Whether or not you are a gaming fan and unless you have been hiding under a rock somewhere deep in the Sahara, you will have substantially heard about a new phenomenon that has struck mankind: Pokémon Go.
The world has gone mad playing it. People have been so immersed in this highly addictive game that they have been involved in accidents (some of them severe and, to be quite honest, idiotic), people have gotten lost in underground tunnels, while others have displayed uncharacteristically erratic behavior in public and others have simply been deserving of the outcomes (like the guy who was driving and gaming at the same time).
In short, the world has gone mad and quite literally.
When the game servers crashed – mainly due to their inability to handle the multitudes of users logging in and playing at the same time – players started tearing their hair out. In the short time since it was first released on July 6th in the US and Australia, and on the 13th in the EU, millions of global players have downloaded the free game making it quite understandable why the overwhelmed servers had failed.
Similarity with the Business World
You are a business person and you have website, right? You roll out products and services using the site, and that makes it a critical tool (if not the most vital one) in your business’ survival arsenal.
Now, if you were to have your servers go down right after a product launch, and should you be lucky (or unlucky, depending on the circumstances) to have that product become an instant hit, then the last thing you would want is to have your servers crash on you.
The reasons…
- Pokémon Go players went berserk all over the world – that equates to disappointment in your case. The gaming company is fortunate to have created an immensely popular product that will allow its fans to pretty much forgive it soon after every server crash (and there has been a couple of them).
You don’t have that luxury.
If you have servers that crash whenever there is a surge of traffic – which will almost always be much less than what the Pokémon servers have to endure – your clients will lose faith in you and your product/service… bouncing back into their trust will be very tough.
- It could be a cause of speculations and even allegations. During the recent Pokémon server crash, rumors and even claims started appearing alleging that the servers had temporarily been rendered useless by a DDoS attack – something the gaming company denies. Well, time will tell whether or not there was indeed an attack and even if it were true, Pokémon is still being played out there – at an alarmingly increasing rate.
What about in your case? What if you had your server crash – for a little longer (or more frequently) than normal – would your clients be as forgiving? Will they even want to come back and entrust you with their financial and personal data if they even thought that your servers were hacked or under attack?
The answer is a big “No!”
- Most of the players who found themselves shut out of the game took to social media to vent their anger and frustration. Of course, once the servers were up they were quick to forget it had all happened and were on their merry ways.
And in your case – would the scenario be the same? Let’s again say that new product/service you launched became very popular. If you are a sensible business you will have a marketing strategy that includes social media platforms. You will have done your best to get as much exposure to get as much coverage and authentic “word of mouth” testimonies from clients and customers who have used your products and probably succeed at it too.
But, should your website be known for its being down more often times than it is actually up you will face a negative reaction online almost immediately. Since the number of people that comment and tweet for or against you can’t even begin to compare to the millions of people that play and, hence, comment on the game every day, almost all your reviews will be seen when a quick search is done about your business, product(s) or service(s).
In other words, the quick search on you will show the good as well as the bad reviews right on top whereas in the case of the Pokémon people it will be the recent mood that will float up in searches as there will be just too many of them and will bury the recently passed bad “memories.” And so, you will look bad online – at the very least you will have a mixed review score – while a few minutes after their servers bounce back from a crash, the Pokémon reviews will have it smelling like roses.
The moral of the story: if you want to build a successful business you will need to have a reliable server to host your website on… At least, until you are a global player with a worldwide customer base and when you won’t have to worry so much because you have them by their short hairs.
