While Google is still blushing from last week’s unfortunate Greggs incident, it is Greggs’ itself we should be turning to for crisis-management inspiration.

Through no fault of their own, the team at Greggs had to deal with a surprising crisis and whilst it’s not that unusual for things to go wrong from time to time in business, increasingly when they do go wrong it’s in a very public way. That publicity is often a sink or swim situation: if played wisely the public’s attention provides the opportunity for a brand to show off its true character. We can all look to Greggs to show us how it can become a positive experience for any brand.

Firstly, Greggs deserve a lot of credit for addressing the problem quickly and proactively. The social media team did a fantastic job of joining in on the joke and engaging with those who were commenting on the story as it spread across the internet. At the same time, behind the scenes, it’s clear they were actively working to fix the prominence of the logo on Google. It’s something we’ve seen time and again with online reviews – so often a piece of negative feedback or commentary can be turned into a positive by businesses that deal with it in a direct and authentic way.

Having handled the immediate crisis, Greggs went on to do something really interesting – they continued to publicise what happened, comically designing their own Google Doodle made out of pastries and laughing along with sympathetic customers on Twitter. Arguably it’s a dangerous strategy but it’s a sign of a very savvy company that understands its customers and what they are interested in.

As the fake-logo suggested there is certain percentage of the population who will never eat at Greggs but these are not the customers Gregg’s savvy tactics are aimed at winning over. The vast majority of us are pretty open minded about where we get our coffee and sausage roll and actually are more likely to feel affinity to a brand that proudly owns a situation like this one.

 

By Jan Vels Jensen, CMO at Trustpilot.

PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.

comments powered by Disqus