Chapter 258: Shallow and Inhumane

It was Friday and Qian Meng was almost done with work when Li Min stumbled into her room, a faint look of panic on her face. 

"Boss, something happened," she said quickly.

Qian Meng looked up from the final lap of her last task, confused. "What is it?" she asked. 

Li Min bit her lip. "You'll have to check the trending livestreams for reference." From her expression, Qian Meng knew it was something huge. Once in a while, some brand would be thrown under the bus and there would be rants all over the internet about it. 

It was probably Venus' turn.

She took her phone out and looked at the notifications on her phone. It was news alert from news outlets posting about Venus. She furrowed her brows as she opened the stream. 

"…I understand that high end brands have different customer service guidelines, but this is too much. How shallow and inhuman have we become that someone should get thrown out of the store because 'they don't fit in.'"

Qian Meng startled and looked up at Li Min. "What is she talking about?" In the background she could hear the woman rant. 

"She made a post shortly before the livestream about her being thrown out of one of our outlets because of her clothes."

Qian Meng frowned. "Is this true?" she inquired. 

"I have already called the store and asked them for information about the matter. The store manager is looking into it and responding to us shortly," Li Min assured. 

Qian Meng nodded and looked back at the stream. "Apparently, wearing non-branded clothes, shorts and slippers to Venus stores means that the guest is not clean… that they have bad intentions." The streamer rolled her eyes. 

Qian Meng quickly made note of this point. She could also see the outraged comments and realized that this woman was a celebrity. She did secondary roles in web dramas and small productions all the time. She was already on her laptop, digging out what companies she had done advertisements for as she listened. 

This could very well be a targeted attack from another company or a genuine complaint. No company was stellar when it came to customer service. Sometimes, things fell out of the crack. No matter how difficult the job was, the employees couldn't disregard or embarrass the customer, that was the primary rule of being in the service industry.

In the comments, she saw people commenting supportive comments. 

[If I came in looking scruffy and dirty, they would throw me out, too.]

[If they throw out a celebrity, just who are their customers? Gaudily dressed people?]

[High fashion and exclusive stores always have rights to admission reserved.]

[If we don't look the part, should we be thrown out as imposters? What nonsense!]

The comments flooded the system and Qian Meng could only watch as it went on. It was unwise to call her PR team immediately and ask them to take down the video and post. Unless they had concrete evidence that what this woman was saying was false, they could not retaliate. 

Taking down the stream would mean like a big corporation trying to block the mouths of the common people. The outrage would grow further because of it and people would think that their outlets do treat customers differently based on how they are dressed and what part of society they come from. 

The stream went on for half an hour longer with the woman answering all sorts of questions and adding on to what had happened. She was soon saying that the security had dragged her out, as well.

Qian Meng pressed her fingers to her forehead as she slowly closed the live-stream and called in an emergency meeting.

The public relations, marketing, and executive staff were all called in, some of whom had already gone home. 

"You must already know what is happening. We need to track each and every comment posted. Give me the online and offline statistics, which news agencies are saying what and how the sales are being affected. I trust that the team leaders know how to assign work between themselves. Once we have assessed the intensity of the crisis and found out what really happened, we will formulate a strategy to minimize the effect. Are we clear?" Qian Meng asked. 

She turned to Li Min. "You'll be working closely with the PR team on this. Forward all updates to my email." 

She was probably not going home today. Damn it.

It was the PR team head who spoke up. "Boss, the interns were already following the trends."

Li Min nodded. "It was one of the interns who made the first call about what happened."

Qian Meng strained to smile. "That's wonderful. The interns this time are really enthusiastic to work. Taking time out of their personal lives to track how the company is doing. I will meet them for a chat once this storm blows over," she promised. 

That seemed to lift the mood in the room considerably.

Now, it was a waiting game. The whole team could only wait for the PR team to send all the figures and top comments before they could come to a conclusion.

On the other hand, Li Min finally received a call from the particular outlet where this was happening.

"Boss, we have been sent the video footage and a formal explanation," Li Min whispered into her ears. 

"Just tell the team. I want to hear their ideas on how to manage this crisis," Qian Meng said. Last time, it was her personal matter so she hadn't involved the employees in brainstorming, but this time, it was a matter of the company's reputation. She was not the only person who knew best. The best in the industry from around the country had been employed by her to ensure that Venus's reputation was top notch. 

And she trusted them.

The story unfolded like this. 

The customer, the name of whom they didn't know at the time was acting suspiciously since they walked in. After seeing a plethora of jewelry, just when the employee turned to bring out another box of rings, the woman tried to shoplift.