Atwill Media
Atwill Media
The Internet Is Down! Now What?

The Internet Is Down, Now What?

Last Friday, the Internet was effectively broken (and not because of Kim K this time).

According to multiple news outlets, one of the largest domain name system service providers, Dyn, was attacked on Friday by hackers who used a DDoS attack (or "denial of service" attack) to effectively shut down thousands of websites, including sites like Twitter, Spotify, Amazon, PayPal, and Reddit. In laymen's terms, the hackers sent fake traffic to the sites hosted by Dyn, causing the website to crash due to a strain on their servers.

The attack caused temporary chaos across the U.S. and parts of Europe, as many businesses had to scramble to try to figure out how to help their customers and run their business without the help of the internet.

Hacker attacks of this magnitude rarely happen, but their may come a time when your internet ceases to work, and you have to find out how you can still aid your customers. We've got some quick tips that can help.

Have A Backup Plan Ready

You always need to have a backup plan prepared in case something goes wrong. For internet outages, make sure your customers know your business's phone number and know that they can call you as well. Clearly post your phone number wherever you can, so when customers can't reach you on your website, they know they have another way of contacting you.

If you're a business that primarily sells products online, have a plan to sell your products by phone as well. When your customers call expressing concern about website problems, remind them that they can place orders by phone instead.

Get A Hotspot

You can also use backup tech if you really need to use the internet for your business. You can purchase a mobile hotspot from your phone company or other provider that will work off of a 4G mobile internet connection, the same as your smartphone. These hotspots allows multiple devices to connect to the hotspot and can help you get some much needed work done!

Prepare Your Customer Service Team

A great customer service team is essential to handling any crisis, no matter how small or large. Make sure your customer service team is ready to answer and customer questions about internet difficulties or how to continue buying your products, or using your services.

Be sure to let customers know that the problem has nothing to do with your company. Pivot the source of the outage to your internet provider, and reassure them that you're doing everything you can to remedy the situation. Continuously let them know you're working on fixing the problem.

Do As Much As You Can Without Internet

Believe it or not, there was a time before the internet, and businesses used to do all of their work without the help of computers and the world wide web. That might seem like a completely different world to some business owners, but a lot of people who have been business women and men for a long time still remember how to do things with the internet.

Think back on that time before the internet made everything easier, and try to solve your crisis that way. If it's a few hours or a few days, you can still run your business sans internet, and you don't have to lose a day of work because of it.

Broken internet connections aren't the end of the world. Don't freak out, and remember these tips if your internet ever goes down!

Post Tags:Marketing Tips

Contributor Caleb Hennington

Contributor Caleb Hennington

Contributor Caleb Hennington is a 24-year-old writer, who manages the Atwill Media and FGmarket blogs. He graduated from Arkansas State University in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

When not writing, Caleb enjoys camping, running, collecting comic books, and binge-watching shows on Netflix.

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