Reputation Recovery

Build a phased reputation recovery plan after a crisis — from damage assessment through stakeholder communication, trust-rebuilding actions, and sentiment tracking.

When to Use This Skill

• Post-crisis reputation rebuilding (product recall, data breach, PR incident)
• Trust restoration with customers, employees, investors, or public
• Designing accountability communications (CEO apology, incident reports)
• Stakeholder-specific recovery planning with prioritized outreach
• Tracking recovery metrics against pre-crisis baselines

Methodology Foundation

Aspect	Details
Source	Edelman Trust Barometer, Burson reputation recovery frameworks
Core Principle	Trust rebuilds through actions, not words — transparency, accountability, competence, then character, in that order
Recovery Phases	Stabilize → Acknowledge → Act → Communicate → Measure

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

Claude Does	You Decide
Designs phased recovery roadmap with timelines	Investment level and resource allocation
Drafts stakeholder communications and apology frameworks	Spokesperson selection and timing
Creates measurement dashboards and recovery criteria	Acceptable recovery timeline
Prioritizes stakeholder groups and actions	Which initiatives to fund

Instructions

Step 1: Assess Reputation Damage

Build a damage baseline across key dimensions:

Dimension	Pre-Crisis	Post-Crisis	Gap
Trust score	—	—	—
NPS	—	—	—
Brand sentiment (% positive)	—	—	—
Media tone	—	—	—
Customer retention	—	—	—

Validation checkpoint: If you lack pre-crisis baselines, estimate from industry benchmarks before proceeding.

Step 2: Map Recovery Phases

Phase	Duration	Focus	Exit Criteria
Stabilize	Weeks 1-2	Stop the bleeding, full accountability	Crisis chapter closed, compensation launched
Rebuild	Months 1-3	Demonstrate concrete structural changes	New processes in place, advisory board active
Demonstrate	Months 3-6	Build track record, earn positive coverage	3 months positive media, trust at 80% baseline
Sustain	Month 6+	Long-term reputation building	Meet all recovery completion criteria

Step 3: Prioritize Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Priority	Key Concern	Approach
Customers	P1	Trust, safety	Transparency + compensation
Employees	P1	Job security, pride	Internal comms + involvement
Investors	P2	Financial impact	Recovery plan + milestones
Partners	P2	Association risk	Assurance + collaboration
Regulators	P2	Compliance	Cooperation + prevention
Public	P3	Values alignment	Actions over words

Step 4: Execute Trust-Rebuilding Actions

Apply the trust-rebuilding sequence (order matters):

Action Type	Examples	Timeline
Transparency	Full incident report, public updates, data access	Immediate
Accountability	CEO apology, personnel changes, compensation	Week 1-2
Competence	New processes, third-party audits, team expansion	Month 1-3
Character	Values-aligned initiatives, sustained behavior change	Ongoing

CEO apology framework: Direct acknowledgment → What went wrong → What we've done → What we're doing → Personal accountability → How to reach us.

Step 5: Track Recovery

Metric	Frequency	Target
Brand sentiment	Weekly	Return to baseline
Trust score	Monthly	80% of pre-crisis
NPS	Monthly	Return to positive
Media tone	Weekly	Neutral → positive
Customer retention	Monthly	Pre-crisis rate

Recovery completion criteria:

• Trust score at 90% of pre-crisis level
• Customer retention at pre-crisis rate
• 3 consecutive months of positive media tone
• NPS back to positive

Examples

Example: Product Safety Incident Recovery

Input: Product safety incident, 3 weeks in crisis mode, 30% trust drop, 15% churn, issue resolved.

Recovery roadmap:

Month	Phase	Key Actions
1	Stabilize	CEO video apology, full incident report, compensation program, employee town hall
1-3	Rebuild	Safety team +3 hires, external advisory board, quarterly third-party audits
3-6	Demonstrate	Public safety reports, customer testimonials, thought leadership content
6+	Sustain	Ongoing transparency reports, industry standards participation

Projected timeline: 6-9 months to full recovery with aggressive action.

See TEMPLATES.md for communication templates (CEO apology script, milestone update emails, stakeholder briefing outlines).

Skill Boundaries

What This Skill Does Well

• Creating phased recovery roadmaps with concrete timelines
• Designing stakeholder-specific communication strategies
• Defining measurable recovery criteria and dashboards
• Prioritizing trust-rebuilding actions in effective order

What This Skill Cannot Do

• Access real-time sentiment data or social listening feeds
• Know the specific details of your crisis without input
• Predict exact recovery timelines (every crisis is unique)
• Replace legal counsel or professional crisis management firms

References

• Edelman Trust Barometer — annual trust research
• Burson Reputation Recovery — crisis framework
• Weber Shandwick Crisis Recovery — communications methodology
• Harvard Business Review — trust research

Related Skills

• crisis-detector

  — Prevention and early warning

• response-coordinator

  — During active crisis

• social-listening

  — Monitoring recovery sentiment