While it’s easy to commend Graco for handling the crisis immediately and the right way, the fact remains not every Graco owner is aware of the recall and there is still risk for more negativity.

IMO, the company deserves as much credit for, as Bert points out, “..being out there consistently over a long period of time to build trust and relationships with brand advocates and customers. ” A combination of community entrenchment and timely, outbound customer service will continue to serve Graco and any other crisis-affected company.
.-= Nick Brown´s last blog ..Are you an agent of trust? =-.

A key learning from this event is how important it is to build a community around your brand, product or service as soon as possible. You cannot predict when a major event or crisis will occur. You must be out there consistently over a long period of time to build trust and relationships with your brand advocates and customers. You never know when one or many may come to your rescue (or you need them too).

Another key learning from this event, and many other insights we have gained during our social media journey at Newell Rubbermaid, is you have to show you care. Kelly reached out to moms in need of guidance related to the recall and showed she cared and wanted to help them in anyway that she could. This is very important.

And, finally, Kelly was not alone. The Graco Baby customer service team and the entire organization was supporting this recall effort. Kelly was the most visible, but there were many dedicated, concerned and caring employees behind her as well as our Social Media Agency: Converseon.

We sincerely appreciate your post and your using Kelly Voelker’s work last week as an example of how to handle crisis communications in the social media space.

Bert DuMars
Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing
Newell Rubbermaid

Like most people, I agree that number 1 on the list is the most important by a long shot. All the spin, messaging, etc. doesn’t amount to much if your product is still crap.

That being said, you also have to think about how you’re going to make it up to the people that had to deal with a bad/defective product. Soles fell off our shoes? Here’s two new pairs. Wheels on our stroller broke? Here’s a new, higher-end model. If you go way out of your way to compensate people for a bad experience, they’ll mention that all over the social channels as well.

Companies like Dell and Graco are already actively using social media, and participating in the same channels that their customers are. So the process is always much smoother for companies like this.

But if a company is having a crisis situation, you can’t wait a week to get information out, even if you don’t have the end solution in hand, you can still let customers know that it’s coming.

But you’d better deliver on that solution!