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Dominos has been the latest brand to take a bit of a shoeing in the social media echo chamber, following the amazingly fast spread of this video, showing two animals in a Dominos kitchen treating customers to some extra “goodies” on their sandwiches.
I’ve had my run-ins with Dominos. In late 2006 I convinced myself I was going to die in my sleep against a toilet, thanks to my first ever dose of food poisoning. No prizes for guessing where I’d bought my pizza. Still, they’ve since been forgiven and I’ve been able to look at their recent crisis objectively. After I’d finished laughing.
Xzibit, a leading (and excellent) West Coast rapper and regular Twitter user, picked some choice and fitting language to share this with his 13,804 followers. Not a good thing to have so many people put off your brand in less than 140 characters – and that’s without all the retweets!
Any huge food brand like Dominos could’ve been the victim of this issue, and in a sense they can be considered unlucky to have employed this pair of socially stunted morons. More interesting, though, has been watching Dominos’ response.
I covered this for our internal newsletter and my tone probably suggested that Dominos had been a little slow in responding. I still think that’s partly true, but the fact is they’ve taken some very appropriate action.
Dominos quickly identified the restaurant shown in the YouTube clip, and dismissed the staff involved. There is also now a pair of snot-covered felony warrants out for their arrests. Pwn3d.
With that all sorted, Dominos took their response to the exact place where the crisis began. I heartily endorse this practice.
They have posted a video (below) on YouTube of Dominos USA president Patrick Doyle. The tone of the video is just right. Doyle’s statement is sombre, regretful and emphatic. He reassures us that the two scumbags in the video have been severely dealt with and have more to come, that the restaurant has been scrubbed from top to bottom, that 99.9% of Dominos staff aren’t subhuman pondlife, and that Dominos is very, very sorry.
Nicely done. And there’s a twist in the tale too, a piece of PR spin so brilliant that I couldn’t help but be impressed. Doyle refers to the incident as a YouTube “hoax”, and later says that the two employees in the clip claimed that to be so.
In doing this, Doyle, without saying it’s all a storm in a teacup, just sews the seeds of doubt – maybe these were just two wayward, misguided individuals having a laugh. Maybe there were no boogers.
With their response – which could have been a little faster – Dominos have simultaneously fully and comprehensively addressed a problem and introduced the possibility that it wasn’t as serious as it sounded. And the video is titled in such a way that it will pop up in any search for the original vid. Nice work.
DUMB ASS
