A product recall can deal a significant blow to the bottom line of a company – as well as that company’s reputation. When something goes wrong with a product this can be a serious issue and many product recalls in the past have been because products have caused serious injury or even death. This can lead to a lot of mistrust in the company’s products and a general poor image of the company. When the trust of your brand has been undermined in this way, it can take the company a long time to recover from the damage to its reputation.
Of course, if the company deals with the product recall correctly, they can recover well from it and restore their public image. It is very important to swiftly recall the product, communicate openly about the issue and undertake measures to make sure that the tampering will not occur again.
Announcing the Recall as Soon as Possible
The effective recovery from the product recall starts with the way that the company announces the recall. It is very important to engage the public and immediately disclose all relevant information as soon as possible. Also, the company should take responsibility for the error. Customers don’t like it when a company tries to hide a problem or shift the blame – the brand will be much more likely to be salvaged if the firm acknowledges the problem, apologizes and doesn’t make the mistake again.
Don’t Spare Expenses
In the beginning, don’t worry about how much the recall is going to cost. A recall will be expensive, but if you mishandle it the issue will be even bigger. The financial success of your company in the future depends on how well you deal with this crisis, so money shouldn’t be an object.
Defining Responsibilities
It is important to have a chain of command for product recall solutions, so that the responsibilities and tasks of all employees are clearly defined. You can nominate a quality control manager or someone to manage the product recall – as well as laying out what each member of your staff needs to do during the recall.
This is something that you can do in advance, so that if a recall happens you can leap into action right away. Also, you can hire a product recall service to take care of this (such as Tactical Solutions), as they will have the experience and they will be able to leap into action – attending to everything that needs to be done as quickly as possible.
Keeping Channels of Communication Open
During the recall process it is important for your customers to be able to get all of the information they need about the product recall quickly and easily. Make sure that you are broadcasting this information on several different channels of communication as clearly as possible – from television to radio to email to your website to your social media accounts. Let your customers contact you with questions and clarify any of their concerns.
Product recalls make people stressed out and worried, so make sure that they don’t get even more frustrated because they cannot find the information they need to know. When you don’t offer information, this creates a vacuum in which horror stories and rumors can develop.
Investigate What Happened
The only thing worse than having a product recall would be to make the same mistake again! Make sure that you trace the source of the malfunctioning product, as well as its full extent throughout your distribution network. Find out exactly what happened with it, so that you can make sure that it never happens again. You might be able to recover the trust of your customers after one product recall, but if the same thing occurs again in the future people will start to believe that your products are unsafe and they will lose all trust in your brand.
These are some very important things to keep in mind when it comes to recovering from a product recall. These types of recalls can be devastating to a company’s reputation if they are handled poorly, but if they are handled well they don’t have to completely destroy the brand. With the right strategies a company can recover successfully from a product recall and keep their reputation intact.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
