Reputation is often treated as a communications responsibility. When something goes wrong, the PR team is expected to explain it, manage the response and protect trust.
But most reputation problems don’t start in PR.
They begin with a delayed customer order, a data breach, a poorly handled complaint, an unpopular workforce decision or a supplier that hasn’t met the standards the business claims to uphold.
By the time communications is involved, the issue may already be public.
Reputation risk often travels under another name
Inside a business, a potential reputation issue may be described as an operational delay, an IT problem, a staffing matter or a supplier dispute. Each description may be accurate, but it can hide the wider impact.
For example, a cybersecurity incident isn’t only a technology problem if customer data is exposed. A redundancy decision isn’t only an HR matter if employees begin discussing it publicly. A late delivery isn’t just an operational problem if customers have made commitments based on the original date.
People rarely separate (or interested in) the internal cause from their overall view of the business.
The Willis Reputational Risk Readiness Report 2026 reflects this wider picture. Cyberattacks were ranked among the greatest reputational concerns by 67 per cent of respondents. Supply chain labour practices and other operational issues also featured prominently.
Reputation risk cannot be managed by watching media coverage and social media alone.
Communications needs to move upstream
This doesn’t mean communications should approve every business decision. It means the team should be involved early (emphasis on early) enough to consider how a decision may be understood by customers, employees, partners or the media.
Consider a business planning to change an important customer service policy. Operations may focus on efficiency. Finance may look at cost. Legal may check the contractual position. Communications brings another question: how will customers interpret the change? That perspective may help the business adjust the decision, prepare clearer information or brief customer-facing teams before complaints begin.
It is far easier to reduce a risk before a decision is announced than to repair trust afterwards.
Map five decisions that could affect trust
A useful exercise is to identify five operational decisions or events that could become reputation issues:
- A cybersecurity incident involving customer or employee information.
- A product, service or delivery failure affecting several customers.
- A workforce decision that may cause concern.
- A supplier problem involving quality, working conditions or continuity.
- A governance or compliance issue that may attract regulatory or media attention.
For each one, identify who owns the operational response. Then ask: Who should inform communications? When should that happen? What facts and evidence will be needed?
The trigger shouldn’t be “when a journalist calls”. It might be when several customers are affected, when personal data may have been compromised or when the business can no longer meet a public commitment.
Share the quieter warning signs
Major incidents rarely appear without some indication that something is wrong. Repeated complaints, unusual staff turnover, missed supplier deadlines or changes in online conversations may all provide useful clues.
As we pointe out in The Early Warning Signs Every Brand Should Watch, these signals become more useful when teams share what they are seeing.
For a small business, this doesn’t require another committee. A short monthly conversation between leadership, operations, customer service, HR, IT and communications may be enough.
Communications cannot fix a poor decision after the event. But when it is involved earlier, it can help the business understand how that decision may affect trust, what evidence will be needed and whether the organisation is ready to stand behind it publicly.
