Chipotle to retrain staff after second bout of foodborne illness

Is employee retraining a good crisis PR move?

Several organizations have turned to this tactic after a PR crisis battered their reputations and threatened their relationships with consumers. Most memorably in 2018, Starbucks closed thousands of stores for a day of racial-sensitivity training.

Now it is Chipotle’s turn, as fears of foodborne illness have resurfaced for the burrito chain. Local health officials announced that improper food storage had resulted in the poisoning of over 600 people in a Powell, Ohio, location.

NPR reported:

Local health officials say a bacteria known as clostridium perfringens caused the outbreak. It is commonly found in beef, poultry, gravies and dried or pre-cooked foods that "are prepared in large quantities and kept warm for a long time before serving," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC says the bacteria affects nearly 1 million people each year. The infection is not contagious and people usually recover in a day or two, according to Reuters.

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Chipotle’s answer is to retrain employees on proper health and safety standards—leaving consumers to wonder what instruction employees were getting before.

NPR continued:

"Chipotle has a zero-tolerance policy for any violations of our stringent food safety standards and we are committed to doing all we can to ensure it does not happen again," CEO Brian Niccol said in a statement published by USA Today.

"Once we identified this incident, we acted quickly to close the Powell restaurant and implemented our food safety response protocols that include total replacement of all food inventory and complete cleaning and sanitization of the restaurant," he said.

The outbreak in Ohio is the latest of several in recent years that have hit the restaurant chain that sickened hundreds of customers.

For some the move is too little, too late:

De ja vu?!? How many REtraining sessions is Chipotle going to have??!! Never eating there again. Wow! https://t.co/jTrcovfLZ8

— TS (@Tskrome) August 17, 2018

Others voice skepticism about the retraining’s effectiveness:

Sounds good, but retraining is seldom the answer. Changing behaviors is really not that simple. What we know does not always equal what we do. https://t.co/Emad2yXkmb Food Safety = Behavior. https://t.co/QbNheoVABp

— Frank Yiannas (@frankyiannas) August 17, 2018

Some say the real problem is a lack of basic smarts:

Nearly 650 got sick because employees at Chipotle don’t know how to handle food. Idk if retraining them will help cos some of this stuff is just lack of common sense. https://t.co/O0LW6sDlEp pic.twitter.com/vxryIsknqT

— LilEsBella 👶🏽💃🏽💅🏽 (@LilEsBella) August 16, 2018

This isn’t the first time Chipotle has tried this tactic. The chain closed all its locations nationwide in 2016 to go over basic food safety. (Stores will not close for this effort.) After the information failed to stick last time, many are skeptical of this round’s benefit.

Here are some lessons from Chipotle’s announcement:

1. Take responsibility.

When it comes to consumer health and safety, you must admit where you have fallen short and promise to do better. Attempting to shift the blame, deny the facts or ignore consumer concerns will make your brand look callous.

Buzzfeed shared a statement it was emailed; parts of the statement are troubling.

It read:

Chipotle has a zero-tolerance policy for any violations of our stringent food safety standards and we are committed to doing all we can to ensure it does not happen again. Once we identified this incident, we acted quickly to close the Powell restaurant and implemented our food safety response protocols that include total replacement of all food inventory and complete cleaning and sanitization of the restaurant. While this incident impacted only one restaurant, Chipotle Field Leadership will be retraining all restaurant employees nationwide beginning next week on food safety and wellness protocols. To ensure consistent food safety execution, we will be adding to our daily food safety routines a recurring employee knowledge assessment of our rigorous food safety standards.

Additionally, the health department did not identify the food source.

And for training, we are retraining all employees next week during their shifts on our top food safety priorities. We are not closing the restaurants. Then to ensure ongoing execution and compliance, we are adding to our food safety routines a recurring online employee knowledge assessment of our food safety standards.

Although health officials have yet to pinpoint the source of the bacteria that poisoned consumers in Powell, Ohio, throwing the fact out there looks like Chipotle is trying to evade scrutiny. Take responsibility for your actions. If certain facts are unknown, leave them out and focus on what you are doing to improve consumers’ lives.

2. Point to positive actions.

The statement does a good job of pointing to actions Chipotle will take to improve. All good crisis response statements should include a list of actions to prevent further mishaps. The clearer and more forthright your statement can be, the easier it will be to start rebuilding trust. Say exactly what you will do, and follow through.

3. Don’t minimize the incident.

You might want an incident to blow over, but your PR crisis is a big deal for consumers. They feel they have been wronged, and any attempt to minimize the incident will only leave disgruntled customers feeling unheard and underappreciated.

How does Chipotle’s statement stack up, PR Daily readers?

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