Top 3 Crisis Management Wins in The Food Industry
Have you ever wondered how do companies deal with crisis? Let me give you an example and you think of a solution. Imagine that you own a two Michelin star restaurant that has become one of the best in the world and you’re serving around 150 people a day. All you care about is your customers, employees, and food. Then one day everything goes downhill and 70 people get food poisoning after eating one of your dishes. Media starts bashing your life work saying that your staff has poor hygiene which is traced to fecal matter. The truth is you’ve served oysters that day and they might be the cause for people to be feeling sick, but after the circulation of such negative story in the media there is no way anyone would listen to the truth. I mean who would eat in a restaurant that is known for serving shit on a plate by dirty people? Now stop everything and think about ways of solving this crisis.
It’s hard I agree, but if you ever read or studied anything about crisis management you should know that prioritizing customers and admitting your mistake is a good start. What I would do in this situation is immediately apologize publicly to the people that have been affected by our food and ensure the public that we will trace the source of the infection. Well that example isn’t made up. The other day I watched this beautiful documentary Noma: My Perfect Storm. It’s owner Rene Redzepi did all of the things above; he apologized, said he will find the source of the infection, redesigned interior of a restaurant and filmed the process of making food. That example is number 3 on my list of crisis management wins.
Number 2 on my list would be the latest KFC crisis. KFCs all over UK ran out of chicken and let me tell you, everyone who enjoys their fried chicken raised hell. Some customers even called the police. FCKed up situation I agree but here is how their PR experts solved the issue…
“We’re sorry. A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It’s not ideal,” the ad said. “Huge apologies to our customers, especially those who traveled out of their way to find we were closed. It’s been a hell of a week, but we’re making progress, and every day more and more fresh chicken is being delivered to our restaurants. Thank you for bearing with us.” Best apology ever and yes I’m a big fan of their fried chicken.
Number 1 on my list is Odwalla Foods’ Apple Juice E. coli outbreak and it happened in 1996. Unfortunately, one child died and 60 people were taken sick. The worst thing that can happen to any food company is an E. coli outbreak. So how did the company respond? In my humble opinion I believe that their CEO Stephen Williamson dealt with the crisis by following the rules of a good crisis management. He promised to pay for medical bills, products were recalled and the company spent the next few months focusing on relations, taking out full pages in newspapers for explaining the situation as an example.
Remember, whenever you want to solve a crisis, admit your mistake, apologize, and take care of the people otherwise – well you know – you’re FCKed.
Written by Ariana L. Yassen
Sources:
http://johnfehlen.com/young-mountain-men/
