Domino's online crisis report card

Much has been written about the Domino’s Pizza PR fiasco that erupted earlier this week.

Given the hideousness of the videos and velocity with which they spread, Domino’s Corporate Communications team deserves a B+ for how they handled it.   

What Domino’s Did Well

Rapid Response: On Tuesday, April 14 – less than 24 hours after the videos were uploaded to YouTube – a Domino’s spokesperson was engaged in email correspondence about the issue with the website Good As You (the first site to re-post the videos after YouTube removed them). You can read the initial communication from the Domino’s spokesperson here.  The company’s sense of urgency was evident.  

Open Communication: Domino’s could have remained silent until the culprits were located and legal action had been taken, but instead the company communicated openly with media while the facts were still being gathered.  This is critical in today’s half-second news cycle.  Not speaking up would have led to the community interpreting the facts, which would have generated more misinformation and negativity.

Action & Commitment: Domino’s posted an apology video on its official YouTube channel on Wednesday, April 15.  The video described the action that Domino’s had taken (e.g. employees fired, warrants issued for their arrest, store shut down and sanitized, re-examining hiring practices).  Additionally, Domino’s posted a statement on its corporate site on Wednesday.  According to the company spokesperson, Domino’s chose not to post the statement to its consumer site because millions of people view it every day, if only to order a pizza. Such an approach ‘would be like putting out a candle with a fire hose.’”  I see the spokesperson’s POV, but the fact is that these videos were no longer a candle – they were a full-on inferno.  Still, I think they made a good judgment call at the time.  

Leveraging Social Media:  I also like how Domino’s quickly made use of social media sites like YouTube and Twitter to get the word out.  Using YouTube is a best practice during a crisis (also see this Jet Blue example) because it attracts the largest eyeballs and other Web sites (mainstream sites, blogs, etc) can easily embed and share the video with their readership.  An important point: Domino’s already had a YouTube channel established, which saved them valuable time.  

What Domino’s Could Have Done Differently

Proactive, 24/7 online monitoring:  Domino’s didn’t know about the videos until consumers alerted them.  The company could have saved time had they had an aggressive social media monitoring program in place. 

Broader Social Media Presence:  With the exception of YouTube, Domino’s didn’t have a presence within social media sites.  Word of mouth about the videos was largely fueled by Twitter.  Had Domino’s already been active on Twitter, they could have caught the issue even sooner and worked to address the negative discussions.  Domino’s has since created an official Twitter channel to manage the issue. They even posted a tweet saying “We realize we should have been here sooner, but we're here to stay.”  Regardless, it’s impressive that they were up and running on Twitter in a matter of hours.  

Overall, the Domino’s team did an outstanding job this week.  Between this and the recent botched promotion where Domino’s gave away 11,000 free pizzas, something tells me they will be getting an A+ the next time a crisis bubbles up online.