As Kevin Allen writes for PR Daily: “It seems like every day we could report on another PR crisis hitting some unfortunate brand. But what’s the real effect of these crises, and how long do they typically last? Social media monitoring company SDL took a look at three brands that faced a PR crisis since social media has become ubiquitous — United, Nestle, and Dominos — to find out how long it took each to recover. The results are compiled in the infographic below. As you can see, it took some (Nestle) longer than others to recover its positive online sentiment. But hey — at least they all recovered.”
Take a look at the infographic published by Entrepreneur.
The Nestle, Dominos, and United examples show how a company can make terrible PR moves, and what they do afterwards to try and save face. Internet mentions and activity can make stories spread like wildfire, so how fast or how much the company can recover is important. For instance, Nestle’s attempt to censor their mistake, rather than accept it and act upon it like the other two, caused them to take much longer to recover from the crisis.
I find this information really interesting. The number of complaints on social media sites can indicate a problem within the company. In these new times, a company can use this to it’s benefit; they are able to respond quicker to potential problems. It also shows that companies that are receptive to criticism recover faster than those who don’t pay attention to it.
I find these graphs very interesting. I think that all of the companies had a big crisis to deal with, but they all dealt with matters differently. Nestle, in my opinion, had the biggest crisis. They also took longer to respond to the problem, so they recovered slower than United and Dominos. Dominos took initiative quickly and aired an apology video, and took legal action. this was very smart of dominos because it showed the consumers that they took care of the issue, and that it wont be happening again. United solved their problem by giving out Starbucks gift cards, which made consumers happier. I think that united should have reimbursed the person for the guitar, and the issue would have been solved.
It is great to see that companies try to do things to make things right (Dominoes, United) and listen to their customers’ complaints. It is important to realize how fast information can spread on social media websites and how powerful of a tool social media can be to spread information (whether good or bad). A company that reacts quicker to negative PR will earn the respect of their customers back sooner. Everyone makes mistakes and if you (as a company) acknowledge a mistake and try to make up for your error, people will continue to buy your services and products because they will trust you.
It’s important for companies to build customer loyalty through follow ups and after care once a service/good has been purchased. Not only should companies empower their employees to go above and beyond for the customer but companies should be accountable for their actions at all times. As for Nestle, trying to cover up their mistake….it’s understandable given that it makes them lose money…but then again why make promises they cant keep on the nature of a product…. Thankfully they were able to bounce back from it but they shouldn’t have had to in the first place.