Breaking Bad News

In this special edition of Breaking Bad News, hosts Jenny Gregorcyk and Jeff Hahn take a break from our regular Recall of the Month discussion to dive into a really interesting trend report Apron Food PR just released called the Food Forecast. The Apron Food PR strategy team identified two big trends for this year:  "better for you" and "better for the planet." Jenny and Jeff discuss the big focus on health and wellness, as well as how consumers care a lot about their own personal environmental impact.

The theme of the January Recall of the Month Podcast is “history repeats itself” with a brand in a previous recall podcast making a repeat performance. That leads hosts Jenny Gregorcyk and Jeff Hahn into a discussion about the history of food safety.

Before revealing recall of the month, Jeff covers a crisis risk assessment tool known as The Cassandra Calculator. Named after the fabled Greek prophetess Cassandra, the calculator is a weighted assessment of variables to help organizations prepare for a crisis.

In this episode, host Jeff Hahn explores one of the most overused things that leaders communicate in a crisis, the apology. Jeff wraps up his series on crisis messaging with guest co-host Russ Rhea with an in-depth look at the “mortification strategy” in image restoration. You’ll hear both good and bad examples of apologies in crisis situations including Chef Mario Batali, McDonalds and KFC.

Jeff will also reveal the eight characteristics of a good apology and the best timing to make an apology.

 

McDonald's got into hot water with vegetarians when it was revealed that its fries were flavored with beef tallow. That’s one of the case studies crisis communication expert Jeff Hahn applies to the image repair theory in this episode of Breaking Bad News.  Jeff continues his discussion with guest host Russ Rhea on crisis messaging. The two cover in detail a powerful crisis communication model developed by a scholar that can guide the response in all types of events.

There’s a common theme to the many of the notable food recalls to round out 2019…foreign objects. Apron Food PR’s Jenny Gregorcyk returns to the podcast co-host chair after welcoming her new daughter to the family. She joins crisis communication expert Jeff Hahn to review some high profile recalls and take a deep dive into one particular recall that garnered sizeable media coverage.

It’s a special episode of Breaking Bad News as host Jeff Hahn welcomes crisis communications and reputation management expert Bill Coletti. Jeff talks to Bill about his recent book, Critical Moments, where he reveals how organizations can build reputational excellence by meeting the needs and expectations of the public.

Jeff and Bill also look in depth at a high-profile crisis communications case study, the food allergy death of a British teenager after eating a birthday meal at a popular UK burger chain. How was the company’s response? The two crisis experts give their assessment.

 

Due to an unusually slow number of food recalls in the Fall, Host Jeff Hahn is combining the months of September and October into one big Recall of the Month episode. Jeff asks the question “What’s the deal with chicken?” because of majority of the recalls over this two-month period involved chicken products. One of the recalls involved listeria and Jeff breaks down the good and bad in the company’s website statement about the recall.

How to deal with negative reviews that challenge a restaurant's reputation is the big focus in this episode as Host Jeff Hahn welcomes Restauranteur Chris Watkins.  In addition to covering techniques to respond to negative online reviews by unreasonable customers, Jeff and Chris talk about how to develop a culture of service inside a restaurant.

Jeff Hahn’s guest co-host in this episode to reveal the latest “Recall of the Month” is fellow crisis communication guru, Libba Letton.

In addition to discussing what caused a recent recall involving American Beef Packers, Jeff and Libba cover the different classes of food recalls and government requirements on when to issue a press release. This episode wraps up with Jeff testing Libba’s knowledge of crisis communication with a series of questions that would make most people cry.