A total of 8.833 million yuan was compensated for customers. Fat Donglai once again became the focus.
Recently, the official account of "Fat Donglai Trading Group" released the "Investigation Report on the Poor Sanitary Environment of Rolling Dough Processing Sites" of Fat Donglai Catering Merchants in Xinxiang, and gave 100,000 yuan in cash to customers who helped find major food safety hazards; All customers who purchased rolling dough and spicy noodles at the catering department of Xinxiang Fat Donglai two stores between June 9, 2024 and June 19, 2024 will be refunded and given a compensation of 1,000 yuan (a total of 8,833 copies).
This directly made Fat Donglai rush to the first position on the Weibo hot search list, and he was on the list for more than 8 hours.
Source: Weibo
There was a long queue at the refund site, and a total of nearly 9 million yuan was compensated
Let's take a quick look at what happened, and the general situation is as follows:
A dough rolling processing site jointly operated by Fat Donglai in Xinxiang was exposed to poor hygiene. After investigation, it was because of the relocation of the processing site that temporarily opened a site, and the environmental hygiene of this place was poor and did not meet the standards of Fat Donglai, so the customer took a video and posted it on Douyin.
After investigation, Fat Donglai found that the situation was true.
Finally, for whistleblowers: 100,000 yuan cash reward; For consumers: refund and compensation of 1,000 yuan, 8,833 copies of a total of 8,833,000 yuan spent; internal employees: two employees were dismissed, several squad leaders were dismissed, and four store managers cancelled year-end benefits.
You read that right, a rolling dough for less than 10 yuan will not only be refunded, but also given a hundredfold compensation.
In the past 11 days, a total of 8,833 copies have been sold, which means that Fat Donglai has to compensate 8,833,000 yuan, plus 100,000 yuan to reward customers for shooting, a total of 8,933,000 yuan.
8.93 million yuan, a rolling dough of less than ten yuan, made Fat Donglai pay nearly 10 million yuan in quality costs.
You must know that Fat Donglai's net profit in 2023 will only be 140 million, which is equivalent to 8.93 million paid for this dough rolling, which eats 6.38% of Fat Donglai's net profit for a year.
It is understood that from the beginning of the store opening on the 27th, the catering department has been handling refunds and compensation for customers, according to the company's announcement, each compensation is 1,000 yuan in cash.
Everyone is saying that Fat Donglai culture is good, what is good? Fortunately, when a real conflict of interest arises, we should fire the talents who may have been cultivated for many years, dare to use the knife on the "talent chain", pay a huge amount of compensation costs, dare to give up the "profit chain" with real knives, and use too much force to take care of the customer's emotions a little bit, and dare to really take the customer and society to heart.
The whistleblower got 80,000 yuan after deducting taxes, saying that his job was gone but he did not regret it
On June 28, the complainant of this incident, Xiao Jin (pseudonym), said that on the afternoon of the 28th, the person in charge of Xinxiang Fat Donglai had contacted him and fulfilled his promise, giving a total of 80,000 yuan in cash after deducting taxes and fees. Xiao Jin said that because of this incident, his job is gone, but he does not regret doing it.
According to relevant media information, Xiao Jin himself is 30 years old this year, and he has been engaged in catering work before, and recently found a job to deliver raw materials to the rolling dough shop operated by Fat Donglai in Xinxiang, but he found in his work that the processing place of this rolling dough shop has poor sanitary conditions, and reported the matter to Fat Donglai Supermarket. In fact, the phenomenon reported by himself is more common in some small shops, but at that time, he felt that Fat Donglai was a benchmark enterprise, and he also liked it, and felt that the company "the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility", there should be no such phenomenon, so he reported to Fat Donglai, and the other party quickly intervened in the matter and informed the results. After posting the video on the Internet, it attracted a lot of attention, and Fat Donglai's account also responded in the comment area, he had never experienced this kind of thing, so he quickly deleted the video.
Xiao Jin also said that after Fat Donglai released the investigation report, in fact, he was more conflicted in his heart, on the one hand, he used to be a driver in a rolling dough shop responsible for delivery, just worked for a few days, after this incident the store was closed, his job is gone, but the store owner has not contacted him yet. In addition, Fat Donglai resigned as a supervisor and quality controller, which made him feel a little guilty.
