Assess The Situation
Mother Nature isn’t always nurturing. Lately, we have been getting a firsthand taste of the effects that major natural disasters can have on our homes, businesses, and daily lives. From fires to earthquakes to major hurricanes and floods, you need to be able to communicate when disaster strikes. Be prepared for the sake of your employees and clients. If you are using a call answering service, here is how you can tell if they are ready to help you in the event of an emergency.
Have a Plan
Your company should have a comprehensive business continuity plan (BCP) in case disaster strikes, and so should your call answering service. This plan will detail the impact a disaster would make on your business, various strategies for recovery, and training or exercises necessary to keep the plan current. These plans can turn a company that loses all communications into one with the essential systems ready to continue some form of operations.
Invest in Hardware
Having a plan is good, but disasters often take out the infrastructure for communication. Without power or wireless towers, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to get a message through. A prepared answering service will have backup systems in place as part of its plan to meet these contingencies. These might include generators, backup batteries, and backup data systems.
Your Business’s Communications Dilemma
Even if your call answering service has all of the suitable systems in place to remain operational, it won’t matter unless you are also prepared for a possible disaster. For example, if your call center is functional, but your business is dark and unable to forward lines, the answering service can’t represent your business.
To have the most disaster-proof system, you’ll need several backups. If you have an on-site PBX system, consider using a hosted backup or a SIP trunking system. This way, you can forward calls with backup power. You may even want to consider having a traditional copper phone line as a backup. In addition, your company can have an emergency recording in place that you can activate should your local system fail temporarily. You may also be able to remotely forward phones to your call answering service either online or through your phone provider.
You might know that a disaster is on the way, or it could be a complete surprise. Either way, being as prepared as possible can help you stay in contact with your staff and clients. Trusting an answering service to handle your company’s calls is a smart move, provided they have the right contingencies in place. Feel free to contact Answering365 at 888-588-9800 to learn about our disaster recovery preparation, our HIPAA compliance, and how our call answering service can help your business.
