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What should Virgin Mobile Australia do in response to their problematic CRM upgrade?
While upgrading their CRM and billing system, Virgin Mobile Australia announced that they ran into some unforeseen problems. Mobile phone service was not affected, but users could not access any of the company's online services. The company has not announced what issues caused the "extended delay". Should they announce what went wrong? What steps, if any, should Virgin Mobile Australia take moving forward?Link: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/377671/crm_upgrade_downs_online_services_virgin_mobile/?fp=4&fpid=1398720840
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1 Answer
Assuming that this did not hit the press, the three most important considerations in deciding how to handle this are:
1. User concerns (imagined or real) about the security of their data.
2. A limited number of users was affected. (You did not specify how long the "extended delay lasted.)
3. Each of those users definitely knows that you had a problem.
Assuming that the press did not pick this up, here is what I would recommend to Virgin Mobile Australia:
1, Identify the users that did attempt to access the website during the outage.
2. Send them and them only an email communication which:
- Apologizes for the service interruption and any inconvenience that they may have experienced. (Refer to the time frame vaguely using something like "early February". Do not specify the exact number of hours, days or weeks.)
- Explains that during an upgrade designed to provide better backend services with which to support this customer and other customers, an unexpected system conflict required that the online services be taken offline until that conflict could be resolved.
- Assures them that their personal secure data remained absolutely secure throughout the upgrade process.
- Gives them an email address if they have any comments that they would like to share or any remaining questions about the interruption.
- Credits any system generated late charges.
Of course, close with the usual thank you for being a great customer of Virgin Mobile Australia.
An offer of a discount on the next month's bill should be considered. They did experience some inconvenience and, after all, service is not just about the phone service itself. Service is, of course, about our total relationship with our customers. You could use a click through on the email such as "Click here to receive a special thank you from Virgin Mobile".
Have the communication come from a specific person (real or otherwise).
Whatever VMA does, it should be done quickly. No one wants customer pain and uncertainty to linger.
Handled correctly, this could bring VMA customers closer to VMA.
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