Oil Shortage Puts Thai Businesses and Brands at Risk of Losing Customer Trust: Must Communicate Early, Clearly, and Consistently

The impact goes far beyond lineups at Thai petrol stations. Customers are worried about shortages of essential products such as pharmaceuticals and raw materials for manufacturing. They need to plan for price increases, rising operating costs, and logistical disruptions.

In March 2026, Thailand's Ministry of Energy reported that over 50% of the country's crude oil imports came from the Middle East via the Strait of Hormuz. This leaves Thailand vulnerable to Middle East conflicts and oil shipping disruptions. Even after the Middle East situation is resolved, experts predict it will take months for oil shipments to return to normal.

According to Wisesight data, over the past month, online conversations based on keywords such as "วิกฤตน้ำมัน" (oil crisis) and "ของขึ้นราคา "(rising prices) have increased significantly, reaching over 2.2 million mentions (an average of 57,000 mentions per day) and generating more than 156 million engagements. Over 40% of the sentiment is classified as negative, indicating that cost-of-living pressures have become a closely watched issue among consumers.

"The oil shortage is also about maintaining customer trust and relationships. It presents a significant opportunity for brands to communicate with transparency and clarity to help alleviate consumer concerns and build long-term trust," said Seri Sirinopwongsagon, Executive Director at ABM Connect.

"In the Answer Economy, customers ask AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Claude how a business is dealing with the oil shortage, or whether price increases are fair. Businesses must provide clear, simple and factual information that is helpful to humans and that AI answer engines can find, understand, and cite in their responses," he added.

ABM Connect's guidance is based on more than three decades of crisis communications experience helping its clients deal with hundreds of crisis and issue situations in Thailand.

"Businesses in Thailand should follow the principles of good crisis communications. It's better to maintain customer relationships by being transparent, rather than letting customers speculate, get annoyed, or quietly look for new suppliers," said Seri.

What Different Customers Need to Know About the Oil Shortage

• B2B customers: Focus on continuity, pricing, and operational impact. They expect a business partner to provide specific information such as product, parts, and service availability; alternatives; expected duration of shortages; and pricing changes.
• Consumers: Focus on pricing, availability, and fairness. They are more open to brand switching. Brands should explain price increases to consumers using facts and show which costs the business is absorbing rather than passing on.

During a prolonged crisis, maintaining customer trust depends on transparent, consistent communication and visible customer commitment. A business that stays silent seems like it doesn't care about a customer relationship or may even be hiding something.

How businesses should communicate during the Oil Shortage

ABM Connect outlines four basic rules:

1. Communicate early. Don't wait for complaints, rumors, or customers to leave. Be proactive to get ahead of any disruption to availability, pricing, delivery, or service by telling customers about it.
2. Lead with empathy. Start communications with how the situation affects your customers, not your own business. This reduces frustration and maintains trust.
3. Use facts and realistic timelines. Name the affected products or services. Use plain language, real numbers, and honest timelines. Customers handle the truth better than vague information.
4. Separate what you know, expect, and don't know. ABM Connect's three-bucket message framework clearly divides information into what is confirmed, expected, and uncertain. This stops businesses from overpromising and reduces confusion and speculation.

Make crisis updates easier for AI answer engines to find and cite

Seri explained that crisis messaging must work for both people and machines. "Content about the impact of the oil shortage on customers should be visible on the front page of a business's website as a special section or a link to another page. Keep it simple, as AI answer engines favor content that is easy to process and trust."

To improve AI visibility and citation during a crisis, information should:

• Use question-based headings that match real customer queries, followed by a direct answer that uses simple and factual writing
• Include exact dates, numbers, and affected products
• Keep company, brand, product, and spokesperson names consistent across all channels
• Add "last updated" timestamps to all crisis content
• Include a FAQ section and focus content on disruption and the company's response
• Never bury critical information in graphics or image-only posts.

Companies that delay communicating risk losing trust

"Businesses and brands that don't communicate about the impact the oil shortage has on their customers may end up losing them by the time the situation returns to normal. Those that are proactive, explain things clearly, and provide consistent updates are better positioned to protect customer trust, maintain their loyalty, and be considered credible sources in both traditional media and AI answer engines," concluded Seri.

For businesses interested in assessing their AI communication readiness with an AIO Readiness Audit, please visit www.abm.co.th

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