Maintaining Customers During a ‘Clean’ Food Safety Crisis

“Engaging in the conversation will assist a company in identifying current and potential problems and help them assess trends,” Brus says. “Communicating in a vacuum during a crisis puts you at a real disadvantage. A crisis doesn’t have a definitive end point in a consumer’s mind. He or she needs continued and authentic assurances that the situation is being taken seriously and being resolved.”d

Implementing these steps during a crisis will help key stakeholders continue to have trust in your brand. While not all customers will be bothered to begin with, and not all of those customers who leave will come back, an effective crisis communications strategy will help ensure a company doesn’t lose as many investors, employees, and customers. “If you take communication as seriously as operational decisions, it’s not as big of a hill to climb,” adds Brus, “to maintain brand loyalty in the wake of an issue.”