T-Mobile Credibility and Leverage… Again

You may recall our October article about T-Mobile’s Sidekick user data loss problem, or may have read some of the 25 or 26 million references available via a search for “T-Mobile data loss”. It is a simple, real-world example of how loss of credibility can hurt your business.

T-Mobile’s public statements allow us to make some estimate of the business value of this temporary service loss, and the  long-term credibility loss that goes with it.  Add these up:

  • The estimated cost of lost business in sales of Sidekicks and the far larger long-term loss from sales of service plans when T-Mobile temporarily suspended sales of the Sidekick after the outage.
  • The cost of the $100 “service vouchers” that were offered to users inconvenienced or impacted by the outage.
  • The 14% price reduction that T-Mobile has made to the price of the Sidekick LX model ($175 to $150), now that sales have been restarted.

It’s a big deal.  Next time your credibility is on the line, remember what’s at stake, and protect it.  How quickly you respond, and how effective you are, can add up to a lot.  (td)