JB Hi-Fi’s identity mix-up: did it damage the brand or was it handled with ‘grace and style’?
JB Hi-Fi has earned praise for its crisis management handling over an incident where a man with Down Syndrome was wrongly banned from a store, although the manager’s refusal to initially apologise has done it “much damage” according to one PR expert.
According to news reports, 21-year-old James Milne was barred from going into the store after a security guard said he looked like a man on the “no entry list”, a decision that was then supported by the JB Hi-Fi store manager, despite the man’s family pointing out the banned man – who also had Down Syndrome – was clearly not Milne.
The store initially refused to apologise over the incident, however JB Hi-Fi CEO Richard Murray did issue an apology yesterday afternoon after Milne’s sister took to Facebook to complain about the incident.
A generic release with a generic quote. the way that reads is “uggggh, what a pain. we’re saying sorry because we have to. now lets all move along”
I reserve my judgement because I wasn’t there. JB could have handled it correctly, with the protagonist kicking up a major scene/stink – then played the Down Syndrome card in the media.
Or the store security person may have had a chip on their shoulder. And wanted to save face by maintaining their stance.
People are not against people. People are for themselves.
I bought a new HP printer from JB HiFi today. This story did not affect my buying habits one little bit.
IT WILL CERTAINLY CHANGE MINE, LAST ON THE LIST.
Every company no matter how great can still get a bad wrap because of the actions of one bad employee.
For the most part I find JB-Hifi a pleasure to shop at. Their salespeople seem like they genuinely enjoy helping customers, because they enjoy working there. I love their review blurb placards on the movies, games and albums too.
It’s a shame that this family had such a negative experience, but the actions of the employee were certainly not mandated by corporate policy and rather by personal incompetence.
A rare misstep from JB HiFi in my opinion. I always get truly excellent service at my local store (Bondi Jct), far better than David Jones for example.
This article is a massive suck. Shame Mumbrella.
I would have hoped some of this media attention might have led to a bit of a look at JB’s sale pricing strategy as uncovered on reddit last week: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/3l8k8m/wow_jbhifi_having_20_sony_car_sound_sale_except/
Here’s a pretty image that pretty much sums it up:
http://i.imgur.com/vqgYs00.jpg
So JB HiFi staff carry pictures of barred customers on their phones and they show these photos to other customers while indicating these people are barred for whatever reason.
How does this stand with privacy legislation? Are the customers on the barred list aware that their photos have been taken and that they are barred from any or all stores for whatever reason? Under the privacy legislation have they been offered the opportunity to review this information or have it removed? Where were the images obtained from and is it legal to lift images from CCTV footage for this purpose or were the pictures taken by a staff member with a mobile phone? How widely have the images been circulated: in store to only one phone, in store to the phones of multiple staff members, or across multiple stores or even to other organisations plus their shopping centres.
Tha fact that one person was barred is just the tip of the iceberg.
Remind me not to recommend Issues Outcomes to my network then. Has Jaques seen the JB Hifi facebook page, and how people reacted to the apology? It didn’t cut it. Murray’s apology was compulsory but not sufficient in this case. What people wanted was that the conduct of the staff involved should have serious consequences. It ends up looking that the people responsible are hiding behind the skirts of their CEO. At the end of the day,
To follow up the apology, JB Hifi could do much worse than sacking the responsible staff. It would be a good lesson (‘training’) for the rest of the staff too. “If you act in an arrogant way, where you could be in the wrong, and then you end up severely embarrassing your employer in public, you may get fired”. The public will be satisfied, and the staff responsible probably wouldn’t make a legal fuss for fear of being named in public and have the internet lynch mob after them.
I found JB Hi-Fi’s “apology” completely lacking. The manager who banned the customer because he looked like some other banned customer whose picture was apparently on the phone of a security guard (and what is up with that?) has not apologised. And it could have been handled better? Really? Wow, could it? You know, I think maybe it could have! Thanks for pointing that out, Mr CEO! The fact that they have kept that manager and, presumably, the security guard, on staff says to me that they’re happy to have stubborn fools with no people skills in management positions.
I’m the parent of a disabled child (not Down Syndrome), and I will not be shopping at JB Hi-Fi again. I’ve asked family members who generally give our kids JB Hi-Fi gift certificates to please give them gift certificates from some other store. I realise this was an isolated incident, but if that’s the kind of manager JB Hi-Fi is happy to have working for them, I’m happy to shop somewhere else.
As someone who works with and has a passion for working with people with additional needs, this incident is appalling and disgraceful! Someone has to man up and stand up to take responsibility and appropriate actions ought to be taken for those directly involved. This beautiful young man was discriminated against in the most humiliating, hurtful way possible and sadly a “sorry” from higher powers within the company will not cut it, and rightly so! Imagine if it was your son, daughter or any other family member for that matter whom was discriminated against, I’m sure you wouldn’t sit back and sit in silence. I for one will be boycotting JB Hi-Fi to make a point that this behaviour is never acceptable and never will be!