2011

Effective Communication
(Bachelor of Business in Travel and Tourism)

Mariyam Lubna Ahmed

000030640 10/2/2011

Corporate crisis is an unexpected event that creates uncertainty and threatens an organizations priority and public image. When planning or working through for a crisis, it is important to anticipate, coordinate, cooperate and communicate to overcome this type of events. For instance dominos crisis is one of the corporate crisis. In April 2009, two employees at a Dominos store in North Carolina took a video themselves doing disgusting things like sticking cheese up their nose and then adding it to a customers sandwich. Then they posted the video on YouTube, and within hours more than a million people viewed it. Dominos management didnt think the video prank was funny. It feared damage to its coveted brand and loss of sales. The company posted its own video on YouTube, featuring Patrick Doyle, president of Dominos USA, denouncing the employees stunt and promising swift action. It also sent messages via Twitter. Both of the employees were fired and they were arrested. This assignment will highlight the importance of verbal and non verbal communication in such crisis, the tactics that can be used and the recommendations that can be taken for that kind of crisis.

What is communication? Yatim et al. (2002, p. 02) defines that communication as the act of giving, receiving or exchanging information, ideas and opinions so that the message is completely understood by both parties. Therefore the two types of communication we use in our everyday life consist of verbal and non verbal communication. Verbal communication includes any form of communication involving words, spoken, written or signed while nonverbal

communication is directly related to verbal communication, in that it utilizes symbols to create and negotiate meaning, although nonverbal communication is negotiating symbolic meaning without the use of words. Moreover the feelings of the individuals are

conveyed through nonverbal by indicating the amount of like or dislike toward others, and by understanding the power in the communication exchange, and the amount of awareness towards the communication exchange. As a result Verbal and nonverbal communication are needed for human communication as both types of communication exist primarily on the concept of symbolic communication, and cannot be fully understood without considering the other. Language in communication is extremely influential, because words can be used to figure culture, create meaning, categorize individuals, and both clarify and confuse symbolic meaning. Nonverbal communication, beyond its influence over verbal communication, is frequently the initial form of communication conveyed during a communication exchange. People start to formulate understandings and opinions of others before they even hear them speak, and nonverbal communication expresses the information during early phases of interaction. Verbal and nonverbal communication are directly interconnected, and understanding the power each style exerts over the entire communication process is the key to effectively developing and executing quality communication strategies.

It is very important to strive to send consistent verbal and nonverbal messages during communication in a situation like the scenario of Dominos. When messages are inconsistent, the customers may become confused. Moreover inconsistency can also create a lack of trust and undermine the chance to build a good relationship with the customers. The next thing measured is, based on getting an accurate assessment of what happened and giving a valid analysis of events as a basis for action. Authorities responsible for managing operations after a damaging event favor this approach. Misinformation may foster further harmful actions or misinterpretation of events that become difficult to correct even after the facts are reported. Delayed information may cause public skepticism of authorities and their ability to cope with damaging or threatening events.

In addition to that, Concreteness is also very essential while communicating- Concrete communication implies being particular and clear rather than fuzzy and general. Concreteness strengthens the confidence. Concrete message will be supported with specific figures and facts, make the use of words to be clear and build the reputation, and these types of messages are not misinterpreted. Furthermore, conciseness of communication is necessary during a crisis- Conciseness means conveying a message in least possible words. Conciseness is a necessity for effective communication. This type of communication will be both time saving as well as cost saving, highlights the main message, provide short and essential message to the audience and Concise message is more appealing and comprehensible to the audience. Also this type of message is non-repetitive in nature. One of the examples of a crisis was the NIKE case. It was stated in PR news wire for journalist (1997) that NIKE Reaches Accord With Islamic Group CAIR. When a logo appeared on salesman samples of a range of summer basketball shoes which resembled the Arabic word "Allah", NIKE's Muslim distributor in the Middle East voiced concern over the matter. NIKE apologized to the Islamic community immediately for any unintentional offense by saying that they never intended to offend, but they did; they have done everything possible to communicate their sincere apologies and to address issues related to the distribution of any products offensive to the Muslim community in a press release. Then they implemented a global recall of the original salesman samples, including an accounting of any samples which may have been sold. After that NIKE diverted shipments of the commercial products in question from the markets. No further products with either version of the logo were produced. NIKE agreed to pull back all remaining product in their distribution center. NIKE has implemented organizational changes to their design department to tighten analysis of logo design. Responsibilities were centralized into one department and all graphic designs must be approved by a design review board. NIKE worked with CAIR (council of American on Islamic relations) to identify Muslim design resources for future reference.

