Qdoba explores Online War Room for crisis planning

Ground Floor Media’s new Online War Room aims to make that a little easier. Instead of sitting around a table and talking about hypotheticals, employees use the Online War Room to work through crisis simulations on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms.

It sort of “mimics the tabletop crisis situation of old,” says Jim Licko, senior director of communications for Ground Floor—but the War Room takes it a step further.

“It really provides that value of the next steps,” he says. “What is the response to our response? It’s sort of a choose-your-own-adventure.”

One of Ground Floor’s clients, Qdoba, has run through one brief simulation and is gearing up to make it a regular part of its training regimen. Qdoba’s communications team hopes it will help prepare corporate employees and franchisees to be more confident should a crisis flare up.

Putting the tool to use

Ground Floor met with Qdoba to introduce Online War Room tool in early January, which turned out to be an opportune time for the Mexican-restaurant chain. The PR team had just added an employee who needed some social media training, says Karen Guido, chief marketing officer for Qdoba.