Diamond Pet Foods Faces PR Challenge After Pet Deaths
Diamond Pet Foods issued a 23 state voluntary recall of several of its dog and cat food products after discovering aflatoxin in a product manufactured at its Gaston, South Carolina facility. The deaths of 17 pets, and the illness of 24 others, may be attributed to tainted food (see Mendon Village Animal Hospital’s treatment advice, via Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine).
News of the recall quickly spread and is being covered by major media outlets (for example here and here), specialty news and information sites (here and here and here), Atlanta’s Craigslist, and on blogs and discussion forums (here and here and here).
How has Diamond Pet Foods responded to the aflatoxin discovery? On the plus side, the company sent out several news releases, the home page of its website exclusively covers information about the recall, and it created a toll-free Customer Information Center. Diamond obviously isn’t trying to hide the problem.
On the minus side, the company isn’t presenting a consistent "we care about the animals" image.
(1) Take this news release from PR Newswire:
"Our highest priority right now is the health and well-being of our
customers’ pets," General Manager Mark Brinkmann of Diamond Pet Foods said.
"We are committed to keeping our customers informed and are taking aggressive
steps to resolve this issue. We’re proud of our long history of producing high
quality and safe products and deeply regret that this situation has occurred."
How about changing this to something like: "Our only concern right now is to protect the health and well-being of our customers’ pets. We promise to immediately inform our customers about all important developments and are taking aggressive steps to resolve this problem. We deeply regret that this situation occurred."
(2) In its December 27 update, the company says:
"We are experiencing an exceptionally high rate of emails and telephone calls in response to the recall. To help answer many of your questions, please review the information contained on this Web site. We appreciate your understanding and pledge to provide updated information on a timely basis."
Why didn’t Diamond write something like this? "Many concerned pet owners are calling and e-mailing us. We want to answer all your questions as quickly as possible and apologize if you have to wait to talk to, or hear back from, us. The answers to some of your questions may be available on our website, so please have a look around."
(3) The "How Can I Get Help" link on the company home page leads to a Customer Help Form that says,
"To most efficiently assist all of our affected customers in a timely manner, we ask that you fill out our customer help form. Once submitted, your information will be processed by one of our representatives who will contact you."
The form asks such questions as when and where the pet was purchased, the date of the pet’s last vaccination, the date and location where the pet food was purchased, and the lot number and the Best Buy date of the pet food.
The problem with this form is two-fold. First of all, many pet owners aren’t going to have this information readily available. Secondly, given the risk of death posed by aflatoxin, asking frightened customers to help the company be "efficient" and wait until "your information will be processed by one of our representatives who will contact you" isn’t realistic.
(4) Not until December 28 was there any word on helping pet owners with veterinary bills incurred as a result of having their pets tested or treated. Interestingly, the company’s web site doesn’t reference this article. Perhaps that’s because the company’s Chief Operating Officer is quoted as saying:
"We want to work out a consistent and fair program to provide customers disaffected by this tragedy with help with their veterinary bills."
A "consistent and fair program" for whom? The concerned or grieving pet owners, or the company?
I wonder how Diamond Pet Foods will continue to handle this situation. Will the company pay all legitimate veterinary bills in full? Will it directly reach out to affected pet owners with a personal gesture such as a charity donation in the sick or deceased animal’s name?
Update: As of yesterday evening, the death toll stood at 23 dogs, with another 18 sick. The FDA issued a consumer alert stating that some of the recalled products had been exported to at least 29 countries.
