Community management MATTERS…. Just ask Kraft!

Kraft Dinner just went viral for ALL the wrong reasons, and in the process, demonstrated how NOT to handle a super minor PR crisis.

Let’s back track.

A woman purchased a box gluten-free Kraft mac and cheese, only to discover that the sauce packet was missing. She thought, hey, no big deal, it happens. Goes to a different store to buy another box of gluten-free Kraft mac and cheese, only to discover that it too has so sauce packet.

At this point, like any other customer would, she reached out to Kraft to let them know. They sent her some coupons to buy more boxes. She tries to buy two more from ANOTHER store, and low and behold, still no sauce packets.

Something is obviously up.

So she heads to social media to talk about it. Because, hey, this is super weird. Here’s where the missed opportunity occurs. This was Kraft’s response:

“Hello. We apologize for this issue. We’re not having any quality issues with our gluten-free Kraft Mac and Cheese.”

Instead of just saying, “hey, super sorry this happened to you, we’re looking into the issue”, they opted to GASLIGHT THE WOMAN, and act like there wasn’t a problem.

Here’s where things get really interesting.

People started FLOCKING to the comments sections on Kraft’s most recent videos, flooding the comments sections with stuff like “hey where’s the sauce”. We’re talking THOUSANDS of comments, on completely unrelated videos. To the point where Kraft ended up deleting their most recent videos altogether, to avoid dealing with the comments. (Yet another missed opportunity to right the wrong.)

Moral of the story? Social media is a POWERFUL tool. Taking a moment to actually LISTEN to what your customer is saying, and putting some thought into your response is KEY. This whole mess could have been avoided with decent community management, an often overlooked aspect of social media management.