Crisis management lax following incident
This past Friday, Applebees restaurants encountered a world of trouble when employees at one of its Detroit area locations allegedly served tequila mixed with apple juice to a 15-month-old child in, and this is the kicker, the child’s own sippy cup!
While it’s very possible that this was the result of an individual’s actions and not the restaurant’s protocol, the public will still look to Applebees for answers. One part of crisis management that the restaurant chain has certainly got down its holding statement, as you can see in this quote from a PRDaily article by Michael Sebastian:
The manager reportedly apologized to the mother, while Applebee’s corporate office emailed this statement to a reporter at WDIV in Detroit:
“Obviously any situation like this is unacceptable and we take it very seriously. We are working with local authorities and conduction [sic] our own investigation so we can assess exactly what happened.”
Twitter is abuzz with tweets about the incident. The company’s official Twitter account has responded, tweeting this message (or some form of it):
“Obviously any situation like this is unacceptable. Working w/ local authorities & conducting own investigation. Thanks.”
Getting this message out there is good initially, but being the third day since the incident it’s far past time for holding statements. Applebees has nothing on their Facebook or main website addressing the issue, and continues to echo the same exact response to anyone who Tweets about it as well. The restaurant would do well to start communicating, or the situation will only get worse as rumor fills the gap instead, leading to reputation damage and lost or alienated customers.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/
Comments 3
What a careless thing to do! Applebee’s should be thankful that the child didn’t suffer serious harm from this incident. Clearly, the company’s policies and procedures relating to alcohol need to be closely examined, and the people responsible need to be fired!
I agree completely that this is way past time for holding statements. Especially since something nearly identical happened at an Applebees in 2007. https://consumerist.com/2007/06/applebees-serves-toddler-margarita-in-a-sippy-cup.html
You would hope they would remember the minutes of the last meeting. Nice post.
It looks like Applebees has pulled its head out of the sand and is finally doing things right, stay tuned for a post about the quick turnaround.