Social Media Crisis Management Response

Kestrel Outdoor Gear: KS-220 Crisis Response Plan

1. Severity Classification

Major crisis. A customer was physically injured by one of your products, the story is spreading fast, there are 3 related complaints in your internal QA logs, and the product is still on sale. The combination of safety risk, viral reach and a documented support failure puts this at the top tier. It is not a reputation attack. Dana's claims are specific, documented and largely confirmed by your own records.

Verification needed before any claim about the product: Whether the KS-220's flame regulator valve has a confirmed manufacturing defect pattern (pending engineering review), and whether the support email delay was isolated to Dana's case or affects a wider batch of unanswered tickets.

2. Recommended Posture

Respond publicly within the hour, move Dana to DM, and escalate to leadership and legal at the same time.

Why publicly and why now:

• Your account has been silent for 12+ hours while 900+ people discuss an injury. Silence now reads as avoidance, and that does more damage than anything you're likely to say.
• A news account and a 62K gear account are asking whether you're "aware." If you don't answer, others will answer for you.
• A DM alone won't work. The audience needs to see you respond.

Needs leadership and legal sign-off before posting:

1. Regulatory reporting (urgent). In the US, manufacturers and retailers generally must report to the CPSC within 24 hours of getting information that reasonably suggests a product could create a substantial hazard or an unreasonable risk of serious injury. An injury plus 3 prior regulator valve complaints may meet that threshold. Legal must assess this today. Your social strategy should never get ahead of this decision.
2. Sales status. Leadership should decide today whether to pause KS-220 sales, voluntarily and as a precaution, until engineering finishes its review. Continuing to sell while publicly "investigating a safety concern" is a serious reputational and legal exposure. A precautionary pause is often the strongest trust signal available.
3. Interim safety guidance. Decide whether to tell owners anything now, for example "if you notice a gas smell or irregular flame, stop using the stove and contact us."
4. Disclosure of other reports. The replies below say honestly that you've received other reports. Do not state or imply that Dana's case is isolated or that there are "no other known issues." Your QA logs contradict that, and if they surface later, the denial becomes the story.
5. Compensation for the injury. Legal should define what you can offer Dana, such as medical costs. Keep specifics in private channels.

Do not:

• Ask Dana to delete or edit her post, or make any offer conditional on doing so.
• Argue with unverified claims in the replies.
• Hide or delete critical replies.
• Blame the staff member on leave, even indirectly.

3. Draft Replies

Option A: Concise (reply to Dana's original post, under 280 characters)

Dana, we're truly sorry about your hand, your tent, and that your emails went unanswered for 10 days. That should never have happened. We've reached out directly, and we're reviewing the KS-220 now. We'll share what we find publicly.

Option B: Warmer (2-post thread reply to Dana)

1/ Dana, we're so sorry. We hope your hand is healing okay. That flare-up is hard to watch, and you deserved a quick answer the first time you wrote to us, not 10 days of silence. That's on us.

2/ We've sent you a DM to make this right and to understand exactly what happened. Our product team is reviewing the KS-220 now, and we'll post an update here as soon as we know more.

Notes on both options:

• They acknowledge the delay as a fact you've confirmed, not something alleged. Owning what you know is true makes you credible on what you don't know yet.
• They admit no product defect and deny none. "Reviewing" is accurate.
• If support already replied to Dana this morning, keep "We've reached out directly." Don't frame the post as first contact.

Companion post: reply to @OutdoorGearWatch, also usable as a standalone post from your account

Requires legal and leadership sign-off.

Yes, we're aware and taking this seriously. We've had a small number of other reports about the Summit stove's flame regulator and our engineering team is reviewing them now. If you've had an issue with your KS-220, please email [dedicated address]. We'll reply within 24 hrs.

• Only commit to the 24-hour reply window if support is actually staffed to deliver it. A second missed promise would be far worse than the first.
• If leadership approves interim safety guidance or a sales pause, add it here. That becomes the lead message.

Reply to users posting their own (unverified) claims

Use this sparingly, not on every reply. Don't argue or ask for proof in public.

Thank you for flagging this. We want to look into every report. Could you email [dedicated address] with your model number and what you saw? Our team is prioritizing these now.

DM to Dana

Hi Dana, this is [First name], [role] at Kestrel. I'm so sorry about your injury and your tent, and for the silence after you emailed us on Sept 12 and 18. You should have heard back right away, and I'm sorry you had to go public to get a response.

I'd like to personally handle this with you. A few things we'd like to do: • Replace your tent and stove, or provide a full refund, whichever you prefer • [Legal-approved language on medical costs, if applicable] • Collect the stove with a prepaid shipping kit, if you're willing, so our engineers can examine exactly what happened. Please don't discard it.

If a quick call is easier, I'm happy to set one up at a time that works for you. You can also reach me directly at [email/phone]. And please take care of that hand. Is it healing okay?

DM notes:

• It comes from a named person with a direct line. That signals the opposite of "your ticket is in a queue."
• Asking for the stove is essential to the investigation. Frame it as a request, never a condition.
• Include nothing about her post, confidentiality or releases. Anything like that must come from legal, later, and separately.

4. Follow-Up Checklist: Next 24 Hours

1. Hour 0–1: Escalate internally and set up a response team.

• Brief the CEO, legal, the head of product/QA and support leads.
• Start the CPSC reporting assessment and the stop-sale decision immediately.
• Name one decision-maker and one social owner so nothing ships without approval.
• Notify retail partners privately before they read about it elsewhere. Tell them what you know, what you're doing, and when they'll hear next. Ask them to route customer inquiries to you.

2. Hour 0–4: Fix the support failure and resolve the verification question.

• Audit the full support backlog and answer every unresolved ticket, prioritizing anything safety-related.
• Confirm whether the delay affected only Dana or many tickets. This determines whether a later statement needs to address the backlog directly.
• Set up a dedicated, staffed intake for KS-220 reports.

3. Ongoing: Monitor and log.

• Check mentions, replies and quote-tweets every 1–2 hours. Track the main thread, @OutdoorGearWatch and the news account.
• Log every new claim in one tracker: handle, claim, evidence yes/no, date contacted. Keep it for legal and QA.
• Watch for evidence-backed reports, mainstream media inquiries and escalation on Reddit and gear forums.
• Screenshot and archive all public exchanges, including your own posts.

4. Hour 4–12: Document and investigate.

• Engineering reviews the 3 prior QA complaints alongside Dana's case, then reports on the regulator valve: batch or lot numbers, affected production dates and failure modes.
• Record a timeline of events and decisions for legal: when the emails arrived, when each person learned of the issue, and when each action was taken.

5. Trigger for wider communication. Publish a formal statement (pinned post, website notice, email to KS-220 buyers and partner notification) if any of these happen:

• Engineering finds a plausible regulator valve fault, or can't rule one out within 24–48 hours
• Any additional report with evidence, especially one involving injury or fire
• Legal decides a CPSC report is required, or leadership pauses sales
• A mainstream media outlet requests comment

If none of these happen, still post a public update within 48 hours as promised in your reply, even if it only says "the review is ongoing, here's what we've done so far." Following through on that promise will do a lot to rebuild trust.

Bottom line: Your tone matters, but what you actually do matters more. Answering fast and warmly buys you time. How seriously you treat the safety question with that time is what protects your customers and your brand.