Jin said that he will look for a new job for now, and if something similar happens in the future, he will still do it.
Fat Donglai, who is "out of the circle", how many traditional supermarkets have "faced"?
On the one hand, Fat Donglai is "out of the circle", and on the other hand, the living space of traditional supermarkets is squeezed and difficult to transform.
In recent years, offline supermarket chains have not had a good time. According to statistics from Lianshang.com, in 2024Q1, at least 31 supermarket brands and more than 140 stores across the country will be closed, involving well-known brands such as Walmart, RT-Mart, Yonghui, Wumart, Hema Fresh, and C.P. Lotus.
Originally, the traditional supermarket played a "blitzkrieg": first staking to grab market share, and then pressing the supply price through scale effect, and finally forming a regional price advantage; Nowadays, the way of playing supermarkets has become a "protracted war": even if they burn money to establish regional advantages, under the impact of online shopping, new retail, live e-commerce and other waves, the living space of supermarkets (mainly promotional) has been repeatedly compressed.
In contrast, Fat Donglai has achieved a double harvest in terms of performance and reputation in recent years. Fat Donglai has a perennial flow of customers, and it is difficult to find a hot product. With cost-effective products, high-quality services and generous employee treatment, Fat Donglai quickly became popular and became a model for retail companies to learn from.
So, can Fat Donglai's successful model save traditional supermarkets?
Some industry experts believe that if traditional supermarkets want to develop sustainably, the core point is how to form differentiated competition with e-commerce, among which commodity power is the key. The differentiation and cost-effectiveness of goods cannot only stay in some ordinary standard products in the past, because if e-commerce also has it, the price may be cheaper and can be delivered to your home. Previously, the advantages of traditional stores have not been fully explored, and learning from Fat Donglai is a good measure for traditional stores to tap their potential.
Welch said that a great company does not have many exciting things happening, but it is just a matter of doing one thing well - reviewing the rise of Fat Donglai, which can grow from a local supermarket to a "benchmark" in the retail industry.
Therefore, if the company that learns from Fat Donglai only learns the "skin" of employee salary increases and shortened working hours, it cannot be substantially improved in corporate culture, supply chain construction, and operating cost reduction - over time, the "purified" soul will be blinded by fame and fortune and become a sophisticated businessman again.
What enlightenment does Fat Donglai's public relations behavior give to food companies?
1. Consumers are God, but employees are also family members.
In the current public opinion, enterprises should remember not to confront the two, and there is no contradiction between attaching importance to consumer opinions and attaching importance to employee feelings.
When encountering conflicts between consumers and employees, enterprises should pay attention to consumer feedback and opinions, but do not rush to cut off with employees, enterprises are naturally weak in public opinion, and should put themselves in the shoes of the public and employees to think, and make the best of both worlds.
2. Establish an early warning mechanism for public opinion, so that crises can be quickly responded to.
Today's enterprises don't pay much attention to public relations, and it will be too late to think of public relations "firefighting" when something happens.
Looking back on the turmoil of Fat Donglai, the brand's public opinion prevention mechanism is still quite perfect:
On June 25, customers reported on Douyin about the hygiene problems of the rolling stalls
Early in the morning of June 26, Fat Donglai discovered the problem and set up an investigation team
On June 27, Fat Donglai closed down the rolling stall, issued an investigation report, rewarded customers with 100,000 yuan for complaints, and gave 8.833 million yuan in compensation
The whole action was done in one go, without a trace of mud and water, and the emotional value of the public was directly full!
3. Corporate values are consistent with public relations statements, and do not say one thing and do another.
Enterprises should examine whether corporate values and practical actions are "integrated with action" in crisis public relations.
Fat Donglai's public relations is so successful not because the report is well written, but because the company's values and practical actions are highly consistent over the years.
You can go to the official website of Fat Donglai to see, just the handling of consumer complaints and the process of making the process public is already admirable, they really regard every customer complaint as a mirror to improve the service.