The Gist
- Crisis communication essential. Clear, proactive communication is crucial during IT crises to maintain trust and manage customer expectations.
- Resilience requires redundancy. Investing in redundant systems and regular testing can prevent major disruptions and maintain operational continuity.
- Swift action mitigates damage. CrowdStrike’s quick response to the software failure highlights the importance of rapid troubleshooting and resolution.
The unprecedented global IT outage on the morning of July 19 exposed deep vulnerabilities across critical sectors, including transportation, healthcare and government services.
This disruption, traced back to a CrowdStrike software failure regarding an update, resulted in widespread flight cancellations, compromised emergency communication services and halted operations at numerous institutions, severely impacting the customer experience. Passengers faced long delays and cancellations, patients encountered postponed medical procedures and individuals found essential services disrupted.
The CrowdStrike software failure incident highlights the profound reliance on IT infrastructure and underscores the urgent need for robust system resilience and comprehensive contingency planning.
And what does it mean for marketing and customer experience leaders who may find themselves in such a crisis? Marketing and customer experience leaders must prioritize strategies to prevent end users from overwhelming customer support representatives and protect their organization’s reputation, according to Nichole Hinton, former CX practitioner and founder of Inspiruption. Marketing should focus on thorough customer education to eliminate skepticism, while CX should ensure support staff maintain professionalism during system outages, she added.
Analyzing the Chain of Events of the CrowdStrike Software Failure
The Friday morning global IT outage revealed significant vulnerabilities in sectors across industries, notably affecting Microsoft-based systems. Approximately 8.5 million Windows devices were impacted by a faulty software update from CrowdStrike. The aviation and healthcare industries were particularly hard hit, facing thousands of flight cancellations and delays, as well as the postponement of elective medical procedures. This ripple effect extended into the weekend, with thousands of flights canceled on Saturday and over 1,000 additional cancellations on Sunday morning.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz addressed the cause via Twitter, attributing the issue to a defect in a single content update for Windows hosts, leading to widespread system crashes, or “blue screens of death.” This defect caused affected machines to enter a recovery boot loop, preventing proper startup. Kurtz clarified that this was a software glitch, not a cyberattack, underscoring the complexities of IT management and the importance of rigorous update protocols.
In the United States, the outage severely impacted emergency communication services. The Phoenix Police Department’s 911 dispatch center and similar services in Alaska and New Hampshire experienced technical difficulties, although emergency services remained operational. These incidents highlighted the critical need for resilient and redundant IT systems in emergency response operations.
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The Impact on Marketing and CX
CX leader Hinton, whose online magazine dedicated to inspiration, spoke with CMSWire about the severe socio-economic impact of the CrowdStrike software failure and outage on critical industries such as airlines, banking and healthcare.
“These three massive industries serve hundreds of millions of people a day, all over the world and now, people can’t fly, they can’t do their banking, and others may not get the responsive care they need. It’s a huge socio-economic impact,” said Hinton.
“For marketing and CX leaders, it means dropping everything else to focus on how to keep (end users) from overtaxing/overstressing their customer support representatives, as well as trying to salvage their reputation.” Hinton suggested that marketing’s job is to educate, as deeply as possible, to remove the skepticism from their customers’ minds, while CX’s role is to quickly retrain/remind their customer support staff of maintaining the most professional demeanor possible when the system is down.
Hinton emphasized the importance of transparency and thorough education about the issue to instill confidence in customers regarding next steps and timelines, the latter often being more critical.
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The Impact on Government Operations
The Department of Justice (DOJ) experienced disruptions, highlighting the broader implications of the outage on government operations. While law enforcement activities remained unaffected, the CrowdStrike software failure incident required immediate workarounds and underscored the risk of opportunistic cyber threats, with malicious actors attempting to distribute malware disguised as software fixes.
The transportation sector was heavily impacted, with major metropolitan transit systems like D.C. Metro and New York City’s mass transit experiencing significant disruptions. International airports, including Berlin and Gatwick, faced IT issues, leading to delays and cancellations. In the U.S., airlines such as American, United, and Delta requested a global ground stop, resulting in over 2,000 flight cancellations and 5,000 delays by noon. This cascade of issues underscores the interconnected nature of modern transportation networks and the essential need for robust IT contingency plans.
President Joe Biden’s briefing on the outage highlighted the federal response, with the White House coordinating efforts with CrowdStrike and affected organizations. Despite these interventions, CrowdStrike’s stock price dropped nearly 15% in early trading, reflecting market sensitivity to such disruptions and broader economic implications.
