Hot Topics: The Samsung Recall
Brand trust isn’t easy to build. Samsung has shown us a blueprint in how not to handle disaster.
When it comes to creating trust as a brand, there are many layers that a company has to build up before their consumers develop a long-term relationship and choose to repeat buy products from a given company. With electronics brands that sell a product as important to consumers as smartphones, that trust-building process is even more important.
Un-Euphoric Recall
The recent fallout from Samsung’s recall of the Galaxy Note 7 is more or less a case study in how not to breed consumer trust around a key product like smartphones, particularly in the wake of controversy. Samsung released its top-of-the-line smartphone model in mid-August, in a thinly-veiled move to undermine Apple’s release of the iPhone 7. By doing this, they attracted the maximum amount of attention to their product in order to create hype. So, when it came to light shortly after that a battery problem caused some people’s phones to catch fire, the problem was extremely embarrassing for the company. They had sought the spotlight, and now it was firmly affixed on their failings and casting a negative glow not just on the Note, but all their smartphones.
Not too long after, on September 2 2016, the company issued one of the smartphone industry’s largest ever recalls, saying it would “voluntarily recall 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones in 10 markets due to faulty batteries”, while also “outlining a trade-in program for the U.S. and other markets,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Product recalls are a very unfortunate thing for a company—especially the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer—but they don’t necessarily have to spell complete doom for the consumer trust a company has built up. In Samsung’s case, the issue is less about the recall, and more about how the company dealt with it afterwards and the information it gave consumers.
No Fly Zone
As Samsung saw its shares plunge in the wake of the US Federal Aviation Authority warning consumers not to take their phones on airplanes, criticism fell on the company for its failure to notify the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. As the Wall Street Journal wrote, “In announcing the recall, however, experts say, the South Korean company appears to have neglected to first alert the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which by law must be notified within 24 hours after a safety risk has been identified. Recall announcements are generally then carried out jointly with the CPSC.”
In addition to neglecting this step, Samsung also released confusing and conflicted information to consumers about how and when they could get a replacement phone. They underestimated just how much consumers use their smartphones, and therefore just how reluctant they might be to voluntarily let go of them. If the directive were clear and straightforward, with specific instructions for how to gain a replace phone quickly and efficiently, more consumers might have been willing to come forward. Instead, Samsung has been unforgivingly opaque about the specifics. As The Verge reported:
“The initial recall on September 2nd said the company would “voluntarily replace [users’] current device with a new one over the coming weeks,” but didn’t mention whether it was safe to continue using the device. A week later owners were advised not only to exchange their device “now,” but to also power it off completely. In the same release Samsung said that exchanging a faulty Note 7 for a new device would only happen “pending […] approval” from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), but did not give a timeline for this approval process or what the delay might be.”
The lessons from Samsung’s recall are plentiful. First, of course, make sure you have a good product before you build lots of hype and attract loads of attention to its release. Then, if something does go wrong, act swiftly, within the confines of the law, and be clear to consumers what they should do while also minimizing any inconvenience to them.