More companies are closer to being hit by a “shitstorm” than they realize. Despite it becoming clear how much bad publicity can harm even the best-prepared businesses, there are still many that are poorly equipped when the “storm” threatens.

The term “shitstorm” is something most Danes now recognize after the last few years of more or less deserved scandals, where companies and politicians have felt just how hard their otherwise good reputation can be damaged when a shitstorm sweeps by. According to William Atak, director at SAFEonNET®, which specializes in helping businesses manage bad publicity, consumers are ruthless in trading situations, which can easily put a company in the danger zone if it doesn't take care:

“A good example of companies that are in the danger zone is in sectors where there is disproportionately far between the product, the price, and then the expectations the customer has. The consumer is not willing to pay much more than a couple of hundred kroner a month for telephony, but in return, there should be free calling, free SMS, and data – and one should be able to call customer service 24/7 without waiting time,” explains William Atak.

The recipe for the “perfect shitstorm”

Especially the airline industry is, according to William Atak, an easy target for shitstorms, as the recent turmoil with the airlines Norwegian, SAS, and Ryan Air is a good example of:

“Another example is products where breakdowns have serious consequences. If the flight is canceled or delayed, it can mean missing a wedding or missing out on a long-awaited holiday. But it doesn’t mean that we will pay much more than it costs to travel by regional train.”

According to him, companies struggle to meet customer expectations, but when things go wrong, it allows customers to vent all their frustrations. For the media, it is the recipe for a good story – and for companies, it's the recipe for the “perfect shitstorm.”

Norwegian, SAS, and Ryan Air must pray to the weather gods

Despite both Norwegian and SAS being considered among the safest airlines in the world, they are currently frighteningly close to Malaysia Air, which has recently been affected by tragic aviation disasters in terms of their standing on SAFEonNET®’s “Shitstorm-barometer”:

“When we categorize companies into risk groups based on how close they are to hitting a shitstorm, we now find companies we immediately associate with quality. But when it comes to reputation, it is quite different parameters that count. Here, one could say that it can directly be a disadvantage to be well-known and in some cases to be known for something good,” explains William Atak and continues:

“It’s much more entertaining to read about the Pope stealing from the cookie jar than about a thief committing burglary. In this way, it's not entirely fair how a shitstorm strikes.”

Jensen’s “shitstorm”

One of the companies that has truly felt how hard a shitstorm can hit is Jensen’s Bøfhus. In fact, one could say that Jensen’s Bøfhus is more known locally in Denmark for “shitstorms” than for good steaks and bearnaise. When searching for the term “shitstorm”, Jensen’s Bøfhus appears in a third of all search results on page 1 on Google:

“Just the fact that we now talk about them as a classic example of a shitstorm means that the cleanup work will continue long into the future. It's almost as if it would be easier to change the name and start fresh,” states William Atak.