As reported in the New York Times today, approximately 220 million people across the globe use Skype to make long distance calls over the internet. For two days, a software problem took down the Skype network so users could not log on to make calls or send instant messages.
Skype has announced it will let the cat out of the bag tomorrow and tell the world what caused the system outage for 2-days. In the meantime, how has the lack of information and time without service affected the Skype brand? Many people rely on that service to conduct business, much of which came to a screeching halt on Thursday when they couldn't log onto Skype.
According to ITechTips.com, the fallout has already begun. During the system outage, Skype's competitor, "SIPphone, saw a 400% increase in traffic the day of the Skype outage, with 4 times increase in sales, calls and downloads of its Gizmo Project software." It just goes to show that when critical business functions are threatened, brand loyalty is often thrown out the window.
Can Skype recover and regain the trust of its current and prospective customers? Can Skype effectively reassure customers that a widespread system outage won't happen again? What do you think?
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