Addressing dominos pizza crisis, the firm decided to react to the event (taking 48 hours to respond). They have presented an apology, suggested information (both public and personal) and a promise for taking further steps. Interestingly it chose unconventional media channels to confront their consumers, the same channels the crisis found its way through-social media interactions. After that incident, the company fired the employees and issued the warrants for their arrest. Dominos posted a statement on its corporate website saying that The opportunities and freedom of the internet is wonderful, but it comes with risk of anyone with a camera and an internet link to cause a lot of damage, as in this case where a couple of individuals suddenly overshadow the hard work performed by the 125000 men and women working for dominos across the nation and in 60 countries around the world. At first dominos decide not to issue a press release. When the companys spokes person was interviewed, he replied that the company can deal with ten thousands of impressions, but a strong response from dominos would alert more consumers to the embarrassment. Later they shared an apologetic e- mail from the employees. Also in a you tube video Patrick Doyle, president of Dominos USA apologized for the incident and described the steps his company was going to take to ensure that kind of incident will not occur again. During the crisis they followed this procedure to overcome the event. Focused on efforts: In Domino's situation, their path was very clear. So they found out the identity and the location of the two employees, and then found out that the video was a hoax. Expected a little immediate cooperation from the host: Domino's asked YouTube to take down the video. But social media hosts are unlikely to react as fast as they need them. Responded in the same forum: Rather than issuing the traditional news release, Domino's responded with its own YouTube video featuring a statement from its CEO which was more accurate and reliable.

Dominos were able to frame the story: The story could have been, "Domino's employees send out tainted food." But because Domino's acted in real time, the story became, "Video hoax targets Domino's." That alone took a lot of the viral quality out of the video.

Careful of using strong-arm tactics: Domino's succeeded by taking the culprits to the police station and putting them on the horns of a dilemma: they have to admit whether their video was a hoax or they have to face charges of food tampering and it worked.

When an organization or company is in crisis they try to minimize the ideal image. Likewise dominos tried to minimize the impact on the company. As stated in public relations with Steven R.Van Hook (n.d) claims that During a crisis, effective spokespersons must, primarily through their non-verbal cues, leave their audiences with the impression that they are Compassionate, Competent and Confident. Dominos did following steps for the crisis The media deluge (2009) report shows that, during the crisis: Arguments in favour of dominos actions The president of Dominos USA was the spokesperson during the crisis. It is very important to address communications with the right spokesperson. Of course, thats not always the CEO nor should it be. Dominos recognized the significance of the situation and used the right spokesperson The Dominos uses conversational language and is noticeably frustrated with the individuals that did this. Their level of outrage over what the employees have done is appropriate Instead of being frustrated that the initial video was viewed millions of times, Dominos thanked the social media community for bringing it to their attention. Over address the problem: the company communicated that Dominos to shut down the store and cleaned it thoroughly and hammered their focus on cleanliness and high quality food. In addition they also shared that Federal felony warrants are out for the arrest of the workers who have already been fired.

Dominos did well what many companies in crisis forget. They reiterated what Dominos is in business to do and did it well. Dominos also thanked viewers of the video for sticking with them. Also, addressed the crisis at hand and how they are working to correct it.

Arguments against dominos actions

The company's social media team discovered the video less than an hour after it was posted but they didnt apologize to the public immediately. They only apologized 48 hours later. In order to prevent inaccurate information from reaching public, it is very important for a company to respond as quickly as possible during a crisis. An early response may not have much new information but the organization positions itself as a source and begins to present its side of the story. Otherwise some people may use the crisis as an opportunity to attack the organization.

