Brand Failures

120 Brand failures
realized that it came above the official dot com site on most of the major
search engines. Rather than ignore the site in the vain hope it would
eventually disappear, Allied Domecq and Dunkin Donuts monitored the
‘anti-site’ and frequently responded directly to complaints by private e-mail.
Unhappy customers were offered vouchers and discounts and even one-toone
meetings with local store managers.
The site that was originally set up by disgruntled customer, David Felton,
to vent anger at Dunkin Donuts’ poor customer service, soon became a
valuable resource for the company. Allied Domecq eventually managed to
buy the site from Felton to turn it into an official customer feedback service.
Felton later claimed the reason he was willing to sell the site was Dunkin
Donuts’ positive response to customer complaints and comments. Today, the
site is still up and running and providing both company and consumer with
a valuable and informative resource.
Dunkin Donuts therefore not only prevented a crisis situation, but also
gained a new way to listen to the customer. The examples given throughout
the rest of this chapter are of companies who didn’t handle their PR so
effectively, and as a consequence fanned the flames rather than extinguishing
them.