RIM’s Blackberry Messenger has been known to be consistently reliable service for its users. However, this reputation acts like a double-edged sword as its customers are less forgiving when the service goes down. This past week, a hardware failure temporarily rendered the service useless to tens of millions of Blackberry users. Because RIM routes all Blackberry data through its servers, a system crash affects users around the world.
Fortunately, RIM has a loyal customer base, so it is not likely that many will jump ship for the iPhone or another smartphone device right away. However, the event it did negatively affect their brand image, stock value, and will deter potential customers. Although RIM’s customer loyalty may have lessened the impact of this crisis, RIM should take steps in the future to ensure that incidents like these do not happen again, as a customer base faced with so many other substitutes for RIM’s Blackberry may not be as forgiving next time.
Source: The Globe and Mail
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