Mar. 03, 2007

More on Rats in the Restaurant

By Graham Hill, Customers & More

In my recent post on Honey We've Got Rats I suggested that YumBrands ought to have been better prepared for the fallout when rats were shown on the morning news having a party at a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant.

How right I was.

As Ben McConnell at the Church of the Customer blog points out in a March 1st posting, things have got out of hand for Yum Brands. In the past week, 27 videas have appeared on YouTube and over 600,000 people have looked at them. I don't even want to think about the negative word-of-mouth that this has generated and the likely reduced footfall into TacoBell & KFC restaurants.

But Yum Brands hasn't been totally asleep at the PR wheel. It's CEO has produced an on-line video apology (but it hasn't posted it to YouTube) and closed a number of restaurants operated by the offending franchisee.

First Dell Hell and now Taco Bell Hell! It just goes to show the power of social networks and in particular, their power to get bad news out fast. All companies need to be aware of this power and be prepared to tackle it head on should a PR disaster happen. And happen they will.

What do you think? Are social networks going to keep companies on their feet? Or has this been blown out of all proportion?

Post a comment and let's get the conversation going.

Graham Hill

0
No votes yet
 
graham_hill's picture
Graham Hill is the founder of customer management consultancy Customers & More. He has more than 20 years of experience in customer-driven change programs with companies of all shapes and sizes. He can be contacted at graham(dot)hill(at)web(dot)de. [Blog: Customer Insider]
»

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
 
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <br> <img> <em> <i> <b> <u> <hr><strong> <table> <tr> <td> <th><ul> <ol> <li> </li><font><blockquote><sup> <colspan> <rowspan>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
  • Images can be added to this post.
  • You can use BBCode tags in the text, URLs will automatically be converted to links.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

MarketPlace

Customer Service as a Differentiator: The Road to Excellence at Overstock.com

Companies are beginning to realize they don’t have the option of ignoring the quality of their customer’s experiences. Overstock.com realized that customers want service that is excellent, regardless of which channel is used. But they had to overcome some serious obstacles on the road to excellence. Read their story.

New Research Report: Customer Experience Maturity Monitor

Discover the five levels of customer experience maturity, ranging from Limited Capability to Experiential Master. Find out where your company stands, and explore what it takes to move from the base level to the peak. Download free research report here.

Selling the "New Consumer" with Smart Conversations, Not Blind Automation

Learn how to engage your customers in a great cross-channel conversation that will set your company apart. CustomerThink founder/CEO Bob Thompson reveals his latest research on the multi-channel buying experience, and Lisa Abbott of Genesys explains how to solve cross-channel challenge.

Four Strategies to Shift Your Support Center from Surviving to Thriving

With an economic upturn on the horizon, it's time to focus on how to gain a sustainable competitive edge. In this webinar, contact center guru Bill Price reveals how to improve the customer experience, reduce operational costs and retain top technical talent.

TCE (Total Customer Experience) Model Building e-Workshop for Financial Services Providers

[August 27, 09:00-10:30 GMT] This program is designed to help Marketing, Sales and Service Executives of Financial Services Providers to build a TCE model to monitor, manage, and enhance the total customer experience across multiple channels and touch-points throughout the whole customer lifecycle.

Global Customer Experience Management Certification Program

[Sep. 30-Oct. 1, Paris] Learn cutting-edge CEM methods from a team of international gurus. This 2-day course applies CEM essentials, strategies and methodologies on Marketing, Sales and Services; provides a framework with relevant guiding principles and tools for designing the best experience to your customers.

Featured Links

CEM Training and Certification

Patent-pending methodologies combine the art and science of Customer Experience Management.

On-Demand CRM Software

Use RightNow solutions to create the best possible customer experience while reducing costs.

Get your event or resource listed in the MarketPlace, reaching 300,000 business leaders monthly.
For more information, contact CustomerThink advertising sales.