Outages Can Stop Sales, Delay Service and Frustrate Customers
- Internet outages can stop small business operations, cutting off sales, scheduling and customer communication.
- Small businesses lose revenue during internet outages, even when the disruption lasts only a short time.
- Customers become frustrated when websites go down, which can damage trust and lead to lost future business.
- Planning for internet outages helps small businesses stay resilient, protect revenue and maintain customer relationships.
When Cloudflare experienced an outage on November 18, 2025, users worldwide found themselves unable to conduct business as usual. Error messages greeted them on X and ChatGPT, and their access was blocked from Canva, Spotify, Discord, Shopify and more.
This example is just one of the recent internet outages. Whenever these incidents occur, businesses suffer multiple negative impacts. Given the likelihood of future outages, savvy business leaders are taking proactive steps to mitigate their effects.
How Website Outages Harm Small Businesses
When critical infrastructure fails, it can bring entire businesses to a halt. This is particularly true for those that rely heavily on their website, such as restaurants, financial institutions, salons, HVAC maintenance providers, plumbers, electricians, accountants and bookkeepers. Businesses in these industries depend on their sites for ordering, scheduling, reviewing accounts or submitting information.
Outages aren’t good for anyone involved — not the business owner, staff members or the customers. Revenues are lost, dragging profitability down. Team members can no longer do their work, and every second of downtime puts them further behind.
For business owners and leaders, website outages can feel like a nightmare that is out of their control. The first thing most of them do is contact their hosting provider and web developer. In some cases, they may be able to resolve the issue by adjusting the Domain Name System (DNS), rerouting traffic, switching to a different content delivery network (CDN), or temporarily disabling glitchy features. If the problem is with Cloudflare, an Internet service provider, or the backbone routing, however, even IT professionals will be powerless to fix it. Small business owners watch helplessly as hard-won leads spin through a revolving door, exiting the sales funnel almost as quickly as they entered.
As the outage drags on longer and longer, these problems snowball. Even after the outage is over, the relief is only temporary.
Further Negative Ramifications of Website Outages
When outages end, businesses continue to suffer from ripple effects. Many business leaders must throw their previous plans for the day out the proverbial window as they turn to damage control to ensure their website is operating properly. Many also need to spend valuable time and energy establishing a backup plan for dealing with future outages.
In addition, when outages occur, a flood of customer complaints and issues usually follows. Business representatives will need to reply to each email, text, phone call or social media comment, giving personal attention to those who experienced inconvenience or worse during the incident. To be most effective, they must not only hear the client out in full but also explain how the problem is being addressed so that it will never happen again.
In my experience, some customers can become so upset that they lose trust in the company. They may even leave a negative review for potential clients to see, though this can happen even if the business they are reviewing was not responsible for the outage. Since many consumers base their purchasing decisions on such reviews, this can hurt a business greatly and for a long time.
It’s worth considering the consumers’ point of view as well. In certain situations, an outage may raise fears that they will be required to pay late fees or other charges to utility companies and financial institutions. In cases like these, it will probably be in the company’s best interest to offer a grace period or waive fees for loyal customers who were caught in an outage through no fault of their own.
Businesses can do several things to have the most resilient infrastructure possible and keep problems from outages to a minimum.
How Small Businesses can Weather an Outage Best
First and foremost, business leaders should consider building a level of redundancy into their systems. That way, if one part goes down, another can spring to the rescue.
For instance, small businesses can have hotspots on hand to get back online if their internet connection is disrupted. Large businesses and major corporations could consider integrating software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) technology, which automatically reroutes internet traffic to the best connection available. Another possible solution is using two internet providers with different upstream networks and a system that automatically switches to the other if one fails.
Another important step is to reduce dependence on any single vendor. If a single provider is responsible for many parts of your system, then if it goes down, it will take many of those parts with it. For instance, consider adding a backup service in advance that would keep your domain running and emergency tools for communication or invoices.
Creating standard operating procedures specifically for outages can also make your business more efficient and valuable. Make sure employees understand how to take orders, record data for later processing, and reach customers even when their usual systems aren’t working. It’s also a good idea to have a social media post and webpage announcement of technical difficulties on a separate platform (potentially for free) prepped and ready to go.
Finally, it’s important to know when your website and critical systems are no longer working as soon as possible. Basic monitoring systems can be set up for free; more sophisticated ones, for a monthly fee.
Protect Your Company from Technology Outages
While the providers of critical technology work hard to ensure seamless service, the ever-evolving nature of the Internet means that sometimes unforeseen problems will arise. Given the interconnected nature of today’s technology, future outages should be expected.
For this reason, savvy business leaders should take proactive steps to protect their companies and ensure a reliable customer experience. Their profit margins depend on it.
About the Author
Brian Aagaard, founder of Cooperhawk Business Brokerage, has decades of experience across both corporate and privately held companies, combining strategic insight with operational understanding. He helps Main Street business owners achieve the best possible outcomes when selling their companies. Known for his personal approach and deep industry relationships, Brian’s expertise bridges financial insight, negotiation and client care.
