Delivering the details on crisis management straight to the public via YouTube
Baton Rogue, Louisiana-based Kleinpeter Farms Dairy has been chasing the source of mysterious issues with their milk products for months. Despite a quest that saw outside consultants hired, equipment replaced, employees removed, and the help of an actual dairy scientist, consumers continued to return the milk en masse, and wholesale customers continued to drop Kleinpeter as a supplier.
How was this costly mystery resolved? Kleinpeter CEO Jeff Kleinpeter put it all out for the public to see in the following YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J5HXCHkLI8&list=UUnpp4iXxZzzv2Yu9sqTE0NA&feature=share
An admission of fault, an explanation of what happened and how it will be prevented in the future, and a way for stakeholders to ask questions or find more information – not to mention the late-night investigative work. Not bad crisis management, Kleinpeter.
The two things that could have improved this video would have been a tall cup of compassion and some material amends. If Mr. Kleinpeter had started off with something like, “We know you’re careful about what you put into your bodies, and we here at Kleinpeter would like to apologize for any concern we may have caused”, the entire video would have been that much better received. Combined with some sort of deep discount and/or giveaway of product to compensate customers for the inconvenience and worry, that apology would have packed a wallop.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]