Food safety, crisis communications tools win chains' attention
By Alan Liddle (Excerpt -For the Full Article, visit www.NRN.com)
(Aug. 28) In the aftermath of high-visibility foodborne illness outbreaks during the past year, some restaurant chains are leveraging broadcast communication tools for enhanced food safety or improved crisis communications technology that might not immediately come to mind for those purposes...
...A food safety problem already had been detected late last year when franchisor Taco John's International Inc. used GroupCast's phone-based messaging system to keep the 230 operators of 400-plus franchised Taco John's restaurants updated about an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. In December three Taco John's restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota were implicated in an E. coli outbreak that
sickened at least 50 people and that later was associated by public health agencies with contaminated lettuce...
GroupCast users can compile their messages by calling a toll-free phone number and following the prompts and can, if they wish, store on GroupCast's system a number of generic pre-recorded messages.
"It was incredibly valuable to us to reassure our franchise partners in the face of an unexpected issue and tragedy; it enabled us to get a message out to people quickly and comprehensibly and to tie them into a conference call," Taco John's Brian Dixon recalled of his chain's experience using GroupCast.
Update messages and invitations to conference calls were sent using the GroupCast system and e-mail, said Dixon, Taco John's vice president of marketing.
"The fact is, we have a hard time keeping track of e-mail addresses, because people are now [changing them] to dodge spam and regularly change service providers," Dixon said. Beyond questions about possibly incorrect e-mail addresses, he said there were additional concerns among chain management that e-mail might miss the mark in many instances because restaurateurs "are not just
sitting in front of their computers all day."
Dixon said Taco John's call list included the work, cell and home phone numbers for franchisees, their unit managers and TJI corporate personnel. By using GroupCast and e-mail, the chain was "able to get information to multiple locations" and greatly increase the odds of making a connection, he said.
The Taco John's marketing executive estimated that the chain made six to eight GroupCast assisted calls during the six-week "height" of outbreak activity. Those calls were made simultaneously to up to 250 individuals across 25 states, GroupCast sources reported. Dixon said recorded outgoing messages were relatively short, with none exceeding five minutes.
"Most updates" Dixon said, included such information as "where we stand, what we've heard about potential numbers of illnesses, reminders of safety practices, where we were with [dealing with] the media, and how we were working with regulatory agencies."
GroupCast representatives said users can access the system to record a message and launch a broadcast using any phone that can dial an 800 number, including cellular and satellite phones. That, they said, makes the system easy to use and attractive in situations where manmade or natural disasters foul Internet service or landlines.
Marketing and workforce notification are among the non-crisis applications for which GroupCast customers have used the company's technology, sources at the St. Louis, Mo.-based services firm said.