Crisis Management Update

Bad things happen to good companies. It's a fact of life. How the situation is handled after the initial incident is frequently more important than the incident itself. Does the CEO try to hide when reporters appear? Does the public relations department issue statements containing the words "No comment" in them? Is the company's official spokesperson suddenly their lawyer? Do they point the finger at someone else - or even worse, totally ignore the situation and hope it goes away?

Or, does the opposite happen?

Recently, the fast-food giant Wendy's was rocked when Anna Ayala claimed that she found a part of a finger in her chili. She even filed a lawsuit against Wendy's. After taking an immediate "finger count" of all its employees and suppliers, management went on the offensive. They worked closely with local authorities, hired private investigators, set up a hot line for tips and offered a $100,000 reward for information. More importantly, they gave frequent interviews, providing status reports on the situation and reassuring customers that their food was safe.

Ayala's claim was proven to be a hoax. She dropped her lawsuit and was arrested on a charge of attempted grand larceny. This is not to say the restaurant didn't suffer. Many locations saw a large decrease in their sales. It cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, but business is returning to normal. However, if they had buried their heads in the sand and refused to comment, the impression to many would have been that they were hiding something.

In Denver, a truck accidentally dropped several boxes of screws onto the highway. Fortunately, no accidents occurred, but over 40 cars had multiple flat tires. In most situations like this, the driver might have either driven on, ignoring the situation - or not even realizing what happened. However, this driver stopped and made sure everyone was OK. He then called tow trucks and paid for all the repairs! While this was undoubtedly a very expensive undertaking, the negative publicity if the driver had not responded could have easily cost the business much, much more.

With our regards to Erich Segal, while love may mean never having to say you're sorry, the words "I'm sorry" may be two of the most important words in your business vocabulary. It's important to remember that "I'm sorry" doesn't mean "We're to blame." It does mean that they have empathy and understand the gravity of the situation. Good crisis management often begins with those two words.