A few days ago, two teenagers who were workingat a Dominos pizza chain decided that they would make a video and upload it to YouTube. The motivation behind this appears to be simply boredom. So what's the big deal? Teenagers post up videos on YouTube all the time, after all. Well the difference in this case is that the video depicted the two teens dressed in full Dominos uniform, doing stomach-wrenching acts to food that was seemingly going to be sold to customers. Sticking cheese up their noses and then placing in on a sandwich was just one example of the two teen's antics. Dominos managed to act relatively quickly and pulled the video down in less than two days. But by then the damage had been done. The video had received close to one million hits by then, so it's safe to say that the damage had been done. On top of this, it would seem that some viewers of the original video downloaded it off of YouTube and have since posted it back up. In other words, the pizza clip is now impossible to squash. But what does this mean for Dominos, or any company for that matter? I mean, its not like the company did anything wrong themselves. This could have happened to any company and this type of behavior is not unheard of in the kitchens of restaurants. The difference now is that todays disgruntled employees now have the power to share their disgusting acts with the whole world instantly, and thus doing significant damage to the company and it's reputation. This is a tough situation to deal with for any organization. My advice to Dominos and pretty much any other organization is to keep a close and constant eye on what is being carried out in you name on the web. The only other thing they could do is press charges against the offenders so as to make and example of them (Dominos is looking at this option) . This will at least act as something of a deterrent. Other than that, there's not much else to do. There will always be unhappy employees and many of them will have video cameras. Just hope their not targeting you with them.
4 comments:
First of all, im sure this happens all the time (just not on video lol). Second i think that this will happen again, but this time with intentions to destroy a reputation. I feel like the people who posted that video just thought it was funny to them, and did not understand the huge implications it did and could have. I find it very interesting to see how the stock prices did not fall, because that is where it all counts. Dominos did do a good job, but I still think they have the poorest service to offer, with the worst ingredients, at the most expensive price.
I agree that companies should keep a closer eye on their employees by monitoring them occasionally. I also believe that although this video may have been done as a prank it can potentially be very detrimental for the company. If companies are not careful their entire reputation can take a negative toll and their sales may drop because of potential hoax like the one mentioned in this blog.
I definetly agree that employees should be monitored more closely especially in the food industry. I used to work at Rudy's B-B-Q and we had around 13 cameras throughout the entire restaurant as well as in the kitchen, with someone at our corporate headquarters monitoring the tapes to ensure none of the employees participated in acts such as the Dominos employees did. This I am sure happens all the time, and it is unfortunate for Dominos because you are right, they did not do anything themselves. I think the past action is to issue a statement apologizing for their employees, immediately fire them so that the public can see some action and make it clear that the two employees do not represent the entire food chain.
This obviously shows the power of social media. I think the interesting part of this story is not that the kids are disgusting, but that they posted it to YouTube and created a complete PR disaster. I mean, people are watching that! Everyone's heard of it and its getting news coverage. This happens all the time, but in this day and age, people hear about it via social media!
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