University Park Mall in Mishawaka, IN is taking a lot of heat on their Facebook business page over a news story that some grandparents were ejected from the mall for taking a picture of their grandson.
I may make some assumptions about what I think happened.
- grandpa snaps a picture of grandson (we all have cell phone cameras now expect more of this)
- overzealous mall cop freaks out and pushed the boundary or her job
- she ejects both grandparents from mall
- WNDU picks up the story, run a little blurb about it and it goes viral
- Facebook explodes with protests, declarations of never going to shop there again, etc etc
If I am wrong about any of the above please correct me in the comments below with constructive criticism.
Here is what I would do if I were the University Park Mall.
- I would drop any canned responses. People see through them at this point and using them just makes us mad.
- Explain the rule that was violated and where I can see that rule posted in the mall
- Explain why you have that rule from terrorism to corporate espionage.
- If the officer overreacted explain what she did wrong and how you corrected the issue.
- If you feel the need to apologize do so
- If you feel the need to offer a correction do so, and make it appropriate free pic with Santa was cool with me.
- Stick by your guns
Do not be wishy-washy, stand by your convictions, and do right by you and your corporation. You cannot and will not make everyone happy in this situation. If you try to make everyone happy you will just go mad and/or broke.
Burning Boats,
Dave
What I would do if I were University Park Mall http://t.co/W4l1kTqv
@diptoe had some issues with the blog this afternoon, but here is my response on what I would do with UPMall #michiana http://t.co/6LWk5yb1
I didn’t even follow the story and I can already see some marketing and pr puke being assigned the task of fixing this – they’ll screw it up worse of course.
Daltonsbriefs´s last [type] ..Data Security, American Ingenuity, and the DARPA Shredder Challenge
Some good common sense advice, Dave. However in today’s political, over reactive culture, common sense appears to be the lost intelligence. No matter in this situation or any other, no one can please everyone. Apologize and do the best you can in the future.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Leanne Hoagland-Smith´s last [type] ..Christmas Is a Season of Peace
thank you both for commenting. I think everyone is afraid to say something wrong so they do not say anything and jut make it worse.
Dave Woodson´s last [type] ..How to Nurture Leads