

[View full post](https://www.trustsignals.com/blog/crisis-communications-is-a-moment-of-truth-for-trust)

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