On April 13, 2009, two employees of a franchise of Domino Pizza in Conover, N.C. shot a video of themselves performing unsavory and unhygienic acts while preparing food, and then posted the video on YouTube. (The video has since been removed from YouTube) Within two days, the video was seen by more than a million YouTube viewers and generated more than 300,000 comments, significantly impacting Domino’s customer satisfaction and reputation. Within 2 days, the CIO of Domino posted its own Youtube video apologizing and assuring Domino’s public that this was an exception and assuring customers that the 125,000 company employees were dedicated to Domino’s delivery of high quality food products. The two employees in question were facing legal action in addition to losing their jobs. In addition, Dominos can now be found on Twitter, promoting their brand along with Pizza Hut.
There were several lessons to be learned about customer satisfaction, reputation management and the impact of Social Media.
- Companies need to monitor Social Media and blogs for negative comments.
- Companies need staff to monitor social media 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, on holidays and weekends.
- Companies need an escalation process to alert management and handle these kinds of situations quickly, measured in hours or a day.
- Ensure employees are aware of their responsibilities and the impact of careless acts.
- Companies need to be ‘ready’ to deal with social media, which means they know what the key social media sights are and how they work, how to thrive using them and how to deal with unexpected incidents.
See the reference article at: http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Social-Networking/Twitter-for-Pizza-Pie-Purveyors-Embrace-Social-Media.html.
