The first thing you need is to find someone who knows what they're doing with regards to product recalls, and to make sure you have all the facts and information before you go public. However, being slow to go public can cause a drop in goodwill, so do not delay too long. Be open and honest with the facts and don't be caught out lying or acting underhand. If possible, put a positive PR spin on things and move on as soon as possible.

A simple stock recall plan can be as follows. Firstly, meet with everyone involved and ascertain what exactly has gone wrong and what needs to be done to correct the flaw. The next step is to organise replacement stock as soon as possible, whilst flushing all the old stock from the retail system. As soon as that's done, get the new stock to the retailers, obtaining names and contact details – where available – from them. This allows you to get in touch with customers directly, where possible.

Announce the recall publicly as soon as you can, but not before replacement stock is with the retailers. This allows you to swap stock quickly and easily. At the same time, ensure that a customer query hotline is set up for the inevitable deluge of questions. With that infrastructure in place, undertake the stock swap. The last thing you want to do is increase the stress of an already strained customer, so be sure to make the swap fast and efficient.

Finally, have a full PR programme in place and be sure to find some good news to report on as quickly as possible. This puts you back in a positive light with the customers and retailers, allowing you to move on from this manufacturing hiccup as soon as possible.

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