Chipotle Fail

Chipotle, I’m talking to you. You failed. And then, you failed in dealing with the fail. I don’t love you anymore. Let’s just be friends.

Okay so here’s what happened. Late last year, 52 people were sickened with E. coli linked to eating at Chipotle restaurants across 9 states, primarily Oregon and Washington. Soon after, there were cases of norovirus from Chipotle restaurants in Boston. What’s norovirus? Exactly. Crazy stuff.

What has been Chipotle’s response? Steve Ells, the CEO and Founder, said in an interview, “I’m sorry for the people who got sick, they’re having a tough time and I feel terrible about that. We’re doing a lot to rectify that so this won’t happen again.” He also said “We’re serving extraordinary quality ingredients, and that’s been something in place for many, many years now, and we’re best in the world at that. We’re going to be the best in the world at food safety, and we’re taking this very, very seriously.”

Chipotle did outline new protocols in place, which included tighter controls on suppliers, increased testing of produce, and new operational practices for handling certain higher risk ingredients.

Overall though, there simply wasn’t much social media response from Chipotle. Missed opportunity.

How would I have handled the response if I were in charge? I would have made a big deal out of it. I would have had Chipotle address the problem loudly and head-on across all of their social media channels, with the following essential message: “We screwed up, big time. Our mission is food with integrity, and we let you down. We’re deeply sorry. We’re also taking this as a wake-up call to action.”

Then, I’d actively put out quality content in the form of videos and images that explains how we’re revamping our food safety processes to ensure that this won’t happen again.

We’d emergence stronger than before. I’d take the fail and turn it into a win. Speaking of winning, I just at Chipotle.