Galaxy Note 7 explosions: Samsung is neglecting its customers

Samsung today is in a very tight spot. I’m not talking about now, but over the past few weeks ago. As for what’s happening right now, the buzz around the web points to five of its replaced Galaxy Note 7 phablets catching fire, which is an even bigger problem. But it doesn’t end there. Samsung has something off epic proportions headed its way. No, it’s not about how it discards those faulty smartphones, but the hurricane of lawsuits and problems related to customer service, ones that Samsung has yet to address formally. Right now it simply appears the company’s communications team has taken a step back. A problem of epic proportions It’s a problem of epic proportions and one that is yet to come. It was problem that Samsung could have taken care of by killing the Note series after the first wave of Note 7’s catching fire. Giving customers an instant refund would have been the next best thing. Customers would have been happy, and they would have even forgiven Samsung for the mess. But this is exactly what Samsung did not do. Despite analysts claiming that the best way forward was to take the product off the shelves, Samsung went on with what would be called a really expensive recall. Forbes estimated a cost of around $900 billion but that was just for the first wave. If the ongoing investigations about replaced units catching fire turns out to true, Samsung could be in for another recall. Let’s hope that this time around, Samsung does the right thing and doesn’t replace them with a third version of the smartphone. [caption id=“attachment_336190” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image Credit: REUTERS[/caption] “The real impact of Samsung’s Note 7 mess up will be visible in the next 3-4 quarters. This will not die in just the next quarter. The brand has been impacted in a very huge way. Samsung should only expect a modest outcome from their upcoming smartphone announcements. Samsung has already lost 16 billion dollars in this mess and you could probably add an equal amount in terms of sales.” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO of Greyhound Research. “The consumer mindset is very shortlived. They are a very strong company that has delivered some great results and great products in the past as well. We will see financial impact in the short run, but with its solid credibility, Samsung could work its way out.” he said. Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Market Research said," This will hurt Samsung’s share in the premium smartphone segment. In the absence of the Note 7 , Samsung will be left with a couple of months old flagships against newly launched iPhone 7 series and other new flagships coming from Android camp like Pixel from Google." What is Samsung doing about it? The Korean giant has its legs dipped into multiple industries, so we did expect Samsung’s Mobile division to take a stance and convince its customers that it is still a trustworthy company. But where’s the fun in that, right? Samsung has yet to give out refunds to customers who had pre-ordered a smartphone in India. Not only was the pre-booking amount paid in full by many customers, but they also expected the product to reach on time, expectations that were not met by Samsung, as the product roll-out kept getting delayed. What did customers get from this? A free Gear VR headset and bundled apps to use on a smartphone that could catch fire at any given moment. Not a pretty picture! Now only if Samsung had gone in for a user-replaceable or a removable battery when it came to design. A replaceable battery could have helped owners double up on batteries on longer trips as well. Samsung could simply mailed the new battery to customers and there would have been no need for an expensive recall. But since waterproofing is a thing with today’s flagships, Samsung may have had no option but to go in for a closed design. Nobody is buying Samsung’s excuses But then it all boils down to the testing phase doesn’t it? It is evidently clear that Samsung did not test its first batch of Galaxy Note 7s thoroughly. But what about the second batch that making it to the news? Why on earth would a company not test out the battery unit which was supposed to fix its first blunder? Well, that’s because Samsung appears to be taking its customers for granted. “By putting our top priority on customer safety, we’ve decided to halt sales (of Galaxy Note 7) and offer new replacement handsets to all customers,” Nobody is buying the above line, especially after the shocking message that a Samsung sent to a customer, which was obviously not meant for him. It read, “Just now got this. I can try and slow him down if we think it will matter, or we just let him do what he keeps threatening to do and see if he does it” Samsung could have done a lot better The launch of the Google Pixel is not great news for Samsung either. “With a Daydream ready smartphone and a VR ecosystem to go, the Pixel will have a negative impact on Samsung’s sales with consumers looking at the Google Pixel XL instead as they have instant software updates to go with it as well.” said Sanchit Gogia. “Samsung has done very poorly on the communication part of this issue. It should have communicated very proactively, and explained and apologised for the same. The company could have even launched a campaign to tell the world what was happening and how were they handling the situation.” “Nestle in India went through similar issue with Maggi and Cadbury, but they pulled it off beautifully by being open about the issue. Even a campaign giving an indepth look at how the smartphones were made would have helped with customer satifaction about the brand.” he said, when comparing these instances on how other brands have handled the same. “At the time of crisis the best a company can do is to become as transparent as it can be to end users. Samsung need to find out the real issue and communicate the same to the end users as quickly as possible whether its about batteries, charging unit or manufacturing process. A second recall or halt in production without pinpointing the root cause will have a major impact on its brand image especially on its loyal note 7 users.” said Tarun Pathak. With all that has already happened it’s a pity that things have turned out to be this way. With the Note brand, Samsung had come up with its own smartphone segment from scratch. Back then, few would have though that even Apple would ape them in this regard, but things have changed now. One tiny mistake was that Samsung rushed to deliver a smartphone before Apple and LG and that is move that its fans would remember, but for all the wrong reasons.