Page 113 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

4
9 94 Crisis Communication

company suspected that the partial finger had actually been
placed there by the accuser. Unable to prove that immediately,
the dilemma faced by the company was described by the
company’s CEO:

In the early hours of this crisis, we were faced by demanding
questions and choices. The Wendy’s brand and our reputa-
tion as a quality restaurant were at stake. And just as impor-
tantly the livelihood of our employees was at risk.

Because of the grim ‘discovery’, Wendy’s soon became fodder
for jokes on Jay Leno’s Tonight show. The San Jose outlet saw its
business fall by 50 per cent. The customer made it clear she was
considering a lawsuit.
The company took the first step of crisis management by gath-
ering the relevant facts. Without the facts to back it up, the
company would have experienced a major negative reaction
had it voiced its suspicion that a customer had placed part of a
finger in the chilli bowl. The company gave its employees lie-
detector tests and checked suppliers’ safety records to assure
itself that the finger segment had not been served in the chilli
bowl.
Within 24 hours, the company was confident that it had been
the victims of a ruse. Yet it still faced a public relations dilemma
and decision. It could settle quietly with the customer and
perhaps slow the torrent of negative press and jokes on late
night television, or hope that law enforcement would successfully
reveal the fraud and blackmail.
Schuessler writes, ‘It might have been expedient to pay off the
accuser in an attempt to end the media onslaught – after all that
is the preferred capitulation in the trial lawyer-driven age.’ The
company says it never considered doing so and sought to work
with the police to uncover the fraud.
The offer of a reward of $100,000 for information on the
investigation was a wise PR crisis management move. In doing
so, the company shifted the focus to finding information that
would exonerate it and implicate the accuser. The reward also
demonstrated the company’s confidence that it was in the right
from the beginning and its belief that it would be cleared of
responsibility for the grotesque ‘discovery’.
The short-term problem might have been finessed by paying
off the accuser, but the longer-term implications for a firm such