Upheavals

How many complaints does it take to make a change?

The saga with the cereal maker continues. Seems that simply finding one large fly in a box of cereal is not enough to warrant anything as drastic as a recall. They are taking it seriously apparently - or at least that’s what they told my wife - but they’d have to receive more complaints before taking this further.

Not sure yet whether this is a quantity thing or a size thing.

Perhaps a fly - even a big fly - just isn’t big enough. Perhaps they have to find something more substantial. (Would a wallaby be big enough do you think? Or a Hector’s dolphin? Or a truck and trailor unit?)

So I’ve got questions now. Questions like - why does it take more than one complaint to help validate the original complaint? What does that suggest about how the company deals with one-off complaints? How many complaints do they actually get that they don’t act on because of this? And just how many flies or other abnormalities are allowed into a batch before this company considers the situation abnormal? Would they act if they got one more complaint? Or would 30 other people have to complain before the matter was considered serious?

And what does this tell you about the hygiene standards of a company whose food most New Zealanders ingest on a regular basis? Do they review their procedures when they receive a complaint like this? Or do they just carry on, business as usual?

The reason I have to ask is because the company hasn’t addressed any of these matters yet. The very nice lady my wife spoke to asked her to put the beastie in a bag and post it to them. (Which also seems a little strange - because what state do you think a semi-thawed fly is going to be in by the time it gets to the company through the post?)

This is a significant brand. The fact that they don’t have a 24 hour monitor for crises (even a mobile) and seem to have a defensive attitude towards a complaint that I would have thought had the potential to strike at the very heart of their brand promise - safe food the whole family can eat - seems very strange.

What seems to have been missed here is that a fly in food is not a quantity matter. It’s a quality issue. Even if it only happens once. Even more importantly it’s a trust issue. And what’s more important to any brand, especially a food brand, than trust?

As my wife pointed out, if a fly that big can get into the manufacturing process, what else can get in? Or has got in? Or is still getting in?

We may never know, you see - if enough people don’t complain.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that situation very reassuring.

POSTED: Tuesday, 27 October 2009

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