Whether it’s by working at home, offering virtual services, or completely changing the business premise, companies are finding creative ways to stick around. Take a look at the varied approaches that businesses are using to survive, and maybe you’ll glean a bit of inspiration on how you can keep your small business relevant in the current economy.

Healthcare

One of the industries most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak is the healthcare industry. Hospitals are overrun and supplies are quickly depleting, but patients still need care. In order to protect the safety of employees and patients, hospitals have introduced protocols that seem straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. Nurses, doctors and staff are covered head to toe in protective gear, while patients are isolated in cornered-off floors and sections of the hospital. And, to help keep up with the rising demand for hospital space and resources, thousands of temporary medical facilities have been popping up all over the country. Even medical students and retired physicians are being approached to help out.

While some hospital staff may not be able to work from the safety of their homes, many medical professionals have begun using telemedicine for routine check ups and exams, and encouraging patients to connect via online apps to help limit in-person interaction. For small physician and family medicine practices, seeing a doctor through video may even be better in some respects, not just for keep germs at bay. There are no waiting rooms or delays, and that makes it possible to see more patients in a day than the office would normally see in person. Virtual services will also enable you to reduce some overhead costs, such as medical supplies and utility bills. With many practices temporarily down-staffing, the extra patient load and limited expenses will ensure that employees can remain on payroll and insurance while we wait for the country to slowly reopen.

Telecommunications

Cable and Internet providers are also facing a challenging task, and without them, none of us would be able to successfully work from home or stay connected with each other. While customer service, sales and admin staff can telecommute, service technicians still need to be available for house calls. Here’s how telecom providers are making it work:

• Extending network capacity: With the amount of people now working from home and relying on online resources, strong Internet connectivity is a requirement for just about everyone. So, telecom companies have extended network capacity to support businesses working from home, to virtually connect teachers and students, and to provide high-speed devices for healthcare workers, among others.
• Offering digital tools: Offering online tools is an efficient way to let customers help themselves. Many service providers offer apps where users can check account balances, make payments, switch service levels, or check outage statuses, all in just a few seconds.
• Virtual troubleshooting: For basic connectivity issues that customers may experience, troubleshooting can easily be done over the phone.
• Staying outside of the home: When technicians do need to come out to a customer’s house for service, they’re often able to assist without ever having to come inside. For example, when I moved to a new house a few weeks ago, a service technician from Comcast arrived at my house, dropped off the new equipment at my doorstep, and switched the cable wires outside.

During a time where staying connected is as important as ever, some phone and Internet providers have also been prohibited from terminating service for customers who are unable to pay. Despite encountering any financial hardships that so many across America are feeling, small business staff can still have access to the resources needed for telework, whether they are connecting via an existing Internet connection or using mobile hotspots to get the job done. That is one less headache for businesses that are doing their best to shift to a work-from-home model in hopes of retaining revenue.

Manufacturing

Across the country, textile factories, and leading design and luxury companies are putting their time, talents and materials to use by creating personal protective equipment for medical workers on the front line. And they’re not the only ones switching gears to take care of those in need. It doesn’t take much Googling to find a whole slew of small businesses doing everything they can to make a difference. Here are just a few!

• Just because you used to make amusement park props, doesn’t mean you can’t drop the props and become a mask and shield manufacturer to help heroes work. That’s what one company did in Fresno, California.
• A liquor distillery in Chicago started making hand sanitizer, which had become so scarce that even hospitals were running out.
• A Los Angeles clothing designer stopped sewing clothing and began using their fabric to sew face masks. They’ve even offered free sewing for individuals with pre-cut material who need the extra protection.
• This Chicago bridal shop’s employees are making cotton masks for jails, hospitals, and residents.
• Two Los Angeles chefs have turned into pasta makers, donating an equal amount of pasta to the Los Angeles Food Bank and offering free pasta to hospitality workers who have lost their jobs and are struggling amidst the crisis.

Education

Schools and universities may be closed, but teachers and students throughout all levels have been hard at work trying to maintain some sense of normalcy. Educators are meeting with students virtually through applications such as Zoom and GoToMeeting, and using platforms such as Google Classrooms and Microsoft Teams to share assignments, homework, and resources.

