Four Ways RIM Can Rebound from BlackBerry Outage

13.10.2011
BlackBerry users around the world have been impacted this week . RIM has offered an explanation of the problem, and it has apologized, but it is going to take more than for RIM to regain the faith of loyal customers.

RIM is already spiraling to its doom. With iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S launching this week, Windows Phone "Mango" rolling out, and Android "Ice Cream Sandwich" on the imminent horizon, there are plenty of out there.

It will never regain its once-lofty status, but there are some things it can do to bounce back from this outage, and reverse its fortunes in the short term:

1. Compensation

For starters, RIM needs to compensate BlackBerry users around the world. RIM has explained that the outage was caused by a cascading failure stemming from failed switch. Since RIM has identified the issue and can trace the issue back to its own network, it needs to accept responsibility and not expect its wireless provider partners to take the heat.

The real question is "how much?" While the outage itself only lasted a few days, it will take more than a pro-rated kickback for two or three days of lost service. RIM needs to toss in a free month, or something more substantial to demonstrate to customers how truly sorry it is, and how much the customers are valued.