By Rachel Laing
Staff Writer
No such a thing as a free
lunch?
Try telling that to the hundreds of customers lined up Friday around noon
at
Pat & Oscar's in Mission Valley. They
got up to the counter, ordered a
meal
of pizza, salad and bread sticks, and had it brought to their table
with
a smile -- all without opening their wallets.
The meals the restaurant gave out to anyone who showed up from Thursday
through
yesterday were part of a costly damage-control program.
Earlier
this
month, an estimated 38 people who ate at the casual dining chain were
sickened
by lettuce contaminated with the E. coli bacterium.
With business down significantly after the episode, the company hired a
crisis-management
expert, set up a toll-free hotline and invited television
news
crews to publicize new lettuce-washing procedures.
For George Hunter, who's in charge of the Southern California region's
locations
for the chain, the crisis has been a long, strange trip that
began
with his complete disbelief.
Beyond consistently receiving high marks from County Health Department
inspections,
the company pays a private sanitation auditor to inspect its
operations.
An E. coli contamination seemed impossible, he said.
"At first I didn't believe it," Hunter recalls of learning the
outbreak was
linked
to Pat & Oscar's. "I know
that sounds a little arrogant, but I just
know
what we go through and the training to keep things sanitary."
Hunter's initial assessment that the restaurant's procedures were not at
fault
proved to be right. Within 24 hours, the contamination was linked to
one
of the produce suppliers that provided triple-washed, sealed lettuce to
the
restaurant.
Pat & Oscar's had already pulled all its lettuce and vegetable items
off
the
menu -- about a third of its offerings -- until the exact cause was
determined.
Once the outbreak was definitively linked to lettuce from the
supplier,
that vendor was immediately replaced.
With that, Health Department officials declared the threat to the
restaurant's
customers to be over. The threat to
the eatery's reputation
and
business, however, was just beginning.
Pat &
Oscar's parent company, Worldwide Restaurant Concepts, enlisted
Steven Fink, president of Los Angeles-based Lexicon Communications, a
crisis-management
firm.
The firm has particular expertise in food-borne illness; it handled the
last
major E. coli contamination in San Diego County -- the Jack in the Box
outbreak
that sickened hundreds of people and killed four children a decade
ago.
When Fink met with Pat & Oscar's executives, he said, board chairman
Phillip
Matthews had one order: Don't let the lawyers to run the show.
In
other
words, don't let the fear of litigation shut down communication with
the
public or prevent the company from taking responsibility for the
incident.
Fink set up a toll-free line where customers sickened by the
contamination
could
call to get information and to learn how to request reimbursement for
any
medical expenses they incurred as a result.
The hotline has received more than 80 calls, many of which were requests
for
information by anxious customers who wanted to know if they should be
tested
for the bacterium, Fink said.
Employees of the restaurants were briefed on how to answer customers'
questions,
and the company printed up informational fliers and table tents
to
keep customers informed.
Fink kept open the lines of communication to the media to get out the
message
that Pat & Oscar's had isolated the cause of the problem and
corrected
it. In addition to changing its
lettuce supplier, the company
instituted
its own lettuce-washing procedure as an added precaution.
Camera crews from local TV stations were invited into the kitchens of the
restaurant
to film the new procedure.
Most
importantly, the message that the company was not to blame for the
outbreak
was repeated over and over.
Pat & Oscar's handling of the crisis was right on, said George Belch,
head
of
the marketing department at San Diego State University.
The company got
the
message out quickly that while it also was a victim of the supplier,
the
restaurant would take responsibility for the consequences.
"It's not like you want to pass the buck, but you have to let the
market
know
'It's not what we did,' " Belch said.
"The first thing is to let them
know
it's not your policies or procedures that caused it."
Belch said inviting customers in for a free meal has several benefits.
It
not
only sends a message of good will to the community, but it's also a
surefire
way to fill the restaurants.
"It's to get people back in the habit of going there and realizing
they can
eat
there and they'll be fine," Belch said.
While business was down as much as 70 percent in some locations, Fink
said,
the
free meals are solely a gesture of gratitude for the outpouring of
support
the restaurant got from sympathetic and loyal customers.
"This is a legitimate thank you offer, and if getting more people
back into
the
restaurant is an unintended consequence, so be it," said Fink.
Pat & Oscar's served 16,000 people on Thursday and estimated the
offer
would
bring a total of 50,000 people through the doors -- far above regular
weekend
numbers, Fink said.
Because the
"costs were secondary" to the ends, Fink said, he wouldn't
speculate
on how much the offer would cost the company.
But based on the
prices
listed on the menu for items being given away, the retail value of
serving
50,000 customers would be about half a million dollars.
Despite lines a few hundred yards out the door at many locations,
customers
seem
pleased with the offer. Mehrdad
Nabizadeh, who was dining on the patio
of
the Mission Valley location, said he used the giveaway as an excuse to
try
out the restaurant.
He said he heard on the news that the contamination was not the
restaurant's
fault, so he was unconcerned about safety.
Now, having eaten
two
free meals there -- one on Thursday and one Friday -- Nabizadeh said
he'll
be back when he has to pay his own way.
"Actually, I think they're going to gain some customers from
this," he
said.
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