In the food industry, customers’ health and safety are on the line; any recall situation can turn bad. Every brand manager should treat a recall as a crisis even if nothing bad has happened yet. Taking steps in a recall will protect your brand and persuade your fans to stick with you during and after the crisis.
General Mills recently recalled 10 million pounds of flour after health officials traced 38 E. coli cases to contaminated flour. General Mills also took steps that might have averted a more serious crisis.
Here are three lessons we can learn from its product recall:
1. Have your game plan ready.
The biggest mistake is believing a crisis could never happen to you.
Have a game plan in place before a crisis. Think about scenarios and prepare template press releases, social media posts and blog posts for the crisis. Know who will speak to the media, who will answer questions online and where customers can ask questions and voice concerns.
RELATED: Keep your cool during a crisis with these 13 tips.
General Mills quickly responded with a press release that detailed every known fact, including where people could go with more questions.
2. Be honest and transparent.
There’s nothing worse than being dishonest with the public, especially in a crisis.
General Mills pulled its flour from stores without any hard evidence that its flour was making people sick. The company said that as a precaution, it would pull its flour until health officials determined the cause—showing that it values the health and safety of its customers.
General Mills also specified which of its flours might have E. coli and where the reported cases were.
The public must trust your brand, or they won’t stick around.
Voluntary recall of Gold Medal, Gold Medal Wondra, and Signature Kitchens flour https://t.co/pkRBjcr9mk
— General Mills (@GeneralMills) May 31, 2016
3. Look for education opportunities.
General Mills reminded the public that flour is a natural ingredient made from wheat. When an ingredient originates outside, there is always a risk of bacteria. When flour is baked, fried or boiled, the bacteria is killed.
General Mills also reminded customers to never eat raw dough and to clean all baking surfaces and utensils before and after use—a great example of committing to customer safety while providing useful information to them.
Use a crisis to remind your customers how to properly use your products and services, and avoid backlash when a crisis hits.
The way brand managers handle crises can determine how customers and fans react to them. General Mills is a perfect example of handling a recall with clear, comprehensive communication. What other lessons can you take from their efforts?
Mary Stankiewicz Is an account coordinator at Belle Communications. A version of this article originally appeared on the agency’s blog.
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