If you are a company that produces a product, you try your best to ensure that the product always reaches your customers in perfect working order. However, sometimes there will be an error in the production process and your product will need to be recalled because it is faulty or dangerous.

Recalling a product can be a huge risk and if the situation is handled badly it can be a major PR disaster. There are many major mistakes that you can make when you are handling a product recall that will make the problem even worse.

Here are some of the biggest ways that you can botch a product recall and mess things up for your company:

Not Acting Quickly

Time is of the essence when you are dealing with a product recall and the faster you respond to the issue the better. When you have a product that has a flaw and is dangerous, it is important to get it recalled as soon as possible before anyone else is hurt by it. If you know about the flaw but wait to take action and someone else gets hurt, then that makes for very bad publicity for your company.

It is important to have a plan already in place for dealing with a product recall so that you can jump immediately into action and deal with it right away.

Not Spreading the News Effectively

As soon as you find out that a product needs to be recalled, it is important to spread that information as effectively as possible to all of your customers. You should be using multiple channels to inform customers, including email, social media, phone, and email and snail mail. If the product has a dangerous flaw you don’t want someone to still be using it because they haven’t found out about the recall. This is one of the most important parts of a product recall – so plan for it in advance!

Underestimating the Seriousness of the Situation

Recalls can be very challenging, but many businesses tend to underestimate the potential for things to get worse. Before you deal with the recall, it is important to assess the situation realistically and prepare for how bad it could get. It is better to be prepared for the worst and then pleasantly surprised when things go smoothly, than to underestimate the consequences and get caught out in a terrible situation.

Not Equipping Your Employees to Deal with the Issue

When you are dealing with a product recall it is very important to make sure that your employees have the information they need to respond to customer questions. When your staff are not very well informed they will look unprofessional and they will create a bad image for your company. The best thing to do is to hold training sessions that will brief your employees on how to deal with a product recall.

Not Seeking Legal Advice

It is a good idea to seek legal advice as soon as you become aware of any potential problem that might cause a recall of your product. If you identify a potentially harmful or defective product, a legal firm will be able to advise you whether or not it necessary to make a full recall and how you should best deal with the situation.

Not Contacting Your Insurance Broker

When you think you might have to go through a product recall, it is important to contact your insurance broker as soon as possible. They will be able to offer some advice and expedite the claim, so that they can support you in implementing a recovery plan. Depending on the scale of the problem, they might even be able to support you in implementing a disaster recovery plan.

These are just a few ways that you can avoid causing a major disaster when your company has to deal with a product recall. With the right strategy and techniques you can ensure that the situation is dealt with smoothly and that your reputation emerges from it unscathed. If you think that you might need professional assistance to carry out the product recall, you can always enlist the help of a field marketing services agency. They can guide you through the process and make sure that you solve the issue in the most effective and professional way.