Chipotle E. Coli Outbreak: Mexican Restaurant Struggling to Win Back Customers

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Have people already forgotten the Chipotle E. Coli incident? Apparently not, as the Mexican grill restaurant is struggling to win back their customers after many people got ill eating at the famous restaurant.

There have been instances that people easily forgive and forget these types of incident. However, in Chipotle's case, it happened to several of their food chains across the country. The staff behind the restaurant may have to do a little more convincing to make people believe in them again.

According to a report by NPR, most of the customers did not buy the apology offered by the company. Experts are saying that Chipotle should invest more on advertising and all other things that can make people forget what happened in November 2015. They have to distance themselves to food safety issues.

"The difficult thing for Chipotle is that, it's not that there was one incident. There have been a number of different incidents," said Timothy Calkins, a Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management professor. "And the problem with that is that it creates an overall perception, and it raises questions about safety."

According to Business Insider, analysts are saying that Chipotle could experience decline in sales by up to %11 this year after a heavy slide down in the market in the fourth quarter of last year.

The reason why the company will have a hard time to recover from their current situation is because the source of the outbreak has not been determined yet, as told by one analyst. "This likely makes the recovery process more difficult for [Chipotle]."

Other companies which had cases of food safety issues in the past such as Taco Bell, McDonald's China and Jack in the Box did not wait for a year to recover because they have found the cause of the problem quickly.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Chipotle has already issued an apology for the unfortunate incident during an interview with NBC last month.

"I'm deeply sorry this has happened, but the procedures we're putting in place today are so above industry norms that we are going to be the safest place to eat."

Chipotle started their restaurant in Denver, Colorado in July 1993. It enjoyed quick growth because of how they present the restaurant as a healthy place to eat.

Chipotle serve fresh food compared to meals served in common fastfood chains. It has expanded to other countries such as The United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and France, where it also found success.