Has Blippy’s leak response been adequate?
You’ve let your users down. Now what? That’s the question facing Blippy CEO Ashvin Kumar in the lead stories from today’s SmartBrief on Social Media. Blippy, a service that allows users to share news of their credit card purchases with friends, made headlines last week after it accidentally divulged four users credit card numbers via a Google search.
Kumar responded by calling each user with a compromised account. It’s kept a steady stream of updates coming on its blog and publicized those updates via Twitter. Is that enough?
Blippy’s situation isn’t unique. Facebook has had its share of gaffes — and in each case the fuss was minimal and quickly forgotten. Blippy is in a tougher spot because 1) the leak involves credit card numbers and 2) Blippy can’t exist if people aren’t willing to trust them with their credit card numbers. Facebook also has the advantage of a large, stable user base, something Blippy can’t say yet. If it ever wants to become a large, stable network, it needs to make sure its crisis response is up to par.
What does a social network need to do to restore trust after a leak of some kind? Has Blippy met that test? Is forgiveness just a matter of time, or is there something more the network needs to do?
Image credit, Tomas Skopal, via Shutterstock
Posted by Seth Kravitz on April 26th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
It's so critical to be transparent when you make an error and talk in terms that your customers can relate to. Hiding behind corporate "PR" speak is a terrible plan and highly irresponsible.
As for their response, they need to own up to a major mistake and clearly define how they will prevent it from ever happening again over the next week.
My recent post Lonely Nights
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