Turn a Crisis into an Oasis
Eventually, something bad is gonna happen.
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It's just math. At some point either you're going to mess something up, someone in your business is going to make a mistake, or a challenge will be thrust upon you by the universe.Â
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For fast food chicken chain El Pollo Loco, is was the last one.
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They were just minding their own business, making delicious chicken at nearly 500 locations (you may not know them, because they are only in six southwestern states, but have a big presence there).
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All of a sudden, over on the massively popular Inside the NBA television show, noted cultural anthropologist Shaquille O'Neal 🤣 joked (poorly, as is his custom) "How do you say fat *ss college students? El Pollo Loco?"
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To which equally nimble Latino expert Charles Barkley chimed in: "El Pollo Loco, that's a good restaurant. They got some good chicken noodle soup boy."
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"El Pollo Loco" means "The Crazy Chicken" So Shaq was as off on his translation as he used to be on his free throws.Â
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And they don't serve chicken noodle soup. Never have. So Barkley was pretty far off-target on menu
recommendations.
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So if you're El Pollo Loco, what do you do in this
situation?
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What MOST businesses would do is:
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A. Laugh it off and figure "any national mention is a net positive"
B. Get defensive and fire off a press release pointing out the errors
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El Pollo Loco crashed through Door C: turn a crisis into an oasis.
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They put out this "statement" in social media:
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