Domino's Online Disaster

We are always advocating the use of online reputation monitoring. It’s understandable, though, that some might not have a clear picture of what we mean when we throw around the technobabble, including words such as reputation management, social media, CGM, transparency, Twitter, and Youtube.

If ever there was a quintessential mini-case study that the digitally cumbersome could refer to and subsequently gain an understanding of the online reputation jargon from, then what follows is it. Take a seat and take it in.

Take a brand: Domino’s Pizza. Take the reputation bomb(ers): Domino’s Pizza employees – Kristy and Michael. Take the wildfire fuel: Youtube and Twitter. Take the damage controller: Patrick Doyle – Domino’s President. All of these are the ingredients that make a perfect online reputation management case-study.

When Kristy and Michael posted their prank video on Youtube (second biggest search engine to Google) – which included preparing sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up Michael’s nose, nasal mucus on the sandwiches, and violating other health-code standards – it was evident that they were deficient in the relevant experience concerning Social Media and its implications.

So what were the consequences regarding the prank? Over a million views of the Youtube video, a paragraph in the Domino’s Wikipedia page in addition to a mention on the Conover, North Carolina Wikipedia page as “the home of the Youtube Domino’s Pizza Scandal, results on the first page of Google about the prank, a flood of mentions on Twitter, Domino’s creating a Twitter page, and Patrick Doyle responding on Youtube. Oh, and Kristy and Michael got fired – really?.

Did Domino’s do the right thing? Eventually, yes! They needed to speak to their customers via the same platform in which the reputation bomb occurred – online. Hence, they set up a Twitter page and the Domino’s President responded in a genuine and transparent manner on Youtube. Mr. Doyle needed to get his brand’s voice into the viral inferno taking place, and made sure his customers know that Domino’s care about their most important asset - their customers. He provided a text-book response – or something close to it.

Domino’s will trust the community – they will listen and learn from this massive botch. Patrick Doyle was authentic in his response and he had the nous to give it legs by setting up a twitter page as well as uploading his response to Youtube while the conversation was still hot.

Lesson 1: Social media can cause unimaginable (now very much imaginable) damage to one’s brand.
Lesson 2: Respond in an authentic and transparent manner.
Lesson 3: Don’t hire reckless idiots.