Call me crazy, but I tend to think issues like this ultimately serve, if handled well, to improve a company's public standing.
Though I suppose that depends on how one defines "well"...
I royally screwed up the embed script testing for our very first customer resulting in their entire site not functioning and a panicking customer on the other end. I ended up writing a 3 page post-martem and apology. We debated a bit internally to be as open as I'd been, essentially admitting basic sloppiness on my part and promising to learn from the mistake if given a chance.
Fast forward 7 months, the same customer(originally acquired from a cold call) recently introduced us--without asking--to one of the top seed funds locally.
These days it is too much about the electronic and not enough of the "physical" in my mind.
The Marriott hotel chain found that guests who had something bad happen during their stay but which the Marriott fixed were actually more likely to return than those who had nothing bad happen at all.
Source: www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-48540174/how-customer-complaints-can-improve-business/
Everybody makes mistakes, and everybody experiences bad luck.
If you only experience good times with a company, then you have no idea how they respond to bad times. They might be great, or they might be awful. You just have no idea.
If you experience a problem with a company, then you know how they respond to problems. If they do poorly, you'll avoid them. But if they do well, you now know that they handle problems well.
The time then comes to choose a company for something. Which do you choose: an unknown, or a company that you know handles problems well?
If Twilio's overall service wasn't excellent, people wouldn't be nearly as willing to view this from the positive angle. If Twilio weren't a startup - if it were, say, SalesForce.com - this also would hurt more than it would help.
Fortunately, Twilio seems to know this. They're absolutely in no way resting on their existing positive reputation. Even though they've earned the trust and respect of so many customers, they're still treating each and every customer as if they must still continue to earn their trust and respect.
Word of advice to Twilio execs: when this is all done and over with give your PR people a bonus and/or a raise. They did a fantastic job here in a nearly impossible situation, and I'm sure the recruiters are circling like sharks.
Glad to hear you got the information you needed when you needed it - still a lot of work to do to resolve this to our customers' complete satisfaction.
We'll get it done.
Can't be easy. :)
We still owe you a full technical post mortem of the incident and we are responding to all the servicing fee reimbursement requests at help@twilio.com.
Deeply appreciate your support - more to come.