Real-Time Reputation Management: Assessing the Domino’s Debacle

Much has been written in the past week on this blog and others about reputation management and the Domino’s Pizza YouTube horror.  Let’s recap what happened and what we can learn.

 

Situation

As many witnessed early this week, two rogue and less than sophisticated Domino’s Pizza employees videotaped themselves doing some pretty disgusting things to an item being prepared for a customer.  The video was posted to YouTube, over a half a million people watched it, dozens of bloggers posted, hundreds more tweeted and the two employees were given their walking papers.  The video has since been removed from YouTube, but needless to say some nefarious “boogers” were involved.  Not that a pound of melted cheese and roasted pepperoni slices the size of a small frisbee are all that healthy either, but I digress.

One of the primary issues resulting from this incident was demonstrated in Google.  For at least two full days this week, visitors who searched for “dominos” found this (see listing #3 smack dab in Google’s golden triangle). 

Today, the listing is still there.  Thankfully for Domino’s and their hundreds of franchisees around the country, the YouTube video is no longer viewable.

 

Resolution

As noted, Domino’s has successfully removed the video in one way or another from YouTube.  The employees have been relieved from their snot-slinging post.  Letters have been written to those who first made this issue public.  The company has also setup an impromptu Twitter account, @dpzinfo, to deal with questions and issues arising from this incident on a one-to-one basis with customers for all to see.  Here’s their first tweet on Wednesday morning:

And a Tweet from just last night:

Finally, Domino’s  President Patrick Doyle has delivered a well-scripted, apologetic monologue which can also be found on YouTube and the company’s corporate Web site.  Doyle notes that “nothing is more sacred than our customers’ trust”, “we are re-examining our hiring practices to make sure that people like this don’t make it into our stores”, “we have auditors in our stores across the country ensuring our stores are as clean as they can possibly be”, and that “it sickens me that the actions of two individuals could impact our great system.”  What’s more, a link to Doyle’s video now ranks just below the original in Google search. 

Fhew!  All is put to bed, right?  Not really.  In the video Doyle also notes, “it’s not a surprise that this has caused a lot of damage to our brand.”  Well, no kidding.  Lyrics from the venerated Neil Young come to mind: Damage Done.  For many of us who saw the video, the brand will be regretably associated with this poor soul for a least a little while:

 

How Could They Have Done Better?

With respect to the actions taken by Domino’s and their communications team, they should be commended.  The YouTube apology itself was very well done and placed in appropriate venues where the issue first came to light.  The company followed a standard practice for responding to these types of negative circumstances.

1. Apologize but make no admission of fault (Doyle’s first line in the video is a thoughtful apology, and he goes on to berate the actions of two immature individuals who are to blame)
2. Details on how the organization is dealing with this problem (firing the misfits, using quality control auditors and reexamining hiring practices)
3. Move on and look forward to the future (thanks for support and working to regain trust)

The issue what we and several other social media pundits have with the response by Domino’s is not the actions themselves but rather the time in which they were enacted and the clear lack of planning.  For example, why did it take 48 hours (the equivalent of a social media millenium) to remove the booger flic from YouTube?  If Domino’s were active in the social media space, which every large organization whose brand is well known by millions of customers should, they would not have to rely on “the online community.” Frankly, they should have already been members of this same community.  Tools like Radian6 and Spiral16 allow companies to patrol and police social media spheres for the purpose of perpetuating a positive brand reputation.  Why did it take two numbskulls with a video camera to force Domino’s onto Twitter?  If in fact Domino’s had someone committed to this medium, it’s not outside the realm of possibility to believe the problem could have been resolved in 48 minutes. 

So what have we learned?

• Have a Plan.  Again, I’m a bit shocked that a gigantic organization like Domino’s with a massive marketing budget has yet to really plan for these types of issues.  They responded well, but their timing indicates they were not prepared.  Just as companies have emergency preparedness plans for on-site violence, scandal and other controversies, those plans need to coalesce with the online realm.
  
• Embrace Speed.  It takes no time (and apparently not much effort) to damage a brand.  However, all attempts to do damage should be assuaged rapidly.  There are tools that allow marketers to located destructive content in real time.
  
• Be Involved.  As witnessed by this example, companies large and small that do not take part in the digital discourse can suffer the consequences.  Doyle said it best: “we thank members of the online community who quickly alerted us.”  Because of this incident, Domino’s Pizza is not apart of that community.  They’ve posted to YouTube, they’ve communicated with bloggers and citizen journalists, and they’ve created a customer-service oriented Twitter handle.  Control may be an illusion, but it is impossible when you have no measures in place to attempt to attain it.  Case-in-point: you can’t afford not to be involved.
  

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