Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2012 | Page 26

damage

Grow Market Lead

By Eddy Goldberg

c ntr l
Crisis management takes planning,
managing, and communicating

“What seems to have changed is a couple
of yahoos in a pizza joint sticking cheese
up their nose can threaten a global
brand.”

T

hat comment, attributed to a
Nightline reporter in 2009,
neatly summarizes a growing problem facing franchise
brands in 2012: how to manage their
brand’s reputation—both online and
off—in the 24/7 crucible of news, online
reviews, and social media.
“He’s right, that’s exactly what can happen,” says Rhonda Sanderson, president
of Sanderson & Associates in Chicago.
“From the top of the food chain to the
bottom of the food chain, what control
do you have hiring $9 an hour kids?”
No matter how good your training
is, controlling the behavior of all your
front-line staff all the time simply is
not possible. And for most customers,
their only exposure to and experience
of your brand is your front-line staff.
That’s one big reason franchisors should

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Franchiseupdate Iss u e II, 2 0 1 2

have damage control policies in place—
before a potentially disastrous event occurs that affects the reputation of their
brand. And that’s one of the reasons
they hire PR firms.
“Our job,” says Brad Fishman, CEO
of Fishman Public Relations in Northbrook, Ill., “is to protect the franchisor
and the franchisee—to protect the brand.”
“The best crisis communication is
being prepared,” says Lorne Fisher, CEO
and managing partner of Fish Consulting
in Hollywood, Fla. As a former boss used
to tell him, “Bad things happen to good
companies. It’s just a matter of when.”
And when that “when” happens, having an up-to-date plan ready to go can
make all the difference between being
buffeted by events and the media, and
taking control of the situation to protect
your brand’s reputation.
The world is moving too fast and
there simply are too many people posting online in too many places to keep
up. And with YouTube-ready cameras
and video recorders everywhere, every

minor incident has the potential to spiral
out of control through the megaphone
of social media… at which point events
take on a life of their own. Not what you
want to happen.
Crisis management and damage control can be divided into three basic parts:
planning, management, and communication. First, have a plan (and a team)
in place. Second, manage the situation
(e.g., if it’s contaminated food, remove it
immediately and begin an investigation
into its source). Third, commu