Why would you choose a particular place to visit daily while you have many other options in the surrounding area. Is it because of the service, the taste of food and beverages, the view, or maybe because it is a place where your trust won’t go in vain?
Left Bank is one of the places with an outstanding reputation in Zamalek and surrounding areas but not anymore.
On the 9th of September, a young woman visited Left Bank as she always does for the past 2 years. She is a well-known customer “By Name” for everyone who works there, and maybe for other customers. As she has always done for the past two years, she gave her car keys to the valet person to enjoy her time for a couple of hours.
She came out asking for her car keys to leave, and that was when she was told that her driver came to take it “Car theft.”
For two years, she drove her car with no drivers whatsoever, and they decided that day that she had a driver they trusted enough to hand him the keys.
Social Media No-no Crisis Management:
For some reason, Left Bank decided to take it to Social Media which wasn’t supposed to happen at all as the customer did NOT post anything on the Left Bank page or even on her profile — Let’s explore together Left Bank fatal mistakes in handling their first real social media crisis:
Epic Fail by Choosing the Wrong Medium
Left Bank decided to communicate the incident on Facebook only, which is wrong because the suitable medium had to be twitter where the heat is, they had to THINK for a minute, do their homework by monitoring, analyzing the stream before publishing on Facebook, the alarming social media management cursed their Facebook page for a long time with no good reasons! However, their Twitter account is in hell, and no one is taking care of the stream. Weird!
Provoking The Mass With a Poor PR Statement
The first statement was poorly written and disappointing to the customer and even the people who are watching; the statement was one way: “We’re not responsible for the Valet, it’s the customer’s responsibility. However, we will keep you updated with the authorities investigations”. Provoking anyone to take the customer’s side and boycott the restaurant for a lifetime.
The Topic Has Became Egypt’s Number 1 Trending Topic
The feedback they got from their customers was horrifying and not expected for them. The topic went viral like crazy and became Egypt’s top trending topic with more than 1.2K Tweets/RTs/Replies.
Left Bank Topic is Trending via (the victim Twitter handle)
They weren’t transparent when the whole thing happened. The security cameras taped a blurry video that’s not helpful. The first statement was to confirm that it is irresponsible management. On the other hand, the young lady who got her car stolen is one of Egypt’s top social media influencing profiles, and the restaurant knows that well because she is a regular customer, but why do they challenge her? She didn’t take the issue to Social Media until they made that wrong move.
Continued With The Same Mistake
After the negative hype that happened because of their ignorance and lack of Social Media crisis management, they decided to publish another statement to receive negative feedback again. Still, they are not taking any ethical responsibility for the incident.
Left Bank second statement on the stolen car incident from their backyard
This incident wasn’t the first to happen in Left Bank. Authorities still working on the case. The Vales was questioned and then released.
Stay tuned for more updates about the case, as it’s still not closed.
