Double Sting

To tell you the truth, I have never heard of Barboursville, West Virginia. I don't know where it is, or how big it is. I do know that twelve-year-old Megan Templeton was stung by a scorpion in the local Walmart while shopping for a watermellon. In fact, that scorpion made the Walmart in Barboursville famous across the country. And I'll bet that there's more than a few helicopter moms out there who will worry about taking their children shopping at the local Walmart.

The unimaginable is one of the biggest PR dangers facing any business or institution. What happens if...? No one can predict all the things that could happen...you should try to predict the most likely. The one thing you can predict is that the longer a business is in business, the more likely that something will happen. Then it takes over.

Consider this. There certainly are plenty of Walmart haters out there who will sieze this opportunity to further back their cause. Even people who don't hate Walmart will talk about it and yes Blog about it. Now Walmart's pretty safe. It's not going to suffer unless the same thing happens a few more times which is not likely. But what if the little girl had gotten really sick? Then it would have been a much bigger deal.

How would you react? Do you have a plan? Would you talk to the press? Who would talk to the press? What would they say? If you don't have a crisis plan, get one. It's a little insurance that can save a business.