Educators around the nation have been trying to stay connected with students in a creative way. In Georgia, band practice has gone digital, and PE teachers are still expecting their students to stay active. And we’re not just talking about grade school, high school, and university. If you run a small business that is centered on providing education – from language tutoring to software training to music lessons, and everything in between – implementing sessions using FaceTime, Skype, and a host of other platforms will give you the freedom to continue to reach your students, regardless of physical locale. This California bar took their Bar 101 class virtual and turned it into a Whiskeys of the World experience!

Veterinary Medicine

Similarly to the healthcare industry, veterinarians are making adjustments so that they can still see patients safely and keep our pets happy and healthy. While most veterinary clinics are open and accepting new appointments, they are operating with limited office hours. And now that several animals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, telehealth for veterinary practices is spiking. If your local vet is scheduling, you’ll likely need to make a few adjustments to have your pet examined.

When I called my local vet’s office to see if I could schedule an appointment for my new dog (hello quarantine adoption), they instructed me on their clinic’s COVID protocol. When I arrive at their facility, I’m to call them from the parking lot to let them know I’m there. A vet tech will then come out to bring Rosie inside while I wait in my car. They’ll perform their normal routine and then send her back outside to mama. Easy peasy! So, whether in-house or on video, pet parents can rest assured that their little ones will get the level of care they need.

Health & Fitness

Health and fitness professionals have quickly figured out how stay connected with clients from a distance while continuing to motivate and encourage an active lifestyle. Gyms and personal trainers have begun hosting online fitness classes both in group and one-on-one sessions. Video classes can be pre-recorded or done via Facebook and Instagram Live, and many businesses are even throwing in free classes to help motivate more people to join in and stay active.

Organizations that hold annual charitable marathons in the Spring have begun hosting virtual 5k races where participants download an app that tracks their total distance or miles run over a specific time period. Whether you fly solo as a personal trainer or own a small Pilates or yoga studio, you can get in on the action and keep your clients and your financial bottom line healthy.

HVAC

Aside from emergency situations, some HVAC companies have ceased all in-home appointments for the foreseeable future. While certain units can be serviced from outside of the home, many require a technician to come in. Here are some ways that HVAC businesses have adapted their work-from-home protocols:

• Drive-thru parts pickup: If a piece of equipment requires a replacement part, service technicians can order online and pick up via drive-thru at their local warehouse.
• Virtual diagnostic: Just like cable and Internet providers, a lot of HVAC issues can be solved through basic troubleshooting over the phone. For example, checking a thermostat, or cleaning or replacing a filter. Virtual diagnostics can also be used to help determine if a service request is routine and therefore can be scheduled for a less chaotic time or if it’s urgent and needs immediate service.
• No contact service call: If a service technician needs to come out for an emergency, they are following a “no contact” policy. The homeowner will first open all necessary doors for the technician before they come through. The tech will go directly to the equipment that needs maintenance and leave the same way they came in. Any communication that needs to happen between the homeowner and the technician is done via cell phone from separate rooms. At the end of the job, the homeowner will receive their invoice online.

Retail

Brick-and-mortar stores may be closed to the public, but customers can shop online via websites, contact customer service, and receive assistance with questions, exchanges and refunds. Many retailers have even been offering discount COVID codes and other fun incentives to help encourage customers to shop.

For essential retail establishments such as grocery stores and pharmacies, new ways of shopping are being introduced every day, and stores have been reconfigured to help control the flow of foot traffic. Bicycle shops, also considered an essential business, are doing repairs via curbside drop off and have added bicycle delivery to the mix. In Connecticut, business owners of an old toy store have gotten creative by offering FaceTime appointments so customers can virtually browse the store.

Personal care businesses like salons, spas and barber shops have hopped on the inventive bandwagon, as well. Nail salons have begun selling personalized at-home manicure kits while hair salons and barber shops have been sharing video tutorials so customers can try cutting their own hair at home. Switching up product sales during lockdown and creating short videos will make your small business memorable. And, don’t worry. DIY nails and hair will be short-lived. Once doors reopen, people will be clamoring for beauty-done-right!

