[h=2]As it struggles to contain growing outages with its Blackberry service, the tech giant is back on its heels in the PR game[/h] Research in Motion Ltd. RIM-T may spend its days helping people communicate. But the company's own communications during its latest technological hiccup have frustrated customers and left public relations professionals surprised at the seeming ineptitude.
More than a day after BlackBerry service started to sputter and then fail in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on Monday, the company's incomplete explanation to customers left them still searching for answers - a major failing for a company whose primary point of difference with competitors is the dependability of its service.
And even when it began to pull the curtain back on its troubles, its communications with customers were limited, leaving many BlackBerry users fuming that they weren't being heard. The company's first comprehensive outlining of the extent of its problems came Wednesday evening.
The inelegant handling of the problems, which have disrupted tens of millions of customers, has magnified the difficulties RIM has faced managing the reputation of its most valuable brand, BlackBerry, and its executives' sometimes-uncomfortable role in the spotlight.
"Everybody has their 15 minutes of shame," noted Leslie Gaines-Ross, the chief reputation strategist of the public relations firm Weber-Shandwick. "You just have to be ready for it."
RIM has followed some of the public relations crisis management playbook - it has apologized, it has reached out to customers, and it has sought to appear transparent. But its actions have been insufficient to calm people's anger. Customers have flooded Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels to complain and say they're dumping their BlackBerrys for iPhones or Android handsets.
On Wednesday afternoon, when the company staged a 3 p.m. teleconference in hopes of providing information about the outage, it sent key reporters an e-mail about the event after its official start time. Rather than take the conventional approach of having at least one of its co-chief executive officers appear, it offered up its chief technology officer, David Yach.
Asked if the company had communicated as comprehensively as it could, Mr. Yach replied: "Our priority is to get the service up and running because at the end of the day that's what's going to make our customers happy, is to have their BlackBerrys working again."
He later suggested the company had not given any thought to how it might compensate frustrated customers. "At this time, I'm just concentrating on getting the service up and running. I don't have an answer to that one right now," he said.
Most large companies have extensive crisis management plans, the corporate equivalent of a fire alarm that is activated during a potential threat to their reputation. (Indeed, the simulation program that Weber-Shandwick leads its clients through, to prepare them for just such an eventuality, is called FireBell.) A foreseeable event like a network outage would almost certainly be part of that plan.
The apology is standard practice, said Ms. Gaines-Ross. "But I have to say, it's normally the CEO apologizing." The co-chief executives of RIM, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have not been heard from during the crisis.
"It's just the way business works. The people at the top have to take responsibility."
More than a day after BlackBerry service started to sputter and then fail in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on Monday, the company's incomplete explanation to customers left them still searching for answers - a major failing for a company whose primary point of difference with competitors is the dependability of its service.
And even when it began to pull the curtain back on its troubles, its communications with customers were limited, leaving many BlackBerry users fuming that they weren't being heard. The company's first comprehensive outlining of the extent of its problems came Wednesday evening.
The inelegant handling of the problems, which have disrupted tens of millions of customers, has magnified the difficulties RIM has faced managing the reputation of its most valuable brand, BlackBerry, and its executives' sometimes-uncomfortable role in the spotlight.
"Everybody has their 15 minutes of shame," noted Leslie Gaines-Ross, the chief reputation strategist of the public relations firm Weber-Shandwick. "You just have to be ready for it."
RIM has followed some of the public relations crisis management playbook - it has apologized, it has reached out to customers, and it has sought to appear transparent. But its actions have been insufficient to calm people's anger. Customers have flooded Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels to complain and say they're dumping their BlackBerrys for iPhones or Android handsets.
On Wednesday afternoon, when the company staged a 3 p.m. teleconference in hopes of providing information about the outage, it sent key reporters an e-mail about the event after its official start time. Rather than take the conventional approach of having at least one of its co-chief executive officers appear, it offered up its chief technology officer, David Yach.
Asked if the company had communicated as comprehensively as it could, Mr. Yach replied: "Our priority is to get the service up and running because at the end of the day that's what's going to make our customers happy, is to have their BlackBerrys working again."
He later suggested the company had not given any thought to how it might compensate frustrated customers. "At this time, I'm just concentrating on getting the service up and running. I don't have an answer to that one right now," he said.
Most large companies have extensive crisis management plans, the corporate equivalent of a fire alarm that is activated during a potential threat to their reputation. (Indeed, the simulation program that Weber-Shandwick leads its clients through, to prepare them for just such an eventuality, is called FireBell.) A foreseeable event like a network outage would almost certainly be part of that plan.
The apology is standard practice, said Ms. Gaines-Ross. "But I have to say, it's normally the CEO apologizing." The co-chief executives of RIM, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have not been heard from during the crisis.
"It's just the way business works. The people at the top have to take responsibility."