Business Disaster backup planning is essential for any size of organization. Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan can help a company respond quickly when unexpected situations occur. It is necessary to plan ahead and be ready no matter what kind of disaster strikes, to be up and running in the least time possible for your customers.
Preparing to keep our business running even when snowstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages, fires and floods occur is essential, as your customers need the agents to be available at all times to solve their queries and help them with any situations they need.
Disaster recovery plans should cover multiple levels of the organizations, from covering employee shifts when not all are available due to a pandemic, or an earthquake striking your headquarters, leaving them unable to perform their jobs. It is necessary to get creative about possible scenarios and solutions to these situations to have every angle covered.
There are many ways to prepare for these situations, planning and investing is necessary to make your disaster recovery plan a functional one. The key is to plan for the long run, so the efforts and investment made can be diluted in our annual budget.
A fully developed Disaster Recovery Plan should take into account a variety of elements that can take place, but one of the most common problems a company has to deal with is power outage, especially when the office is isolated. To be really prepared you will need to build an uninterruptible power supply system and backup generators to protect our systems and data through short and extended outages. Having a back-up partner handle your calls while located in a different area or country can prove extremely beneficial.
Every second that a customer service agent can’t respond to a call could mean the difference between a clean recovery or a complete disaster. Very few customers can wait. If they have to wait, your calls will increase and your customers will decrease. Sometimes a simple call can change a customer’s opinion about making another purchase or not, so leaving them unattended can become a disaster, just as picking up can be a sales opportunity.
As it is not plausible to open up another office location merely to have a back-up option in case of emergencies, an outsourcing partner can prove to be the solution to having a complete workspace in another location, so calls can be switched over between locations when necessary. It is important to keep calls coming and queries being solved.
Backup operations and data is a must. It is vital to establish a backup operational system that saves the information at all times. It may even be suggested that the backup should be stored in a location far from the working spaces and to have more than one copy.
When disaster strikes, some communication methods may be affected, so a company should consider multiple communication tools and methods such as text message, email or automatic chatbot. When your phones go down, your customers should have ways of getting in touch.
Disasters happen when you least expect them, so being prepared can make everything easier. First aid kits, fire alarms, fire extinguishers, emergency routes and exits, to mention a few, and lets not forget about emergency training for all the employees, can seem extreme in times of peace, but you certainly appreciate them in an emergency.
Insurance can also be a determinant factor in business recovery. In some cases, being protected at this level is the only way to fully guarantee investments. Finding the right insurance policies can be hard but with the right research and assessment you can find the best one for you. This will give you peace of mind, so you can focus on making the business grow and expand.
Staying offline too long will impact any business negatively. Always keep in mind that your customers expect to be taken care of at all times, they don’t want to wait while you get back on track, and not to mention, you will need to reaffirm them of your reliability often to stay on their top of mind.
With multiple locations and a solid recovery plan, your lines will be always open for business, and this way you will never stop taking care of your customers and will get back up and running at full capacity in no time.
Invest the necessary time and planning on your company’s Disaster Recovery Plan to guarantee its proper development and execution, and go about your business!
