Business continuity is important for every business in operation. No company can afford to lose its physical infrastructure or critical data to an unforeseen event or natural disaster. A failure to properly serve clients for any reason can mean significant churn. In fact, the majority of businesses that have to shut their doors due to a break in the business continuity plan never re-open.
A recent Contactual (News - Alert) post focused on the importance of business continuity in the call center. Dropping just one call can be costly to the organization; dropping thousands can be unimaginable and can put a dent in the bottom line that may never be fixed. A close look at the headlines and you realize that the unimaginable, however, happens every day.
There is nothing we can do about natural disasters occurring, and hurricanes, tornados, snow storms, floods, earthquakes, etc. will happen. When these disasters occur, businesses throughout the world are affected. What could be considered worse are the manmade events, such as power failures and infrastructure failures, or an error that causes a building to catch fire. Each of these are preventable, but still happen.
A hosted call center enables the organization to plug into the cutting edge in call center technology that is built to ensure business continuity, regardless of what is happening in one geographic location versus another. And, when a hosted call center is in place, there is already a redundancy plan working to ensure you can replace anything that might be lost when the unimaginable happens.
Consider the cost savings when moving to the hosted call center for disaster recovery. You no longer need to invest in the backup facility that sits idly by and waits for that disaster to happen, all the while racking up maintenance costs every day of the year. A quality hosted call center is completely redundant and will typically deliver more redundancy and flexibility than any on premise call center operation can generally afford.
Deploying a virtual or hosted call center model can ensure that your systems are always protected against any type of disruption. Imagine a scenario that allows your staff to continue taking calls from any location with a simple click of the mouse, a phone and a high speed Internet connection. Customers stay happy, the revenue keeps flowing and you can guarantee that your doors stay open. That is the ultimate business continuity plan.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Chris DiMarco