Issuing a recall on my previous Dagoba entry

The other day I urged readers to give Dagoba Chocolate a chance to do right by their consumers during their recall.  I did this because I also own a bidness in the natural foods industry in Oregon and believe that Oregon natural food companies hold high standards in the industry.  In fact as I noted in my post, Oregon gourmet and natural food companies have a great reputation nationally with retail buyers, distributors and the like.  But as I am following the Dagoba recall story I'm having second thoughts about how they are handling this.

Yesterday the O reported that Dagoba is refusing to release the lead testing results from their products.  Jeff Williams, the COO of Dagoba, told the O he didn't have time to talk to a reporter because he was with FDA officials.  Um, this would have been a good time to say, "I will return your call as soon as I am done.  What time would be a good time to reach you...?" 

Moreover, customers who are calling Dagoba with their concerns are not getting any answers.  They're being told to go see their doctors if they have symptoms.  That's it, "Go see your doctor."  That's not very reassuring.  The Dagoba people need to study the Odwalla e-coli case in order to learn about how to treat customers who are the victims of their bad products.  Not only that, they don't seem to have a media relations team that is keeping their lines open to reporters.  In the Odwalla case, the company understood that the media was an important component in communicating with the public:

On all media interviews, Williamson expressed sympathy and regret for all those affected and immediately promised that the company would pay all medical costs. This, allied to the prompt and comprehensive recall, went a long way towards satisfying customers that the company was doing all it could.

The mistake that Dagoba is making is that they are focusing on themselves without understanding that it's about their customers who have eaten the recalled bars.  If they think they are keeping people from panicking by withholding the test results and saving their company in the process, then they are sorely mistaken. 

Note to Dagoba:  Get a grip you guys.  You have a lot of customers who are scared shitless.  You need to help them NOW. 

Comments

[Jack Bogdanski]

Indeed.