10 Yetis Insight Blog - What Does Samsung Do Now?

So for any of us not living under a rock, it’s blatantly obvious that Samsung is having an absolute nightmare at the moment with their Galaxy Note7 blowing up, being recalled, being replaced and then blowing up again. Now it’s been announced that they are halting production completely on the design as they just could not figure out why the machines were overheating.

The damage this has done to their image is monumental, with some publications reporting that dedicated fans of the South Korean phone company are now turning their backs on them and opting to use other tech giants.

Bearing this in mind, I thought I’d go through what we in the 10 Yetis office think Samsung should do to try and remedy the situation.

Total Recall

It’s imperative that all of the Galaxy Note7s are recalled and this is such a huge task that we definitely do not envy the Samsung team. It is estimated that 2.5 million of the notes were distributed through partners spread across the globe.

While some may argue that if the consumer has the handset, then surely it’s now in their hands and not Samsungs, yet if Samsung shows that it really is putting effort in getting all of the Notes returned to them, as well as compensating those effected, it will hopefully begin to restore faith in the company.

Besides, having airports announce no Galaxy Note7s are allowed in them or on flights isn’t the best of PR and won’t stop until all of the gadgets have been returned.

Figure It Out

One of the biggest issues many consumers have at the moment is that Samsung seem to have no idea why it is their Galaxy Note7’s are blowing up. In fact, they recalled the product to work on the issue but sent out still faulty items as they rushed to ‘fix’ the problem.

My advice for Samsung would be to take their time and actually get to the root of the problem and then fully release this to the public. The fact that the team of experts don’t actually know why their batteries keep blowing up is pretty troubling and doesn’t make the best impression. At least if they actually have a reason for this disaster they can then go about fixing it and repairing their consumers trust in them.

Apologise – Profusely

It’s no surprise that this whole horrific experience has effected Samsung’s customers trust in them monumentally.

It has been reported that negative talk on social media regarding Samsung increased from 6% to almost 40% - a huge spike.

Samsung leadership should be as vocal as possible to both their consumers and their partners; they should apologise for the situation, compensate where they can and ensure that future products will never experience the same fate as the Galaxy Note7.

Attempt To Regain What Was Lost

It has been reported that during this time, Samsung’s market capitalisation lost billions thanks to the Note7, with stock having dropped dramatically in the days following the initial phone drama.

With this in mind, regaining the trust of customers and partners is imperative or they will continue to see a loss in market share.

There has been talk of Samsung trying to hurry up other products in attempts to fill the gap that the Note7 has left. However this could be a terrible idea and could lead to even more troubles as it has been speculated that the reason the Note7 had any faults to begin with was because the company rushed to get the product out to compete with Apple’s iPhone 7.

Now let’s take a look at some other horrific PR nightmares for tech companies so we can learn from their mistakes.

Sony (and Dell) Exploding Batteries

Back in 2006, another battery story hit the headlines when Sony laptop batteries exploded left, right and centre. Dell was also dragged into the mess as Sony insisted that the reason the explosions kept happening was because of the way Dell constructed the PCs. Dell always stayed adamant that it was the Sony batteries themselves that were the problem.

Recalling the tech cost Sony an estimated 10 million.

Yahoo! Password Scandal

Earlier this year Yahoo! received a battering after it was revealed that data related to at least 500 million user accounts had been stolen. The worst part was the breach was reported as to have happened in 2014.

This meant Yahoo! didn’t address the cyberattacks for 2 years, putting their user’s data at risk. Yahoo! is said to be still working with the FBI to learn more about the details of the breach.

Sony Playstation Hack

In 2011 the Sony Playstation network was hacked, much like Yahoo!, with data of 77 million users being accessed. This meant names of users, addresses, email addresses, security questions and passwords were taken by the hackers.

Gamers were kept from entering the network for a week and Sony suspended the system once they discovered the gravity of the situation.

As many gamers stored their credit and debit card details on the network to make purchasing games easier, Sony stated that users should “remain vigilant” when reviewing account statements.

There have been countless other tech disasters in the past that have led to terrible press which Samsung should have learnt from. Hopefully no other companies will be making the same mistakes in the future.