It started of with how a pastor refused to give the automatic 18% tip with an additional comment that reads “I give God 10% why do you get 18?”. Applebee’s then decided to sack a worker, which then lead to a social media crisis for them. Before I write my review, I just want to make it clear that I am not going to talk about the whole not giving tip issue or whether it’s fair or unfair for the worker to be fired, but I want to focus on how the failure to handle a company’s social media could harm a company’s image.
I think Applebee’s mistake is not because they fired Chelsea, it’s the fact that they didn’t practice what they preach. Chelsea was fired because she took a picture of the receipt and uploaded online which according to Applebee’s she had violated a customer's privacy. But two weeks earlier - before the Chelsea’s case occurred, Applebee’s violated the privacy rule themselves by posting a note from a guest that complimented them which at the picture clearly showed the guest’s name. The best part is, Applebee’s actually deleted the post when Chelsea’s case went viral. So it is not a surprised when they tried to clear things up by posting a status on their official Facebook page, it went backfired.
Another mistake is when they decided to respond to the 17,000 comments on their status (mostly negatives) by commenting on that status, instead of updating a new status. And it was commented on 2.53 am. Yes, 2.53 am. Which resulted to an immediate reaction.
Which is a good point. The fact that the comment was posted on 2.53 am (I just have to repeat the time again because it was such a rookie mistake) makes it looks worse.
The third mistakes that they did was when they decided to remove all the negatives feedback that they got after that comment and better, they actually blocked few accounts too. At this stage, they made an impression that they just want to get it over with, instead of actually addressing the issue. Which just caused more anger to the publics. The fourth mistake is by being in denial. They denied the fact that they deleted people’s comment. Another mistakes they did were, when they tried to address some people that commented, by copy and paste the same message to few people.
Personally, I think their biggest mistake was when they decided to delete and blocked few peoples from their Facebook account, and being in denial about it. In my opinion, when you are dealing with a crisis, running from a problem will only make things worse. Which is what I assume what Applebee’s tried to do when they deleted people’s comment. Yes, in some cases in denial might be the answer but not in this case though. Not in the social media world. The advancement of technology has allowed people to save everything that people had said in the Internet. As a Social Media Innovator & Strategist, Jure Klepic once said – “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, what happens on Twitter stays on Google Forever”. Well in this case, what happens on Facebook, stays forever. Which is why deleted people’s comment and being in denial about it, is an amateur mistake.
This just shows how failure to manage the company social media site could only tarnish the company’s reputation. Not only that, this article shows how social media could cause controversy in a split second or in Applebee’s case, in one night.
To conclude my review, I believe that it is important for a company to have a team that can take charge of the company’s social media site well to avoid such calamity. In my opinion, the issue wasn’t that big at first because to be fair, the worker did something that can be consider inappropriate because it did cause an embarrassment towards the customer. But the fact that Applebee’s could not handle the issue well just made them became an Internet laughing stock. Worse, based on the comment left by their customer – it is understood that they have lost their regular customer too. Because of a bad PR team, Applebee’s is no longer the apple of everyone's eye (pun intended).
Written by,
Syahmi AR
Based on the article written by R. L. Stollar, 2013
hi everybody, i think i agree with syahmi's opinion which is their biggest mistake was when they decided to delete and blocked few peoples from their Facebook account, and being in denial about it. they must know how to handle this kind of problem or crisis in professional ways. they cant just deny and run away from this problem. if they know how to solve this problem with a professional ways, these problems will solve and not be severe. they also do not use social media well to face this problem.
ReplyDeletehello everyone! handling crisis via social media need more effort to put into it as internet is now just on our finger tips, everyone will know as in five seconds. everyone make mistakes but how they facing and managing their mistakes is the point now. We as a future public relations that are now already in the public relations 2.0 world, should aware and alert towards how we handling crisis in the most challenging world nowadays.
ReplyDeleteAssalamualaikum and hello FIVEsees! Read at a glance on this article, i can highlight a few of sentences that already show about their bad PR skills.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, "Chelsea was fired because she took a picture of the receipt and uploaded online which according to Applebee’s she had violated a customer's privacy".
Secondly, "they decided to respond to the 17,000 comments on their status (mostly negatives) by commenting on that status, instead of updating a new status." It is a sort like dealing a crisis with unstable emotion, it can be worst if they started to curse the commenters.
Thirdly, "they decided to remove all the negatives feedback that they got after that comment and better, they actually blocked few accounts too." It is really unprofessional. This case should not be happened.
