The national Cash App outage that occurred on January 23rd, 2021 has come at a heavy cost for many small business owners. According to recent reports, the outage cost these businesses thousands in lost revenue.
The outage affected millions of mobile banking and Cash App customers who were unable to access their funds.Though the company was quick to respond and offer customer service assistance, the damage was done as customers were left waiting in limbo.
The impact of the outage was felt by more than just Cash App and mobile banking customers. According to a recent report, small businesses relying on the Cash App platform to take payments felt a sharp decrease in sales revenue as a result of the outage.
Though the Cash App Outage technically only lasted a few hours, the economic impact is expected to continue for months to come. Small business owners are struggling with the lost revenue and an uncertain future ahead.
Big banks were hit with an uptick in customer service requests as people attempted to access their funds. On top of, there was a reaction from banks to freeze accounts due to suspicious activity. This resulted in numerous incorrect account freezes, further exacerbating the challenge small business owners were already facing.
In response to the outage, Cash App has offered five dollars to customers affected by the outage. For small business owners, this will not be enough to make up for the economic losses they incurred.
As Cash App remains the digital payment platform of choice for many small businesses, it’s integral for the company to take further action in order to make up for lost revenue. This could include anything from incident payouts to extended use of the Cash App platform.
Ultimately, the Cash App outage serves as a timely reminder to small business owners to plan for unpredictable technological malfunctions. To minimize the impact of downtime, businesses should look to diversify their payment methods and consider use of back-up payment systems.
By implementing these preventative measures, businesses can ensure their income remains unaffected during similar outages in the future.