Steve Ross, director of cybersecurity, Americas at S-RM, a global corporate intelligence and cybersecurity consultancy, emphasized that this event should remind leaders across all areas of an organization about the importance of business continuity planning (BCP), an important strategic endeavor that organizations should undertake to prepare for outages of critical systems, services, vendors and facilities.
“While cybersecurity may not fall under the remit of most CX leaders, this situation underscores the importance of promoting and supporting these initiatives organization-wide,” said Ross.
“Events like this happen occasionally, and they are hard to plan for from a marketing perspective,” Ross added. “While we are not marketing specialists by trade, I would say that the best approach is to build transparency and trust across your customer base before an event occurs. People seem more likely to continue working with organizations that identify issues quickly, communicate clearly with affected third parties, and genuinely have their customers’ best interests in mind.” Ross shared that some communications/marketing teams draft language in advance to share with clients/partners should an incident occur.
Impact on Customer Experience: A Deeper Look
The CrowdStrike software error and IT outage profoundly affected the customer experience across multiple sectors. Airlines struggled to manage passenger frustrations due to long delays, cancellations and inadequate communication. In healthcare, patient care was disrupted, with elective surgeries canceled and communication systems compromised, resulting in significant distress for both patients and providers.
Megan Hastings, head of customer insight strategy at digital analytics platform provider Quantum Metric, highlighted the varied impacts on customer experience, noting that average API error rates across all industries spiked roughly 600%.
“These API failures often result in long running spinners or error messages displayed to customers in critical parts of the customer journey, such as in the booking flow or during the payment process,” she said.
Hastings explained that the evolving situation could further trigger a greater rise in errors, drops in conversion and additional abandoned carts — all of which can be a direct hit to revenue and loyalty.
“The outage will also certainly cause brands to rethink how they support their customers moving forward, as call centers and help pages will be inundated as impacted customers look to rebook flights, reserve hotels and complete transactions,” Hastings added.
According to an investigation by Quantum Metric on how the incident is currently impacting customer transactions and sentiment, so far, the company has found that across industries:
- Funnel completion is down
- API errors have increased
- Long-running spinners have increased
- Payments have decreased
- Customer frustration has increased
Mario Matulich, president of market intelligence firm Customer Management Practice, emphasized the importance of investing in backup systems and implementing failover procedures to maintain operational continuity. “Regularly testing these systems can prevent minor issues from becoming major disruptions,” said Matulich.
The incident highlighted the essential need for regular software updates, thorough testing and effective communication channels to manage and mitigate disruptions.
“Communication is key during any crisis,” he said. “Transparency with customers about the issues at hand and the steps being taken to resolve them can significantly enhance trust and build brand loyalty. Proactively updating customers through multiple channels — such as social media, email and direct messaging — ensures they are well-informed and reassured.”
The Vulnerabilities in the Digital World
The recent outage acts as a compelling case study of the vulnerabilities in our increasingly digital world. It underscores the paramount importance of resilient IT systems to maintain seamless customer experiences and operational efficiency, even amid technical challenges.
Keith Kmett, principal CX adviser at Medallia, an experience management platform provider, told CMSWire that when crises like this hit, some businesses may be tempted to stop gathering customer feedback to avoid bad scores.
“However, this could actually hurt more than help,” Kmett said. “Keeping customer feedback programs active ensures that businesses have insight into what’s happening on the ground and can respond proactively. Continuously listening to customers is key to navigating any crisis and coming out stronger. Plus, by segmenting customers, businesses can prioritize who needs immediate attention to protect key relationships.”
Kmett reiterated the importance of keeping communication channels open during crisis situations.
“Engaging with customers continuously, especially during crises, shows a commitment to their well-being,” said Kmett. “This builds trust and loyalty, demonstrating that companies value customer feedback and are dedicated to resolving issues.”
Final Thoughts on CrowdStrike Outage
The CrowdStrike software failure and global IT outage on Friday, July 19, revealed significant vulnerabilities in digital infrastructures across various sectors. While CrowdStrike’s swift response mitigated some damage, the incident emphasized the critical need for robust contingency planning and effective communication strategies to maintain customer trust and service continuity.
As reliance on digital technologies intensifies, ensuring the resilience and reliability of these systems is paramount to safeguarding customer experience and operational efficiency.
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