2019 Hurricane Season Is Underway: Best Prepare.

In an article posted on Contact Center World, April Wiita, vice president of Program Success at Working Solutions, shares her advice for on-demand contact center operations during the current hurricane season.

Wiita has led customer service teams through dozens of storms, from hurricanes to nor’easters, for many clients in recent years.

In “Brace Yourself – 2019 Hurricane Season Begins,” she writes: “And when the worst seems behind us, something just as onerous occurs, ravaging everything and everyone in its path, with ramifications felt long afterward. The ‘day after’ turns into weeks, months and even years.”

If you expect customer service to continue during natural disaster contact centers need to have a recovery plan in place.
Source: www.shutterstock.com.

Preparedness is everything, Wiita believes. If you expect customer service to continue, no matter what, key questions need to be asked and answered. Followed by activated measures to safeguard against natural disasters.
Wiita offers several, common-sense queries to consider, such as:

• “Have your teams run through business continuity scenarios? When was the last drill?
• Are you prepared to evacuate agents, shift work in a disaster? Have you timed it?
• If so, do you have enough backup agents standing by and where? Is the plan in hand?
• Are your business partners as secure as your own operations? Have you checked?
• Short of Armageddon, are you prepared for back-to-back disasters? Said your prayers?”

Most of all, she recommends putting in place practical precautions. And then, practice them, as a team, to ensure it’s not a cold-read rehearsal—but rather, a well-prepared drill—when a hurricane blows in.