Microsoft's outage left Outlook and Teams unavailable Thursday and into Friday for companies and governments around the world, CX Dive reported. Citing CX Today, CX Dive said Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Contact Center was down for nearly eight hours starting Thursday: some agents could not sign in or send and receive messages or calls, and those who could had degraded messaging and voice.
The effects reached customers directly. VIA Rail Canada told passengers on X they may not receive trip emails and pointed them to its train tracker and SMS notifications. In the UK, a National Pharmacy Association spokesperson told the BBC that people could face prescription delays because the outage affected NHS email systems.
Jon Picoult, founder and principal of Watermark Consulting, told CX Dive that the absence of communication amplifies negative sentiment, and advised regular status updates and estimated resolution times where possible, plus collecting alternative contact details such as a mobile number for texts. Bill Pearce, a UC Berkeley Haas faculty member and former CMO at Del Monte and Taco Bell, said organizations should explain the cause cooperatively rather than blame Microsoft.
