As stated in a previous March Communications’ blog post, PR specialists tend to be quite talented when it comes to multi-tasking. This serves as a key attribute when a sudden PR crisis arises, and you have to handle it immediately, on top of all your other job responsibilities. Businessdictionary.com states that PR crisis management is a set of procedures applied in handling, containment, and resolution of an emergency in planned and coordinated steps.
Now not all companies are ready for a crisis when it arrives, but when it does, they better hope they have some good PR specialists on board to help them out. It looks like Bed, Bath & Beyond does. A recent article states that some tissue holders distributed to Bed, Bath & Beyond stores were found to be contaminated with radioactive material.
This shipment was sent to 20 states across the U.S. Once Bed, Bath & Beyond found out about this harmful product, they removed it instantly from their shelves and sent it to a “safe location”. That’s the first step in crisis management-react strategically ASAP and get rid of the problem creating the crisis. The next step? Address the consumers/audience with the company’s acknowledgement of the issue and compensate for their troubles:
Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. said in a statement Thursday that its Dual Ridge Metal boutique tissue holder has been carried in about 200 of its stores since July. It said it was recalling all of the tissue holders and asking any customers who bought them to return them for a full refund.
Although it was stated there was no real threat from these tissue holders, this was a great way for the store to handle this PR crisis. Whether or not they had a crisis management plan in place prior to this issue, they still took responsibility and aimed for an obtainable solution. Do you think companies should have a PR crisis management plan set in place, in case sudden problems arise?
This post was first published by Becca Crouse on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense.