Millions of Bank of America customers were unable to use their online banking services this week, forcing them to do their banking at a branch, in person, by phone or by ATM. (Luckily for BOA, it wasn't the most annoying technical problem of the week. That award goes to Gmail).
We won't comment on the technology behind the issue, but can say a word on their communications / public relations strategy. BOA blamed the online banking outage on a software update that became problematic. Tara Burke, a Bank of America spokeswoman, didn't want to release too many details, but did do an admirable job in her rapid response efforts, saying:
"We've been experiencing some intermittent service disruption throughout the day. This is not the result of any hacking or malware or anything like that. This is not an attack on Bank of America," adding that customer data had not been affected by the service disruptions.
Some could say that having to do banking the "old-fashion way" isn't a true crisis, but if BOA's competitors can prove they have a better track record when it comes to hassle-free service, it really could have a negative effect on new enrollments. A glitch lasting two days for an institution like BOA sets a dangerous precedent. In the future, they may need to consider proactively warning of software upgrades - even of the smallest kind - to avoid negative press and customer backlash.
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