Having a campaign go viral on social media is every brand’s dream. Having a complaint go viral, on the other hand, is every brand’s nightmare.
California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) recently experienced a social media nightmare when employees mishandled delivery order placed at one of its restaurants. The customer involved shared her frustration in a TikTok video that collected more than 4.5 million views. But thanks to exemplary crisis communication, CPK transformed the nightmare into a media win.
@fumptruck I give up 😩 #badday #macandcheese #macncheese #cpk #californiapizzakitchen #omg ♬ original sound - Gremlin 🍉
Make Time for Social Listening
The CPK crisis story starts with a customer named Riley ordering macaroni and cheese but receiving only cheese. The video triggered thousands of comments, most of which either sympathized with Riley or offered quips about where her missing macaroni might be.
A few of the comments, however, were directed at California Pizza Kitchen, tagging them and asking for justice. “UM HELLO???? Get this girl FREE MAC N CHEESE!!!,” one read.
CPK, leveraging the power of social listening, jumped in and addressed the issue.
“We are going to make this right — don’t worry!” they replied.
Social listening maximizes the impact of a brand’s social media presence. Brands that practice it go beyond simply tracking likes and shares by taking the time to understand what is being said and carefully listening to followers so they can ensure a relevant response.
Several tools exist to help with social listening. They monitor mentions across various social networks, making them all visible in real time on a central dashboard. Features include automated sorting to identify comment sentiment and analytics that allow brands to see how their activity compares to their competitors.
Social listening is paramount for brands that want to be able to pivot poor performance into a media win.
Respond in a human-centric way
It’s common for brands facing a crisis to focus on restoring their reputation by identifying the issue as an anomaly, explaining the systems they have in place to keep such things from happening, and pointing to their past track record of excellent customer service. That type of response can be thought of as business-centric.
A human-centric response, which is what CPK offered, is much better. By owning the mistake and going above and beyond to pay for it, brands show that the customer, rather than their reputation, is their focus.
CPK did this in a big way by responding with its own TikTok video message, acknowledging the mistake in a fun way and saying how it would retrain its team on how to prepare proper mac and cheese. The video also announced that all of the brand’s customers would be rewarded with half-off mac and cheese for the rest of the month.
CPK’s response to Riley was also very generous. She received a special delivery that included a huge box of macaroni and two gift certificates—one for free mac and cheese for a year and one for free pizza for a year.
The way CPK delivered its response was especially human-centric. The company didn’t go public with a TikTok video or nationwide announcement, but simply left the apology at Riley’s door. The world learned about it because Riley chose to share it via TikTok, a decision CPK left up to her.
Social listening and human-centric responses are tools brands can use regularly to stay connected with their customers and show their appreciation. When a crisis hits, they are invaluable tools for maintaining control of the brand narrative.
Thomas Mustac is Senior Publicist & Crisis Communications Expert at Otter PR.