I’m not a fan of KFC.  Nothing personal, just never wanted to go there.  But recently we were all drawn to the KFC story when a number of shops were shut due to a shortage of chicken.

The company were applauded for apologising with a lovely ad.

KFC apologises with a full page ad in today's Metro. A masterclass in PR crisis management.#KFCCrisis pic.twitter.com/ZF4SfAuHl5

— Andrew Bloch (@AndrewBloch) February 23, 2018

KFC fan or no fan, you couldn’t but congratulate them on a job well done.  But one thing occurred to us about how this whole situation was managed.  There was no criticism of the new delivery supplier, DHL.  Now you could say, there was never any chance of that as KFC had only recently chosen DHL to deliver their chickens – and the blame must lay with them.  But some companies wouldn’t be as gracious and would be quick to lay the blame at the door of DHL.  But KFC kept shtum.

Although now that there’s a gravy shortage, perhaps they won’t be as generous!

But their reaction to their employees and franchise employees was not quite as good.  While direct employees were paid as normal; franchise employees couldn’t be guaranteed the same deal.

https://twitter.com/PlayWearTalkRed/status/967142813799510017

To date, KFC has turned a revenue-losing situation and potential customer disaster into a PR win.  But perhaps it has lost out on a great opportunity to drive better employee engagement and build their employer brand reputation…