What at first may appear to be just a customer relations problem can quickly and without notice become a PR crisis. FedEx recently had such an experience, but they also had the wherewithal to recognize the problem and quickly react to it.
Over the holidays FedEx tossed a box containing a computer monitor into a customer’s yard. Unfortunately for the deliveryman the action was caught on a security camera. While many people in similar situations might have taken the video to customer service to prove what happened, this particular consumer decided to take matters into his own hands and posted the video on YouTube. Cue the PR crisis music.
To FedEx’s credit, they not only identified the video early on but they responded to it – immediately and honestly. In fact, they fought fire with fire. From creating their own YouTube video to developing a blog posting that accompanied the video, the company proactively communicated about how upset, embarrassed and sorry they were about the incident. Just as importantly, they said how they were addressing the problem including what they were doing for the customer and how they were using the video in employee training to help ensure the incident wouldn’t happen again.
The lesson?
- View all customer relations problems through a PR crisis lens. More specifically, think about whether the issue can expand into a bigger problem due to social media exposure.
- Don’t ignore the problem. Acknowledge it quickly and take responsibility.
- Apologize sincerely and honestly.
- Communicate within the same framework as the crisis happened. In other words, if it originated via social media then respond via social media.
Remember, it’s highly likely you’ll be judged more on how you handle the problem vs the problem itself.
Written by: George T. Sopko
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