Case Study: McDonald's achieves real-time crisis detection and rapid response with Sprinklr Smart Alerts

How McDonald’s Uses Sprinklr Smart Alerts for Crisis Management and Research

McDonald’s global social listening team, led by Jola Oliver, faced the challenge of monitoring roughly 150,000 daily mentions to give executives real-time visibility into potential reputational risks, supplement daily communications, and provide 24/7 monitoring for issues that could go viral. The CCO asked for a system that would surface rapid changes in volume or sentiment so leadership could act quickly across diverse markets.

The team partnered with Sprinklr to deploy Smart Alerts—AI-driven anomaly detection for velocity, volume, and negative sentiment—testing and refining thresholds before scaling to 450 alerts in four languages and routing notifications via dashboards, email, and SMS. The system delivered timely, actionable alerts (e.g., detecting a BBC segment on plastic toys within 35 minutes and flagging a gender-pay post for review), earned positive internal feedback, and was integrated into daily briefings and display monitors while plans continue to expand access and fine-tune crisis thresholds.

McDonald's

Jola Oliver

Director, Global Social Media Intelligence