Food & Beverage

In an effort to keep both chain restaurants and mom-and-pop eateries in business and workers employed, many food and beverage establishments have continued to offer take out, drive-thru and delivery services, as well as curbside pick up options.

In addition, restaurateurs started creating DIY food kits that can be ordered online or over the phone to continue serving loyal patrons while keeping everyone safe. Customers can support the restaurants and eateries they love and keep the community going! Some food chains have turned their headquarters into a drive-thru safe haven for truckers and other essential big-rig delivery drivers who would not be able to fit through a normal sized drive-thru. Wine and spirits got in the game, too, with wineries offering virtual tastings and liquor stores offering curbside pick up. And this taco shop temporarily re-branded itself into a drive-up general supply store, maintaining job security for its employees and serving its community with pride.

Entertainment

In a time when everything feels uncertain and scary, we look to those who can help take our mind off of the negatives and instead encourage us to laugh and sing our way through life. Artists, athletes, and more are offering their support, raising money for pandemic relief and hosting a sweepstakes that benefits national food banks where you can win a chance to host the Ellen DeGeneres show, spend studio time with Ariana Grande, play golf with Bill Murray and Justin Timberlake, be in Scorsese’s next film, design and call a play at an Eagles game, and a bunch of other unbelievable experiences. Local artists are streaming live and using the proceeds to support other artists whose finances are stretched or nearly gone as venues remain closed. Disney is keeping kids smiling with a Family Singalong Event. Even the Grammy Museum has turned to an online model, featuring new artist public programs, education, and virtual exhibits.

While not all performers have celebrity status, all performers have a job, and that is to entertain an audience. If you’re a local artist or run your own entertainment business, you can utilize the same principles to continue amazing your own audiences virtually. In Hawaii, a local music producer along with other native Island musicians created a free concert for audience members to tune into. In Pennsylvania, a local band performed a social-distancing appropriate curbside concert for the neighborhood. And a prominent California muralist is inspiring people with art. So, laugh, sing, create – and we’ll all get through this together!

The post Roundup: How Small Businesses are Staying Open and Serving Customers During COVID-19 appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

One of the main things we’re learning by speaking to our customers and prospects is that the conversation around business communication is changing. For some businesses, answering services were the after hours dispatching team or the overflow receptionist team when you couldn’t answer the phone in your own office. Now, we’re becoming the 24 hour answering service. With so many businesses forced to do business from home, the main thing small businesses are concerned about now is continuity of communication.

Businesses are seeing customers trying to reach them more than ever. Inbound requests are spiking. Business communications are in flux as you don’t know which member of your team is going to be available to speak with a customer at any point through the day. You need your communication to be flexible, and an answering service allows that type of flexibility.

Answering services like Specialty are committed to supporting companies like yours. No matter what size your business or what industry you’re in, an answering service can act as a central point of contact and give you the flexibility to be there to receive a transfer, or take a message if you’re not available.

Here’s how to maintain solid communication through your answering service during a crisis:

1. Ensure messaging redundancy: In many cases, and especially during an emergency, there needs to be more than one point of contact to ensure messages are getting to someone as soon as possible. Whether it be through texts, emails or actual phone calls, you should include two or more contact numbers or addresses for each method of communication being used. That way if Contact Person A has stepped away, Contact Person B can step in without any disruption.
2. Maximize coverage: If you are in an emergency service industry or not, consider using the 24 hour live coverage answering services offer to make sure your business is available around the clock. Assign staff members who are available to take transfers around the clock by using a rotating on-call schedule or simply arm your answering service operators with a handful of the most important FAQs. That way they can help answer questions on your behalf which will help cut down on the amount of calls your team have to return. While we recommend 24 hour support, it’s a good idea to review your answering service pricing first to ensure there are no extra charges for 24 hour support. Most services do not charge extra and will just charge based on your usage alone.
3. Reassess contact points: Normally, there is a single person from your company who takes your teams needs and communicates them to the answering service to program into a script. Make sure there are at least 2 individuals in your company who knows how to contact the service and who understand your protocols in general in case one contact person is unavailable.
4. Ensure phone reliability: If you manually transfer your calls to the service, make sure you have another way to transfer calls if something prevents you from accessing your office phone. For example, a power outage will make it difficult for you to manually forward calls. However, your phone provide may be able to do it remotely from their own headquarters. It’s important to make sure your provider has a plan in place specifically for emergencies and that they are compatible with your own business protocols.

