The network paralysis- The Idea Story

“To err is human to forgive divine”

If not the Airline Industry,it’s the telecom sector in India that is undergoing a cut throat competition in the market.

The rules and regulations in this industry have made the players fight tooth and nail not only to win new customers but also to retain the existing ones. Each player in the industry has put all efforts to make their brand unique and to stay close to the customer. Since there is only very little space to differentiate in the product offerings, brands try to differentiate in their service, network coverage and messaging to build their brand image in the customer’s perceptions.

If brands need to be defined in one word, the closest definition I feel is “Trust”.Brand equity is tantamount to trust worthiness.

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it

Benjamin Franklin

This Saturday was not so good, if not for all at least for Idea customers in Kerala. People were not able to connect with their loved ones.A technical snag in Idea resulted in the network outage in Kerala for several hours.It was one such day where Idea’s reputation as a brand got a severe hit.

This incident illustrates that in today’s inter-connected world,we couldn’t manage a couple of hours, let alone a day without the Mobile phone.People are so dependent on the mobile that their life will go standstill without a phone. The people who believed in “Idea can change their life” got stuck in their life for a day; they were not able to call their friends, plan their date, close a deal or to inform/call for help on an emergency.

People got frustrated and they took out their vengeance in the social media with the hashtags #NoIdea #IdeaDown which caused a dent in the image of Brand Idea who is the market leader in Kerala.

Knowing the depth of the dent that the technical glitch has caused the brand, the team Idea,  we must admit responded fast. They came forward and acknowledged the network outage and inconvenience that it caused to the customer. They also updated the customers  as and when the issue got resolved.

We all know that to err is human (so this could happen for any brand), we as customers appreciate their act to come forward and admit it and to keep them posted when it was fixed.

Also Team Idea has come up with 100 minutes free talk time for their idea family for the inconvenience that they had inadvertently caused.

The emergency response from Idea not only in the operational front (by fixing the technical glitch) but also in the Brand management (by providing 100 mins Loc /STD calls free) is highly appreciable.

Idea has done a wonderful job in fixing the dent in the network and brand swiftly.

But only time will tell us how far they have succeed in bringing back the lost trust of the customers and how good they heal the wound made in customer’s mind.