Chipotle has brought on a new PR firm to help it navigate its way out of its foodborne illness crisis, but until it hammers out apparent issues with procedure in its locations around the country no amount of effort will lead to a recovery.
When a Chipotle in Billerica, Mass. closed March 8, some PR pros were quick to applaud Chipotle after the location in question was quickly closed down and sanitzed. However, reports from some sources point to a more concerning chain of events.
First let’s look at the statement emailed to media outlets by Chipotle PR Director Chris Arnold:
“Health inspectors visited our Billerica, Mass. restaurant today and found it to be nice, clean, and in great shape, which is consistent with the perfect health inspection score of 100% this restaurant received less than a week ago, on March 3. The health department was impressed by Chipotle: our paid sick leave policy, our procedures for excellent sanitation, and our proactive approach to making certain that no one worked while sick. We look forward to opening tomorrow.
“We closed the restaurant on Tuesday after four of our employees — none of whom worked while sick — called to say they were at home and not feeling well. There are no confirmed customer illnesses connected to this incident.”
Sounds like a proactive response, so what’s the issue? The issue is that norovirus isn’t addressed merely by keeping sick employees home. They might have caught the illness from a visiting customer – who contaminated every surface he/she touched, if norovirus was the cause agent.
According to a report from USA Today, the Chipotle location in question “initially opened its doors on Tuesday and only closed them after he [director of the Billerica Board of Health Richard Berube] sent an inspector to the store because his office was alerted to the potential outbreak by Boston’s local television news station WHDH.”
Restaurants are not required to notify the Board of Health when workers have contagious illnesses, Berube told USA TODAY. “It probably would have been in their best interest to notify us, considering they had a confirmed case of norovirus,” he added.
Not notifying local authorities and attempting to open despite clear indication there is some type of contagious illness circulating in the restaurant…is this the behavior of a brand that’s committed to putting consumer safety first?
If Chipotle can’t hammer down procedures to the point where direct threats to customers are dealt with swiftly and appropriately it can never hope to recover from the reputation damage its taken. The sheer power of the brand has carried it this far, but at some point the hurt becomes too great for even the best of crisis management to repair.
The BCM Blogging Team
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com