A look inside how USAA navigated comms when the government shutdown began

During Ragan’s Crisis Communications Virtual Conference earlier this year, Lewis Pryor, senior assistant vice president of public affairs at USAA, said that crisis comms often start internally before the general public ever learns of any issues.

“We serve the military community with over 14 million members who either wore the uniform or are family of those who did,” Pryor said. “So that’s a mission we take very seriously. And when things are affecting the community that we serve, it’s really important that we’re building trust, and trust goes inside out.”

Pryor talked about the lack of clarity that swirled ahead of the government shutdown last fall and addressed the need to firm up certainty.

“We saw the uncertainty coming through in our call centers as members were calling in, trying to figure out how they’re going to be able to pay their bills, feed their families and just sustain their livelihood,” he said.

When addressing the crisis, Pryor said that his team reached out to both employees and USAA members simultaneously.