Dominos set up a Twitter account to interact with people discussing the YouTube video there. In a crisis is not the time to be creating relationships. Brands should be building those relationships all the time so when a crisis occurs, the brand can quickly address from a position of trust.

The Dominos president apologized to public by reading a scripted note, so it doesnt seems like a heartfelt apology.

One of the other examples of a successful crisis management is the odwalla case. Odwalla is the health-conscious juice company which began a couple of decades ago. The company had established a strong brand with enormous customer loyalty. In Mallenbaker.net corporate social responsibility (n.d) article shows that in October 30, 1996, Health officials in Washington State informed the company that they had

found out a link between several cases of E. coli 0157:H7 in Odwalla fresh apple juice. The link was confirmed on November 5. As the crisis played itself out, one child died and more than 60 people in the Western United States and Canada became sick after drinking the juice. Odwalla took immediate actions. Even though at the point where they were first warned the link was uncertain, Odwalla's CEO Stephen Williamson ordered a full recall of all products containing apple or carrot juice. This recall covered around 4,600 retail outlets in 7 states. Internal task teams were formed and mobilized, and the recall - costing around $6.5m was completed within 48 hours. The company didn't try to avoid their responsibility. On all media interviews, Williamson expressed sympathy and regret for all those affected and immediately promised that the company would pay all medical costs. Williamson conducted regular company-wide conference calls on a daily basis, giving employees the opportunity to ask questions and obtain most up-to-date information. This approach proved so popular that the practice of quarterly calls survived the crisis. External communications were also very important. Within 24 hours, the company launched an explanatory web site (its first) that received 20,000 hits in 48 hours. The company spoke to the press, appeared on TV and carried out direct advertising with the website address. All possible attempts were made to provide up to the minute, accurate information. The next step was to deal with the problem of contamination. The company's entire approach had been founded on fresh unpasteurized juice as only juice which had been untampered have the best flavour. The company was quick to decide that this had been wrong and they introduced a process called "flash pasteurization" which would guarantee that E-coli had been destroyed whilst leaving the best flavoured juice possible. Moreover Within months of the outbreak, the company had the most comprehensive quality control and safety system in the fresh juice industry. On December 5, the company brought back its apple juice.

Odwalla made a rapid recovery. Much of the good will and trust it had built up over the years remained. Sales picked up again quite quickly. The company did exactly the right things to achieve this. For example during the lean months, Odwalla refused to lay off any of its delivery people. They were sent out to maintain customer relations - an approach that helped to secure the company's reputation with its customers as well as aided to earn the loyalty of the employees. The year after the crisis, San Francisco magazine voted Odwalla as "Best Brand Name in the Bay Area". This was the first sign amongst many that Odwalla's reputation had survived. Analysis of the situation In dominos pizza and viral video (n.d) shows that Dominos was faced with an unpredictable crisis. But, they still pursued some of the morality of crisis communication. Just because social media may change the ways in which people communicate, it doesnt mean the ideologies and messages would change significantly. For example, Dominos was familiar with the interior workings of the organization. After the video was published on the internet, they immediately knew how to spot the employees and fired them from the company. They also shut down the North Carolinian Dominos outlet and had the local health department figure out the prospective health risks. Dominos also had a technical team that was preparing to enter social media. It was a good progress of Dominos to have this team already in place. The company did have a dependable representative when speaking to media. However, the individual attributed on the YouTube video was the head of Dominos, not the same company representative speaks to media

Finally, the response video was very effectual. It was important that they communicated on the channel in which the crisis came out. If Dominos havent reacted to the world social media, it could have brought even worse condition. It was advantageous that they were evaluating the conversations on social media platforms.

Dominos is now on Twitter and Face book and they are doing a great job even though they were forced into those websites. Dominos remained too long without responding. They should have known that it would not die down and should have responded sooner .With an insufficient social media presence at the time, Dominos wasnt exceedingly familiar with it. Although they had a team in place, currently they didnt have a social media strategy in place.

