Written by intern: Elexis Hipp
Popular movie subscription app MoviePass has had its share of troubles – complaints about lackluster customer service, and an ongoing struggle to sustain its 
original business model of charging $9.95 a month for service. The two problems combined recently when MoviePass users experienced a widespread service interruption leaving many unable to check in to theaters using the app.
The company first took to Twitter to notify customers of the interruption without further explanation. The next day an SEC filing by their parent company, revealed that the interruption had occurred because they were unable to cover the cost of purchasing movie tickets, but that a loan to subsidize missed payments had been secured.
There was immediate backlash from MoviePass users on two counts — for initially covering up the real reason for the interruption, and for only communicating via Twitter and not through its app where the bulk of users receive service updates. CEO Mitch Lowe eventually apologized for any inconvenience caused by the interruption and acknowledged MoviePass’s lack of effective communication with its user base.
Here is what we at CommCore would advise other organizations to take away from MoviePass’ communication woes:
- Be as transparent as possible from the get-go when communicating with your audience about any kind of business interruption.
- Make sure you use all available channels to communicate with your audience to ensure no one misses the alert.
- Listen to critical consumer feedback, and report back on changes as they are being implemented.