Manufacturers across the US make thousands of products every day. When a problem arises with one of these products, business owners and manufacturers must recall the product. While contacting retailers to recall the product is straightforward, finding all affected customers is difficult. Keep reading to learn how to quickly communicate a product recall to customers so you can keep them safe and protect your company.
Prepare Communication Procedures and Documents Early
Some companies don’t think about product recalls until one occurs, which is a major oversight. Preparing early—before a recall even happens—will help your business communicate quickly and effectively if a recall does occur. You should have communication procedures for a recall already in place. Ideally, a communications manager and other decision-makers within the company will have these procedures written down so they know immediately who to contact and how to do so.
Your company should also have communication documents ready. These are templates that your business can fill out with all the necessary information for a recall. Filling in templates is much faster and easier than crafting communications from scratch, allowing you to share about the recall as quickly as possible and protect your customers as well as your reputation.
Inform the Appropriate Regulatory Agency
Part of your communications procedures will include reporting the recall to the appropriate regulatory agency. For example, if you learn that there is a problem with one of your food products, you must alert the Food and Drug Administration. If you discover that there is a problem with one of your children’s toy products, you must alert the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. It is the best policy to alert the appropriate regulatory agency within 24 hours of learning that there is a recall need.
The regulatory agency will participate in your communications. They will probably issue a press release informing the public of the recall; however, you should still prepare and release your communications.
Draft Direct Communications From Your Business
Preparing and releasing your recall communications in addition to the regulatory agency press release requires drafting direct communications. As previously mentioned, this draft should come from a prepared template that keeps the communication clear and concise.
Don’t just fill in this template and send it out. Carefully read over the information and make sure that readers will understand exactly what you’re communicating. You may need to change the wording on your template to keep the information concise and clear—the important thing is that customers will learn about the recall and follow the appropriate steps.
Choose the Best Communication Platform for Your Customers
Customers will only learn about the recall if you choose the right communication platforms for your recall message. Executing a timely response on the correct communication platform should be a standard step in any product recall quick guide for manufacturers.
For example, the correct communication platform can change based on your intended audience. If your product is most popular with younger generations, you should start on social media. If your product is primarily used by older generations, contact news agencies that can share the information on TV and in print.
Quickly communicating a product recall to customers comes down to preparation and follow-through. If you have the right communication templates ready to go and understand your audience, you can share the necessary information efficiently. Doing so effectively helps your customers and protects your public reputation.