Ways Your Site Downtime Can Be Costing Your Company Money

Industry News & Information

downtime-moneyYou don’t have to look far to find statistics related to the effects of website downtime – many claim that businesses lose tens of billions of dollars annually due to websites being unreachable. On a company-by-company basis, the numbers will differ, with larger businesses that suffer downtime having greater potential for loss. Unfortunately, downtime cannot be entirely avoided. For example, websites require some amount of scheduled downtime for maintenance and upgrades on a fairly regular basis. Even if you anticipate this occurrence and you take steps to inform users and minimize inconvenience, it will still cost you on some level.

As a small business owner it can be difficult to calculate the actual costs of website downtime since it is impossible to know what you’re missing out on when your site is offline and inaccessible to customers and potential visitors. However, with tracking you can get an idea of possible losses due to downtime during certain seasons or certain times of day. You first need to understand the ways in which you could be losing revenue and potential revenue when you suffer downtime, whether it is scheduled or unanticipated.

Sales

One of the easiest costs to calculate is lost sales due to downtime. While there is no way to know definitively the number of sales or amount of potential revenue lost when your website is inaccessible to customers, you can probably make a pretty close estimate for the time frame of the outage based on past sales data. This, of course, will not help you to measure the loss of potential future sales based on prospective customers finding (or not finding) your site for the first time, disgruntled patrons, and even word of mouth.

New Customers

Businesses that want to continue increasing earnings need to constantly work to expand their customer base and encourage repeat visits and purchases. This means catering to new customers. Think about this: how would you react if you were searching for goods or services online and stumbled across a website that wouldn’t load? Would you wait and try again or simply go back to your search query and click the next link for a competitor website? Internet shoppers are a fickle bunch, and they can afford to be with so many options to choose from. As a business, downtime can have a significant negative impact on your ability to bring in new clientele.

Customer Loyalty

Customers that have been satisfied with your products and services in the past are more likely to allow for a slipup when it comes to website accessibility. But if you suffer from frequent outages, you’re likely to lose even loyal customers in the process. Consumers want companies that offer convenience and reliability. They may only have to find your website down once or twice before they start seeking services elsewhere.

Reputation

It is extremely difficult to calculate the cost of a waning reputation. One thing is certain, though, when you suffer frequent and/or extended downtime, you’re likely to develop a bad reputation as a result, and users aren’t shy about voicing their displeasure via consumer review sites, directories, social media, and so on. If enough people post negative comments about your business, it could be the first thing prospective customers find when searching for you. This can definitely prevent sales and patronage, which could cost you an astonishing amount in lost revenue.

Morale

It’s easy to pinpoint the ways in which downtime affects consumers, and subsequently, sales. But what about losses related to productivity? When employees are constantly fielding emails, calls, and other correspondence related to downtime, staff morale can be affected. Everyone wants to work for a company that is beloved and that they can take pride in. As morale decreases, so too can productivity, which can equate to profit loss.

Disaster Recovery

Your reaction to downtime is likely to cost you. To some degree you’ll have to go into disaster recovery mode, mitigating losses by assuaging loyal customers, offering discounts and freebies, switching service providers or upgrading to more suitable service packages, and potentially hiring an online reputation management specialist to clean up your image.

Solutions

Finding the right web host can go a long way toward rectifying issues with downtime. You can also do your best to plan scheduled downtime when it will cause the least amount of potential loss, as well as providing ample warning to customers so they aren’t surprised when your site is offline for maintenance or upgrades. In addition, it’s probably best to hire a monitoring service to alert you immediately when your website is inaccessible, allowing you the opportunity to get up and running again before any damage can be done.