Even if your answering service is performing perfectly, we understand that your staff may be experiencing a high level of stress because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Answering services are here to help you through the stressful times so maintaining continuity in communication isn’t even on your radar. We understand the role communication plays during an emergency and now more than ever, communication is critical to maintaining your business.

The post Keep Your Answering Service Performing Over a Crisis appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

Let’s take a look at the best practices for using an answering service to tackle your traffic and communication challenges.

1. Offer 24/7 Customer Service

As a result of customers working and living out of their homes, new ways of reaching out to businesses may arise. As our new normal sets in, customers could start to contact you outside of normal business hours, or expect you to be available when their schedule allows a call to your company. Companies can be prepared for this new normal by making sure their answering service is available 24 hours, and by providing time dependent call handling. For instance, where during office hours you may want your answering service to transfer every call, after hours you may only want to have important or urgent calls transferred to you.

If your provider doesn’t offer 24-hour answering, here are other ways to cope with traffic outside of office hours:

• Add an IVR on your line which routes calls to your answering service during the hours when the service is available, then to your staff when your virtual receptionists are not
• Use an IVR after hours to help answer basic questions and provide information for callers, like when your team can be reached live as well as any urgent information
• If you’re trying to minimize contact for your employees after hours, program your IVR with an after hours announcement letting the callers know the office is closed and to can leave a voicemail message

2. Update Your Scripts

With social distancing and stay-at-home orders, physical business interactions may not be returning for quite sometime. Now is the time to re-imagine how you do business and make sure those changes are part of your customer service experience.

For example, many doctors are offering telemedicine appointments as an alternative to physical, in-person appointments in an effort to limit unnecessary contact. Brick and mortar stores are offering free delivery or curbside pickup. Whatever your new business model, make sure your answering service knows about it and your script is adjusted accordingly.

If you aren’t looking for a total overhaul of your script for something that may be temporary, here are some quick fixes:

• Update the FAQs your answering service uses with your new offerings
• To keep your script simple, add your new offerings to a ‘what services are you interested in’ dropdown
• Include a transfer protocol for important or urgent calls so your customers know you’re still there for them

3. Love The Phone Again

With new quarantine rules, all small businesses have the opportunity to fall in love with telephone communication again. With limited opportunities for face to face interactions with businesses, phone contact is more vital than ever to develop long lasting relationships with clients. Customers are looking to feel connected to the brands they love again, and telephone communication is the perfect answer.

Depending on the type of business you run and what your answering service offers, you may also want to utilize text or SMS response for those customers who’d rather not call, but still want the prompt response of speaking to someone in real time.

The businesses that continue to thrive when this pandemic is over will be the ones who stay close to their customers.

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An answering service is a powerful communication tool that allows companies to handle an insane amount of call volume without you having to hire more employees to do it. Answering services can answer basic questions your customers may have to protect your internal support resources, schedule call backs for later, or transfer important calls to your staff if required. So, what can you do to ensure your answering service is making a meaningful impact, especially during this crisis? We’ve put together 3 things you can do in 1 hour.

1. Arm Your Receptionists With Information

Take a minute to analyze your helpdesk tickets or connect with your team to see what types of questions they’re being asked, and assess if those answers can be offloaded to the answering service agents.

• Send a quick email to your staff to ask them the top questions they’re being asked by customers
• Log all of their questions on a shared document and have them add any new questions there
• Decide which of those questions are good candidates for the answering service to handle
• Send updates to your answering service from the list, or if you have online access to your answering service system, update your FAQs on your own

If you find you’re getting a lot of crisis related questions, like questions related to COVID-19, it may be a good idea to create a separate FAQ with your answering service specifically for those requests. That way, when life eventually gets back to normal, you’ll just have to make one FAQ change instead of editing through several.

