Preventing the next communications crisis

Context: This insight came out of conversations at MB (LIVE) last week in Chicago, where senior comms leaders discussed how to make the function more essential.

Zoom in: Josh Earnest, United Airlines EVP for communications and advertising, said one of the biggest "unlocks" has been strengthening the link between communications and operations teams.

• If United's social intelligence team sees a passenger complaining about a bad experience while they're still in the air, comms can flag it to operations and have someone waiting at the gate to acknowledge the problem and try to fix it.
• "The issue is in many cases it's not just the bad experience; it's how we react to it," Earnest said. Most customers, he added, "just want to feel seen."

Between the lines: This level of work requires strong communication and collaboration across multiple teams — comms can lead, but can't do it all.

• Adam Collins, Reddit's CCO, stressed that when criticism starts piling up on Reddit, the first question shouldn't be how to manage the Reddit problem.
• "The first question shouldn't be 'what's happening in this platform?' It's 'what's happening that's making our consumers frustrated?'"

Case in point: Collins pointed to the Sonos subreddit, where company reps — and most recently, even the CEO — actively engage with the community to rebuild trust after a messy app update in 2024.

• The value wasn't just in showing up and offering bland "we're listening" statements.
• Instead, Sonos reps could answer with real operational information, explain what was being fixed and relay what they were hearing from customers back into the company.

Zoom out: The proactive approach applies to the public sector, as well.

• Medicaid eligibility changes are rolling out over the coming weeks, which means officials from Cook County Health are moving quickly to inform the community and prevent people from losing coverage.
• Nick Shields, chief external affairs and civic engagement officer for Cook County Health, said the organization has focused on building relationships with churches, community groups and other partners to share accurate information before the changes go into effect.
• "What you don't want to do when the crisis comes is be at a place where you are making these relationships," he said. "You want to do it at the breakfast table, and not at the bedside."

The bottom line: Comms used to get called in to help clean up the mess, but there's growing value in putting communicators close enough to the business to help spot the problem before there is one.