Recommendations It is important to make sure that the social media team is constantly monitoring online conversations to help anticipate and identify potential issues early. Lattimore et al. (2004, p. 192) suggested in their comprehensive study that At first it is important to put the public interest, to convey the message effectively . One of the cardinal rules of social media is that it is an on-demand atmosphere. This means that after 24 hours, its past the point of expecting a response. Dominos gets criticized constantly for not responding sooner and expecting that the conversations would die down. They could have worked like odwalla company. They responded immediately when they were informed that there is link between E.coli outbreak and their apple juice.

During a crisis, small team of senior executives should be identified to serve as organization's Crisis Communications Team as quickly as possible, in order to identify the actions which needed to be taken. Ideally, the team will be led by the organization's CEO, with the firm's top public relations executive and legal counsel as his or her chief advisers. Other team members should be the heads of major organization divisions, to include finance, personnel and operations. Within the team, there should be individuals who are the only ones authorized to speak for the organization in times of crisis. The CEO should be one of those spokespersons, but not necessarily the primary spokesperson. The fact is that some chief executives are

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brilliant business people but not very effective in-person communicators. The decision about who should speak is made after a crisis breaks but the pool of potential spokespersons should be identified and trained in advance. But in case of Dominos, they were not able to identify the crisis team immediately. If they could have identified the crisis team immediately, they could have responded quickly.

It is important to be connected with major social networks on the Web, such as Facebook or Twitter, and be responsive as possible. The dominos have to create a twitter account when the crisis occurred. Dominos should have an account, in order to build relationship with the employees all the time and to address from a position of trust during a crisis.

It's important that all employees have some media and social-media training, so that if a crisis occurs they could take vital steps and they could be ready for crisis like dominos. In dominos crisis, the employees werent aware of social media, so they werent prepared enough to take actions when the crisis occurred.

Setting clear guidelines will assist the Companies to avoid crisis such as dominos. In order to make sure that employees have clear picture of what is allowed during working hours it is important to make them aware of guidelines. The company hadnt set clear guidelines when dominos crisis occurred. The two employees were allowed to use camera inside the kitchen. So they took a video and uploaded it on you tube. They only banned using cameras after the incident occurred. If they had set guidelines, they could have avoided that incident.

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Crisis could occur at any time. During a crisis, how a company communicates determines the future of the company. So it is important to have a strategic communication plan in order be prepared for a crisis. A communication plan should include of purpose of the project, communication principles to ensure consistency in messages and tone of communication, communication objectives that are measurable and support the business goals, target audience, change implications, key messages, challenges and opportunities (identifying the factors that may either help or hinder plans). As dominos didnt have a communication plan, they had difficulty in handling media.

To sum up, responding quickly, efficiently, effectively and in a planned way are the primary objectives of an effective crisis communication strategy. Harnessing technology and people to ensure a rapid and co-ordinated response to a scenario like dominos, determines a well thought out and executed communication plan. As a result it is very important for companies to have strategic communication plan to be prepared for a crisis as well as using both verbal and non-verbal communication during a crisis.

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Reference list Dominos pizza and the viral video n.d.,Analaysis of the situation,Viewed 1 november 2011, http://brstull1.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dominos-pizza-case-study.pdf

Institute for public relation October 30, 2007, crisis management and communication, viewed 29 October 2011, http://www.instituteforpr.org/topics/crisis-management-and-communications/ Mallenbaker.net corporate social responsibility n.d, Odawella and the E-coli outbreak, viewed 31october 2011, http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/crisis05.html

Media deluge (2009), Dominos Responds to Brand Crisis Through Social Media, viewed 31 October 2005, http://www.mediadeluge.com/post/96978048/dominos-responds-to-brand-crisis-throughsocial-media

PR Newswire June 24, 1997 NIKE Reaches Accord With Islamic Group - CAIR, viewed 28 October 2011, http://www.danielpipes.org/rr/2919.php Yatim, A,M, Hamid, H,A, Rahim, M,H, & Thian, T,H, 2002, English for written communication, pearson prentice hall, Kuala Lumpur. Lattimore, D, Baskin, O, Heiman, S & Toth, E, 2004, Public relations the profession and the practice,2nd edn ,McGraw-Hill, New York.

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