Don’t Wait to Communicate Challenges: Decrease Chaos, Increase Trust by Educating Your Customer
What if you had a blackout, but you weren’t inundated with angry phone calls and negative social media posts from upset customers?
It’s possible. But only if you start communicating before the next outage strikes.
Because here’s the truth: In today’s climate, where grid reliability is stressed and skepticism is rising, your customers are already nervous. One uncommunicated or misunderstood disruption, and the goodwill you’ve built over the years can vanish in seconds.
Anger spreads faster than outage updates, and your cooperative becomes the target of frustration, not the source of reassurance.
Now is the time to change that.
The grid: We already know the situation
In the energy industry, the most common crisis is when the lights do not turn on. By all accounts, the risk of this happening in the U.S. is only increasing.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment lays it out clearly. Demand is rising at a rapid pace, and new energy sources do not provide power as reliably as customers have come to expect.
“Operators in many parts of the [bulk power system] face challenges in meeting higher demand this summer with a resource mix that, in general, has less flexibility and more variability,” the report states.
Communicate Now
Knowing that the risk of blackouts and brownouts is increasing, the time to communicate is now, not during or after it happens.
How do you want people to feel when that crisis occurs?
- “I trust them. They will restore my power.”
- “I was aware this might happen, and I can handle this.”
- “They have been planning for this problem, and they know what to do.”
- “They have my best interests at heart.”
These are all feelings you should be building in customers before a problem arises through positive, repeated communication. The midst of a crisis is not the time to reveal your plan for dealing with a crisis. At that point, you should be telling them what they already know.
You build trust through honesty and transparency, and you repeat your messages in all forms of communication, including advertisements, newsletters, local news media, presentations, social media, a booth at the county fair and any other form of communication you already employ.
Do not let an opportunity pass to improve trust and create more knowledgeable customers. Build these concepts into your current communication plans.
Topics should include:
- Challenges facing your cooperative and the cause of those challenges.
- Steps you have taken and are taking to meet those challenges.
- The things you cannot control, such as weather, regulations, etc.
- How you plan to respond in a crisis.
- What you need to be successful.
We know how to do this.
At Paulsen, we’ve helped rural cooperatives, energy providers, and member organizations establish trust before the storm. We’ve:
Built consistent PR campaigns to reframe energy narratives and reduce misinformation during industry scrutiny
Equipped cooperative staff and ambassadors with tailored social media training and message toolkits, ensuring their voice matches their values
Developed strategic message frameworks for complex, multi-stakeholder industries—translating technical challenges into customer-friendly communication
Leveraged paid media and programmatic targeting to ensure the right people get the message at the right time, whether that’s rural customers or the next generation of decision-makers
Whether it’s a blackout, a drought, or a policy shift—we can help you prepare your audience with calm, clear, and confident communication.