2. Make Simple Messaging Script Updates

Reviewing and updating your messaging protocols and script will help make sure that information gets transmitted as quickly as possible from the callers to the answering service to your own staff.

• If you’re dealing with several requests about the same issue, like rescheduling appointments or cancelling reservations, consider adding a new path (or screen) to your script. That will ensure the operators can log the reason for the call quickly and collect the relevant information without having to guess – which can cause chaos later when you’re already dealing with too much on your plate.
• If you have employees working from home, make sure the messages the answering service is sending are reaching everyone they should. See what messages have been sent over the last week and poll your employees to see if anyone who should have received those messages didn’t – and vice versa.
• If your business model means you are responding to customer requests 24/7, your 24 hour answering service should have the ability to send messages one way during office hours, and another during after hours. Check to make sure which employees or groups of employees have been receiving messages both during and after hours and make adjustments accordingly.

3. Streamline Your Workflows

Simple is always better. Consider temporarily simplifying your answering service protocols to get customers on and off the phone as quickly as possible. If you’re getting a high volume of calls, this will free up answering service agents to handle more requests and lower your hold time.

• Decide what the most important requests are and have those calls transferred to your staff
• For all other calls, instruct the operators to take a message with the most basic information (name, phone number, reason for contact)

With a just a few tweaks, you can make sure your answering service is able to effectively handle a higher call volume during this most difficult time.

The post What You Can Do in One Hour To Improve Your Answering Service appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

Over the past week, our staff has been speaking to many small businesses whose teams are feeling overwhelmed by inbound calls dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies are short staffed or working remotely for the first time, and the volume of calls companies are getting is not going down. Customers are calling with questions and business staff is not equipped to handle the calls alone. At SAS, we have our own protocols to make sure your business is able to stay open and receive calls. If you’re using an answering service or virtual receptionist service as part of your crisis communication plan, we’re here to help.

Create your plan

A good outsourcing plan involves the following:

• What: What types of calls will the answering service receive?
• Who: When a message is received, who needs to be notified? Will the message go to an individual or a group? Based on the types of calls you feel the service will be receiving, should different people or departments be notified about different types of calls?
• How: How will your staff get notified? Will they receive an email? A text message? Would you prefer calls be transferred to your staff?
• When: Should your crisis communication plan be on paper until a crisis hits or should you look for an answering service now as a precaution? Even if you don’t contract with an answering service right away, research and know who can get you setup quickly in the event of an emergency.
• Where: If a disaster should happen, where will your business operate from? What should the receptionist tell callers?

Align your communication

Communication is essential during any crisis. For your plan to be effective, you’ll need clear communication channels for your customers, employees, and even vendors. To make sure the answering service is representing you during a crisis, we recommend the following:

• Designate someone in your company to control the setup of the answering service and have that staff member be the main point of contact from the answering service in case they have questions about protocol or changes. This way, there is a continuity of setup.
• Depending on what method you are using to transmit messages (email, text, transfers, etc.), make sure you’ve setup forwarders, distribution groups, or ring to groups on your end through your own software.
• If you’ve already activated an answering service, run through mock emergency scenarios at least every quarter to make sure the systems are still working on the answering service side, and to verify you’ve set up your distribution channels correctly on your end.
• Don’t forget to update the plan to align with changes in your staff

After a crisis

After your business has returned to normal operations, be sure to touch base with your staff to evaluate how your crisis communication plan worked and what can be improved.

No matter the disruption, your business is never in it alone. Answering services and virtual receptionist services like SAS are always available for your business.

The post It’s not too late for a business contingency plan appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

#1. Make sure you have call forwarding

When you get started with an answering service, you’re given a phone number to forward your calls to. You’ll want to make sure your phone has the capability to forward. Since this is a feature controlled by your phone provider, please check with them first. In addition, you and your team should be familiar with how to forward, and what number to forward to. Typically, you would dial *72 on your phone, followed by the number you wish to forward to. However, it may change based on provider or your phone system. We recommend doing a couple test runs with your team on forwarding (doesn’t have to be to your answering service) so that everyone is comfortable and familiar with the process. Forward your office lines to someones cell phone or to another line just to make sure it’s working and ready when you need it.

