Category Archives: Reddit

Walmart’s iPad Abuse Crisis

Published on 27th November 2012 by . Leave a Comment

Ugly employee actions create reputation management crisis for retailer

We’ve seen a growing number of YouTube-based crises created not by the actions organizations themselves, but those of employees. Domino’s was one of the first high profile cases, and this month Walmart joined the list.

Four employees of a Pikeville, Ky. Walmart thought it would be simply hilarious to seek out and destroy boxes of brand new iPads before they go on store shelves. One young man even tells the camera, “This is why you don’t buy an iPad from Walmart. See, we like to throw s***.”

Have a look for yourself:

The video actually came into the public eye via an anonymous submission to a Reddit user, who posted it on the site where it quickly shot to the front page and drew thousands of comments.

Obviously this is is not a crisis management issue in the sense of the company doing something wrong, but regardless of who is at fault the reputation damage had serious potential to harm Walmart. If the public were to latch onto the assumption that they’re likely to go home with a pre-broken iPad or any other product when purchasing from Walmart, it could drive sales down.

Walmart left no opportunity for that, however, immediately firing everyone involved and pushing this message containing a nice dose of humanity out to news outlets like NBC:

“We’ve seen the video of several nightshift associates destroying merchandise in the back of one of our stores in August and, as anyone can image, it made us wince,” a Walmart spokesperson tells NBC News in response to inquiries about that clip. “We are also embarrassed.” She adds that the “associates involved no longer work for Walmart.”

In another wise move, Walmart chose not to attempt to wipe the video from the web. It’s very clear to anyone viewing that the actions of those four employees are not accepted Walmart practice, and making it easy to find online helps to vindicate the retail giant in the court of public opinion.

Heading into the holiday season the last thing any retailer wants is a reason for consumers to head to the competition. Walmart did an excellent job of stopping this crisis before it got out of control.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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Alleged Delta Employee’s Reddit Posts Create Crisis Management Stir

Published on 23rd July 2012 by . 1 Comment. Click to add yours.

Respond when your reputation’s threatened

The popularity of social media has certainly opened up organizations to new types of crises. For a perfect example, take a look at how a poster on Reddit.com, claiming to be a Delta Airlines employee, responded to a complaint about poor baggage handling:

“People get pissed off when their luggage gets busted up. Oh, you jam packed you’re [sic] suitcase with 70 lbs. worth of s–t? Well guess what, so did everyone else. All those bags are coming out on the carousel at the same time. I’ve seen bags literally explode because of the pressure on them.”

The same poster went on to answer questions in a spectacularly blunt manner regarding Delta policies on bending the rules for frequent flyers, late departures, and more, speaking with enough conviction to be taken seriously by other users.

Social media platforms like Reddit or Twitter, which allow users to remain anonymous, are the perfect grounds for disgruntled employees to drag their employer through the mud. Of course, the poster could just as easily have been an employee of another airline, or just a random denzien of the ‘net trolling his little heart away.

Delta either didn’t catch the story on Reddit or chose to duck down and hope it blew over, but it quickly grew legs when it caught the interest of major ‘net and several traditional media channels.

What should Delta have done? It couldn’t force the poster to reveal their identity, or delete the offending posts. It also couldn’t say 100% for certain that this person isn’t a Delta employee. What Delta could have, and should have done, is to issue a statement to the effect of, “these statements are not true, here are our actual policies, if you have any questions please contact…”

In the eyes of the vast majority of people who heard the story, Delta’s refusal to respond was as good as verifying the posts as truth. Defending your reputation is an essential part of crisis management. Neglect it, and the court of public opinion will deem you guilty as charged.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

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