Page 86 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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Calamities 67

to requests from parents. To ensure its customers received the
best attention in its stores, Superquinn employed more people
per premises than any of its rivals. The business benefit was that
it was able to sell fresh goods at a premium price.
Its charismatic owner, Feargal Quinn, had established an
international reputation in the industry and, as a result, he intro-
duced many innovations in customer service from around the
world. He went on to become a respected Senator in the Irish
Parliament and wrote a best-selling book, Crowning the
Customer. The innovation and positive reputation that
Superquinn had acquired was to be crucial when fire struck, not
once but twice.
Within 12 hours of the fire in its Blanchardstown store – it
happened in the middle of the night and as a result there was no
loss of life – the board of Superquinn had moved to implement a
range of actions. The first decision was to demolish what
remained of the store and rebuild from the ground up. Two
factors influenced that decision. One was the need to preserve
its reputation for freshness. While it could have continued to
trade in the part of the store that was not damaged by the fire, it
believed that its reputation for freshness would be difficult to
sustain in that environment. The second factor was that it had
been considering a revamp of the store and had drawn up plans
for this.
Superquinn decided on a number of actions to preserve as
many jobs as possible while the rebuilding was underway. It also
had a communication programme to keep the local community
informed of progress. Both of these actions became inextricably
linked and helped retain a high level of customer loyalty.
Many Superquinn employees were transferred to its other
stores in the Dublin area and others continued to work on the
Blanchardstown site in what was a stroke of genius in retaining
business. A temporary office was erected in the car park of the
demolished premises and a fleet of small coaches hired.
Customers were offered the opportunity to travel by coach to the
nearest Superquinn store to Blanchardstown, which was in
Finglas, about three miles away. For those whose grocery order
would be too large to carry to and from the coaches, Superquinn
had staff on site who would take the customer’s order, travel to
Finglas and return with the necessary order. This had the benefit
of offering customers a viable alternative to transferring their
custom to Quinnsworth or Dunnes and secured employment for