Garmin’s global product crash: A Case Study and Tips On Public Relations and Customer Service

When it comes to product development and software the Latin slogan should officially be stercus accidit. Quick current case study on public relations and customer service:

Garmin known for its reliable and innovated global products is experiencing a massive crash likely due to a software issue.

As we all know, “stuff” happens but acknowledgement of an issue is not the same as an apology or ownership of it.

When things go south, Trust and relationships must be triaged as issues get sorted.

Even the biggest mistakes can be forgiven with proper approach.

For almost 48 hours, many watches are simply unusable. Hikers, divers, soldiers, and athletes rely on these watches. Many simply went dark mid adventure.

And sadly, Garmin simply “acknowledged” the issue. There will be learnings from a cybersecurity and software testing standpoint, but one big miss is the ongoing public relations and customer service failure.

What could Garmin have done differently and still could do differently on the PR customer service front?

Not what they’re currently doing to start. If you look at their social media accounts it seems amost tone deaf to be pushing products without a nod to the current issue. An apology, hugely important. And they should have expanded customer service hours.

Solution:

1. triage trust and relationships with customers giving you time to solve the product issue. How? Be geunine not aloof or defensive. “We are aware and apologize for this issue. Thank you for being our customer. We are on it”; Go further

2. Show grace and reconciliation: “ in the meantime, please check your app for a x% discount code”; close it out

3. Show effort: “Some potential work around are here x. Resolving asap and we have expanded chat and customer arrive hours now 5am to 9pm pst!”

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