Next mistake is by being in denial. I am agree with Syahmi, you need relax and deal with the crisis carefully and do not running from the problem! The problem unsolved, other problems arise instead.
To be frank, if Syahmi had not wrote a review regarding this issue, I wouldn't have known about it. But wow, this is some real PR backfire. The social media comeback that Applebees made after the incident was just very immature and sounds like some attention seeking girl I have in my Facebook friend list (which reminds me to delete her from FB). But yes, commenting at the wee hours of the morning, replying comments instead of posting a new status, those are just poor, poor PR and crisis management.
ReplyDeleteAnna
assalamualaikum 5c..
ReplyDeleteEvery company should handle crisis carefully, this is because now, everything includes the negative and positive side will be posted in social media, in fact it will be uploaded after a moment the problem happened, . this would definitely cause a problem. it will affect the reputation of the company. i agree with syahmi, it is important for every company to have a team of PR in charge, to handle issues and crisis.
every company need a feedback, if they received bad feedback, they need to handle it in a positive way. the problem is this Applebee's did it unethically, that's the matter. deleting accounts and comments will not solve the problem, sooner or later, it will create another problem.
Well, this is some interesting issue. For me, firing Chelsea is not the best way to handle the crisis. In my opinion, keeping her working there will be a great move as public would love to see the people involved, publicly. The stupid mistake here by the PR team were the deleting comment and blocking users part. Plus, making it more interesting, posting status at 2am. It will be more appropriate, if a company really wanted this crisis to fade away, they should not do anything and hoping that the public will forget about the issue.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I would like to comment on Syahmi's last sentence on this review , aha nice one friend. Secondly, I would like to say that based on my friends' comments, I think we have a pretty good discussion here. I agree with Anna's comment when she said that Applebee's action was immature. I mean deleting and blocking people from their facebook account ? Come on, the actions not only reflected how panic Applebee's was , but also made the company look coward from the public's eyes. It's a really bad move when a company appears coward because it gives the perception to the public that the company is guilty. Although from my opinion, firing Chelsea was kind of relevant, I just think that what Applebee's need to do was, after addressing the issue and setting the record straight to the public in another status at times that are more appropriate where everyone could see it, they should probably distract public attentions by posting stuff that promotes positive things about Applebee's especially in terms of employee relations and customers' privacy. Even though there are some PR efforts by the Applebee's, it seems like their PR efforts had fail to satisfy the public and had handle the crisis poorly.
ReplyDeleteMy my, how powerful the new media in spreading news and information nowadays isn't it ? I believe that we as the future public relations practitioners need to learn from this issue and use it as a lesson for us in the future. When a crisis strikes , a pr practitioner must not panic, instead, we need to keep calm and use our PR skills.
first of all i have to agree in syahmi's review. it is a small simple crises that should and can be solved easily. BUT the thing is, they have really poor pr skills. it is so bad that it became a huge deal in facebook and a laughing matter to the people. as a pr practitioner we are taught to not run away from any problem or crises and most importantly not to deny any of your mistakes. in this case i think it got worst when they blocked few people om facebook and deleted few comments. this is just so poor pr skills. what they need now is to polish up their pr team and do more more extravaganza research. they can also read up on the Tylenol Johnson & Johnson case for extra crisis management skills and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThere is no small issues when it comes to social media today. as this medium is no longer the "alternative" or even "new", silly mistakes by companies/organizations, eg: Applebee as stated, are somewhat inevitable.
ReplyDeleteI really think Applebee's should've been more transparent and just...man up! Mistakes are going to happen, and you’ve got to own up to them and tell customers what you’re doing to ensure they aren’t repeated. First of all, this may actually produce more customers for Applebee's (or other organizations).
Customers know bad things happen, and they love companies willing to learn from them. Plus, ignoring complaints shows you’re just going to do your own thing – customers be damned.
Kan?
p/s: i thought it was another apple stoghie....k praise to God thank you for the bees.
Shila.
Thank you Syahmi for nice review. Anyway, its good to learn about new media and in this case we might learn from their mistakes. A real professional working area with unpredictable thing happen in Applebee's.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, they should not run from the issue (block fb users, delete comments). Its because it will show their weaknesses in handling the case. PR is about to be transparent and "spin" the information well and not in idiot manner. So, as a PR practitioner, this case may could be our guideline on how to handle issue using social media. In 5 seconds social media can tarnished your image, and obviously also useful to us.
Tq