Curse of the 'smart' age

09 June 2015 - 09:42 By Wendy Knowler

Social media and a smartphone in almost every consumer's hand is a combination with the power to bring a mighty organisation to its knees within days. And no company knows that better than KFC.A couple of years ago, the chances of that Braamfontein man being able to stand on his balcony and capture those KFC employees blasting raw chicken on that grubby cement floor with a fire hose would have been virtually zero.But now a huge and rapidly growing number of consumers have in their hands, virtually constantly, a pocket-sized device which enables them to take photos or videos and post them on Facebook or Twitter within seconds.So Braamfontein Balcony Man probably pulled his phone out of his pocket the moment he realised what he was witnessing, tappedon video, and the rest is KFC misery.The story was splashed in newspapers and carried by radio and TV stations for six days and sparked 55 million social media impressions.So Good became So Bad, So Fast."The impact on sales was massive," said KFC Africa's chief marketing officer, Mike Middleton, declining to elaborate. "We are suffering."KFC has a 41% share of the quick-service restaurant (fast food, to you and me) market, with 800 outlets countrywide."When you own a category, you become a talking point very quickly," Middleton said.And when that talk is about food quality, consumer trust goes down the drain as quickly as hose-blasted breading, along with sales.It probably didn't help that the company's response to the viral video was confusing and contradictory. First, MD Doug Smart told an SABC TV crew that the workers had been trying to thaw frozen, reject chicken in order to count the individual pieces.Then the story changed and the nation was introduced to the word "breading" - the flour and "secret spices" which coat the famous chicken pieces. We were told that the workers had defied the franchisee's order to remove the not-so-good pieces of chicken - a broken drumstick, for example - before breading, not after, in order not to waste flour and spices on pieces that wouldn't make it into the friers.So what they were doing in that behind-the-scenes courtyard was washing the breading off the reject pieces in order to cover up their wasteful mistake. But, we kept being reassured, that chicken was never destined to be sold to the public.Unfortunately for KFC, pictures speak louder than words, and those blurry cellphone images of KFC workers, in uniform, throwing chicken onto a dirty cement floor, were easier to grasp than the company's explanation.It didn't end there. Next to go viral was the video posted on a Durban restaurant review Facebook group of a KFC worker in Umhlanga sharpening knives on the pavement.Then came the third strike. Last Tuesday, a KFC customer in Vanderbijlpark posted a photo on Facebook of a Twister allegedly bought at the Three Rivers franchise, clearly showing pieces of raw chicken. "My raw Twister. Thanks KFC," he wrote."That case is still under investigation," Middleton said. "At the risk of sounding defensive, we are not convinced the product photographed is ours - the lettuce is not shredded, as our Twister lettuce is; and it looks like a chicken fillet, whereas we use a stripped, breaded piece."We've asked the person who posted it for more information, but he publicly posted that he is not interested in communicating with us."The three incidents, particularly the first, had opened a Pandora's Box, Middleton said."We are being inundated with horror stories about our food which just aren't true, including one about maggot-infested chicken."People are trying to cash in by sending these things and threatening to post on social media."Here's what the chicken-washing, knife-sharpening citizen videos achieved, besides damaging a major brand: KFC has set up a "whistleblower's hotline" for its 30000 employees, encouraging them to report dodgy practices on the part of their colleagues; and the company developed a Doing The Right Thing training programme in record time.Doing The Right Thing was the core of the business, Middleton said. Getting their customers to believe that again is the challenge.This tweet, by Julia Madibogo, encapsulates what they're up against: "Dear KFC, You sold us floor-washed chicken, then you used pavement-side-wall sharpened knives, now you [are] selling us raw chicken? WHYY :("CONTACTWendy Knowler on e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or Twitter: @wendyknowler or get more tips and warnings: www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/inyourcorner/..

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