What went wrong with Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Communications.

In October 2016, Samsung recalled 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones across the world and faced a major communication crisis. It all started when several Galaxy Note 7 phones were reported to have spontaneously combusted into flames. Samsung quickly responded asking consumers to have their phones with faulty batteries replaced with the ones that had new batteries. However, the situation worsened when the replaced phones also started bursting into flames and they had to stop production of their phones and had to recall all the sold phones. According to Melissa Agnes, contributor for Forbes, the risk was deemed so great that several global airline regulators put out warnings stating that Galaxy Note 7 should not be switched on during flight or even hooked to plane’s USB ports for charging. Samsung was facing a major communications crisis and the way the situation was handled resulted in Samsung losing its market value. According to Su-Hyun Lee and Paul Mozur, reporters for The New York Times, the constant reports of the phones catching fires had a huge negative impact on Samsung’s reputation and they lost $14 billion of their market value.

After the recall in October 2016, very few details were released regarding what happened to the phone and Samsung continued to focus on making sure the people were not still using the faulty phones. The added silence until January 2017, when they disclosed what caused the phones to overheat and catch fire, Samsung’s reputation had plunged even more. Tym Moynihan of Wired reported that according to the company’s in-house investigation and analysis the overheating was caused by two different problems in batteries from two different suppliers.

Initially, when reports of Galaxy Note 7s bursting surfaced, Samsung was quick to respond and issued public statements regarding the news across the world. Samsung showed seriousness toward the situation by responding swiftly and taking action. Although it is important that a company in a situation of crisis responds quickly to control messaging but it is also important the information imparted is accurate. Sapna Maheshwari, a reporter for New York Times, reported that Samsung assured the customers in Hong Kong that the phones sold there were unaffected and would not cause any problem until the day after when they had to reverse their initial statement and recall the phones sold in Hong Kong as well.

Samsung was right to respond quickly and take action but their desire to promptly issue an official statement backfired as they failed to impart accurate information to its consumers and failed to comply with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall guidelines as they didn’t coordinate the recall of phone with CPSC which has been mandated in the guidelines. Melissa Agnes in her report added, “While I believe that their intentions for a swift response to this important issue were honorable, their rashness resulted in frustrating their customers and regulators, as well as continued and renewed media attention, impacted their reputation.” The company was on the right track but didn’t do a good job of handling the situation and became a subject of consumer backlash and let the situation slide out of their hands (Dejene, 2017).

In order to handle the situation better, the company’s messaging should have been consistent across all channels and they should have taken time to analyze the situation before coming out with an official statement. They could have instead addressed the issue by apologizing to the consumers for the inconvenience, and endangering their lives. The company, before starting to replace the phones, should have been more responsible and taken a deeper dive to understand and recognize the fault. The key messages after the recall should have addressed the seriousness of the issue and the safety of the customers.

Andrew Gilman, the chief executive of the crisis communications firm CommCore Consulting Group in an interview with New York Times said the company should have chosen to incorporate bold methodologies of communications by showing concern, accepting the truth, ensuring the assessment of the situation, and promising to rectify the mistake as soon as possible. The company should have complied with CPSC recall guidelines and worked with them before recalling their phones. Although it is imperative to be timely with your messages, however, timeliness needs to be equally balanced with accuracy. Any lack in either of those can lead to disastrous results, in a situation of crisis, as it did for Samsung.

Bibliography

Agnes, M. (2016, September 15). What Samsung Did Wrong When Responding To The Galaxy Note 7 Disaster. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissaagnes/2016/09/15/what-samsung-did-wrong-when-responding-to-the-galaxy-note-7-disaster/#233d8e371795

Dejene, B. (2017, June 15). Samsung’s crisis communication response: Ineffective response strategies across traditional and social media platforms. 52-54.

Lee, S.-H., & Mozur, P. (2016, September 15). Samsung Stumbles in Race to Recall Troubled Phones. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/business/samsung-galaxy-note-recall.html?smtyp=cur&_r=0

Maheshwari, S. (2016, October 2016). Samsung’s Response to Galaxy Note 7 Crisis Draws Criticism. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/business/media/samsungs-passive-response-to-note-7s-overheating-problem-draws-criticism.html

Moynihan, T. (2017, January 22). Samsung Finally Reveals Why the Note 7 Kept Exploding. Retrieved from Wired: https://www.wired.com/2017/01/why-the-samsung-galaxy-note-7-kept-exploding/