As Online Criticism Spreads Faster, Trust Remains A Business’s Greatest Asset

Businesses that have spent years doing the right thing often have a better chance of recovering because people remember more than just one incident

A customer uploads a video after a disappointing experience. An employee shares a personal story online. A business responds to a complaint with the wrong choice of words. Within hours, the conversation spreads beyond those directly involved. Strangers begin sharing their opinions, screenshots circulate across multiple platforms and before long, the business finds itself answering questions from every direction.

This has become one of the realities of doing business today. In an age where information moves fast, businesses can find themselves under public scrutiny before all the facts are known.

This growing challenge was among the topics discussed during a panel session at Taylor’s University in conjunction with World PR Day, where PR academics and industry practitioners exchanged perspectives on the impact of cancel culture and what it means for businesses operating in an increasingly connected world. As the discussion unfolded, it became clear that the conversation was about far more than being “cancelled”. It was about trust, and how quickly years of credibility can be tested when public confidence begins to fade.

Many business owners assume that one mistake is enough to destroy everything they have worked so hard to build. In reality, most people understand that mistakes happen. Products fail, employees make poor decisions, and businesses occasionally get things wrong. More often than not, what shapes the public’s opinion is not the incident itself, but the way the organisation responds afterwards.

History has shown this time and again. Some businesses have recovered from major public criticism and continued growing, while others have struggled to regain public confidence despite significant efforts. The difference is rarely the size of the mistake. It is usually the quality of the response.

That is where many businesses find themselves under pressure. When criticism spreads quickly online, there is an expectation to respond just as fast. Some organisations rush to defend themselves before understanding the full situation, while others remain silent, hoping the issue will fade away. Unfortunately, neither approach guarantees a positive outcome.

People generally understand that it takes time to investigate an issue. What they find difficult to accept is a response that appears defensive, inconsistent or disconnected from the concerns being raised. In many cases, the public remembers the response far longer than the original incident. A business that communicates honestly and acknowledges that it is still gathering the facts often earns more respect than one that speaks with certainty before knowing the full picture.

The discussion also highlighted how social media has changed the pace of public conversations. A single post can generate thousands of comments within hours, creating the impression that everyone shares the same opinion. In reality, the loudest voices are not always the majority. While businesses should pay attention to public sentiment, reacting emotionally to every online comment rarely leads to better decisions. Listening remains important, but thoughtful judgement matters even more.

Perhaps the most meaningful takeaway from the discussion was that reputation is rarely built during a crisis. It is built quietly over time through everyday actions that often go unnoticed. It grows when businesses keep their promises, treat customers fairly and handle difficult situations with honesty. These moments may never become headlines, but together they shape how people perceive a business long before it faces its first public challenge.

For entrepreneurs and business owners, this may be one of the easiest investments to overlook. Many focus on expanding their customer base, launching new products and increasing revenue, all of which are essential for growth. Yet trust is often treated as something that will naturally follow, rather than something that needs to be earned consistently through actions.

When a crisis eventually happens, people rarely judge only what happened that day. They also remember every previous experience they have had with the business. They remember whether promises were kept, whether complaints were handled fairly and whether the organisation consistently demonstrated integrity when nobody was watching. Those memories often determine whether customers choose to stay or decide to walk away.

Public opinion will continue to evolve as technology changes and conversations become even faster. New platforms will emerge, trends will come and go, and businesses will continue facing greater public scrutiny than ever before.

Trust, however, has never changed.

It still takes years to earn, can be tested in a single moment, and often becomes the deciding factor in whether a business is given a second chance.

Long after the headlines have disappeared and social media has moved on to its next conversation, trust is often the one thing people remember.