These days, BlackBerry users have a good excuse for not answering emails sent by their friends or business associates – because chances are, they never got it.
According to MSNBC, a system-wide failure has left millions of frustrated BlackBerry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing.
A class-action lawsuit was filed this week in both the USA and Canada on behalf of affected BlackBerry users. Messages left with RIM, BlackBerry’s parent company, by MSNBC seeking comment were not returned.
While many find it disturbing that they can no longer reliably access their BlackBerry emails, I find it more disturbing that RIM has not come out to clearly address the issue or show how it’s taking a proactive approach to deal with the situation.
If I were the CEO of RIM, I’d be studying the corporate PR playbook right now and taking my cue from JetBlue Airways.
In 2007, a massive snowstorm swept through the Northeast and paralyzed airports throughout the region – which resulted in numerous JetBlue aircraft filled with passengers being stranded on the snowy tarmac at JFK airport for up to 11 hours without food, water or working bathrooms.
The resulting public outrage and media scrutiny threatened to send the company into a critical tailspin – until they came to the realization that ignoring the situation was not a viable option.
JetBlue founder and CEO David Neeleman took a proactive approach by publicly apologizing for leaving thousands of customers stranded during the snowstorm.
He appeared on television to personally extend his apologies to the public, recorded a YouTube video addressed to JetBlue customers, and issued a passenger bill of rights – the first of its a kind for an airline company – to show how serious JetBlue was about making things right.
The fact is, you don’t have to be in the airline or technology business to recognize the importance of these strategic moves. They apply to every company, in every industry, during every situation.
Accept Full Responsibility: Immediately after the incident, JetBlue accepted full responsibility. They also made it known why the incident occurred and portrayed it in a more positive light. “JetBlue tried to do their best and keep the system rolling during the snowstorm so as not to disappoint customers,” said one spokesperson. “So their heart was in the right place, but their head was not.”
Make It Right: In the wake of the snowstorm fiasco, JetBlue rolled out a customer bill of rights which promised vouchers to fliers who experienced delays and pledged to deplane passengers when an aircraft is delayed on the ground for more than five hours.
Always Stay Positive: While JetBlue stressed how apologetic they were, the company also affirmed their renewed pledge to bettering their services and successfully convinced the public to continue patronizing the airline company because there would be a drastic improvement in the future.
The bottom line? We all make mistakes – its how we deal with them that makes all the difference.
I’d love to hear how you’ve successfully resolved mistakes within your business. Feel free to reply below or just send me a quick email…especially if you’re using a BlackBerry.
Onwards and upwards,
Meny Hoffman
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Mendy rather than “Meny”.
why dont you sign up for blackberry updates?
I got this the following morning
A Message from RIM’s CIO, Robin Bienfait
Many BlackBerry® customers around the world experienced service outages this week. Research In Motion® (RIM®) takes these issues extremely seriously, and we apologize. We never want to let our customers down, and we know that the quality and reliability of our products and services are important to you. We remain committed to earning and showing that we deserve your trust every day.
Now that service levels are restored, we are focusing on investigating root cause and will share details when we have the full story. We are committed to keeping our lines of communication open and will provide you with more information as we review all the incident findings.
Throughout this incident, all relevant support and executive teams have been engaged and working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible. We also have been doing our best to keep you updated and share information as we progress through the issue, between customer touch points, conference calls, updates on our web sites and through social media channels.
We know that reliable service is important to our 70 million global customers and we work very hard to deliver the world-class experience that you’ve come to expect from us. We truly value your business and I apologize again, on behalf of everyone at Research In Motion, for the service issues experienced this week.
Sincerely,
Robin Bienfait
Chief Information Officer, RIM
Contact Us
Please send your BlackBerry Connection – Enterprise Edge Edition feedback to [email protected]
they are also offering many premium apps for free because of the outage
RIM has made a nice gesture this morning for the outage many of us experienced last week. RIM is offering up a selection of 12 apps and games in App World (valued at $100+) that will be made available in the coming weeks. They will remain available free until December 31st, 2011 which means you will probably get a free registration code but it won’t be free forever. The offering includes a mixture of smartphone and PlayBook apps and games along with ones for newer and older devices including:
•SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
•Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
•N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
•Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
•Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
•Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
•DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
•iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
•Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
•Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
•Shazam Encore – Shazam
•Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo
RIM’s enterprise customers will be offered one free month of Technical Support and current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension to their technical support contract. The details are all at http://www.blackberry.com/enterpriseoffer.
Here is what Mike Lazaridis had to say about the whole ordeal:
“Our global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers,” said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers. We’ve worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years, and we’re committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect, today and in the future.”
“We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience,” added Lazaridis. “We have apologized to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence. We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again.”
Check out the full press release below. We will put up links to the games and apps once they go live. Let us know if you spot them!
Research In Motion Offers Free Premium Apps to Customers Following Service Interruptions
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced today that a selection of premium apps worth a total value of more than US $100 will be offered free of charge to subscribers as an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions. The apps will be made available to customers over the coming weeks on BlackBerry® App World™ and will continue to be available until December 31, 2011.*
“Our global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers,” said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers. We’ve worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years, and we’re committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect, today and in the future.”
The complete selection of premium apps will become available to download at BlackBerry App World over a period of four weeks beginning Wednesday, October 19th. The selections over this period will include the following (with more to come):
· SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
· Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
· N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
· Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
· Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
· Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
· DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
· iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
· Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
· Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
· Shazam Encore – Shazam
· Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo
RIM’s enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support. Current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support contract, and customers who do not currently have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial of RIM’s BlackBerry Technical Support Services – Enhanced Support, free of charge. Additional details about the program and information about how to register will be available at http://www.blackberry.com/enterpriseoffer.
“We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience,” added Lazaridis. “We have apologized to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence. We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again.”
NOTE: Last week, many customers experienced service interruptions and delays over a period of approximately 3 days in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, 1.5 days in Latin America and Canada, and 1 day in the United States. Global teams worked around the clock to contain the issue and minimize the impact to customers as much as possible. As of Thursday, October 13, service levels returned to normal.
* Please note that the availability of this offer will depend on the type of device, operating system version, access to BlackBerry App World and local conditions and/or restrictions.