What PR pros can learn from Google's response to worldwide outage

If you tried logging on to Gmail this morning, sadly the popular email platform was not working.

What [really] wasn’t working?

The tech giant’s response to the the outage.

According to the NYT:

A Google spokesman had no immediate comment about what was causing the outage.

The WSJ reported they were not able to reach Google:

A spokesman for Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Considering that this type of outage has happened in the past, I was surprised to see Google did not have a comment ready to go for a moment like this.

The lesson learned: Once a PR crisis happens for your company, learn from it and be ready for the next one. Having a statement ready for the press is a great starting point.

Mark Pasetsky is the CEO of Mark Allen & Co., a PR firm based in NYC, which helps companies navigate challenging PR crises.