It’s also a good idea to check with your provider to see if you can remotely forward your calls. In the case of a disaster that prevents you from physically being in your office, like a hurricane or a tornado, check with your phone company to see if they can forward your calls for you.

#2. Set up basic message taking

If you’re using an answering service as an emergency back up plan, call handling doesn’t need to be complex. In the event of an emergency, it’s more important that you’re getting the message than having your receptionist mimic your own office protocols exactly. Gathering a basic name, number and message is the best way to get callers on and off the phone as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

If you’re used to using your answering service on a day to day basis, see if they can input a temporary protocol that involves basic message taking so that you don’t have to revamp your whole script. Then, when everything settles down you can go back to your normal procedures.

#3. Have information readily available to activate your account quickly

In the event that you don’t have an account set up with a virtual receptionist provider, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for them to set one up for you quickly. Here are some things to have readily available so you can activate an account with little friction:

• Your credit card information: An answering service is going to need your credit card or bank account information to get you set up. Even if you on-board during a free trial period, to make sure your service stays active after the trial, you’ll want to make sure you have a valid payment method on file. Make sure more than one person in your office has access to your office payment methods.
• Your call handling: If you’re rushing a setup, a virtual receptionist will just be able to take basic information like name, email, phone number, and message. You’ll need to decide where you want these messages sent to and how. Setting up a distribution email address on your side that sends to multiple employees is a great idea.
• Other contact data: In addition to receiving your messages, call transfers are usually fairly simple components that can be added to any answering service script. If you’re looking to have your calls transferred to your office, make sure you know what number, or numbers, your virtual receptionist will be transferring calls to.

#4. Include high impact FAQs

Whether it’s an outbreak, a data breach, a product recall or some other type of event that disrupts life on a massive scale, customers are going to want to know your business’s continuity plan. In order to minimize the amount of call backs you and your team have to handle, equip your answering service with the basic questions and responses that may come up. Offer just enough information to inform the caller, but not too much information that extends the call with more questions that the receptionist isn’t equipped to handle.

If your business is closed, try and provide estimates of when you’ll re-open, or include details of what’s being done remotely to help business run as usual. This is especially important for those customers who rely on your business each day.

#5. Create a custom recorded greeting for the specific issue

If customers are calling to see if you’re still open, adding a custom pre-recorded greeting during this time is a helpful way to answer that question without eating up operator minutes. For example, providing your service with a recording that says “Thank you for calling The Burger Joint. Our dining area will remain closed until further notice, but we are open for all take out requests. For other assistance, please stay on the line and an operator will be with you in a moment” will give most callers the information they’re looking for while still offering other callers a live agent to speak with.

A telephone answering service is an amazing way for your business to stay alive in an emergency. Services like Specialty Answering Service are here for you when you need us most.

The post How to prepare your small business for disasters or pandemics like the Coronavirus appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

While the severity of each data breach will vary, one point remains the same; no one likes receiving  news that the company they’ve been paying for or working with has been hacked. In fact, just last year I received a letter from my doctor’s office regarding a data breach and I reacted how any normal person would – I panicked and immediately called my mom. Then, I called my doctor.

With millions of people affected each year from data breaches, customer service teams across the country are getting slammed with unexpected calls. The same way businesses would have a plan for potential weather disasters, companies should be proactive and plan ahead for the customer service nightmare surrounding potential data breaches. While a breach may never happen, you certainly don’t want to be up the creek without a paddle if they do. So, why are answering services the obvious go to solution? Let us break it down for you.

1. They Can Handle a Ton of Calls

Usually when people hear “data breach”, they panic and assume their identities are already stolen. Then, they contact you for an explanation. While all states require that businesses be transparent with their customers regarding breaches, some states have legislation that requires businesses to provide things like free credit reports or identity protection for a certain period of time after the data breach. For example, my doctor’s office provided free identity protection for a year after their breach. So, you may be receiving calls for that as well.

If you’re using an answering service to field data breach calls, it’s important to equip the service with all of the most up to date information regarding your business and the situation. The last thing you want is for the operators to get hit with hundreds of phone calls with no ability to answer questions. There are a few things you should do to prepare them, like:

• Try your best to keep them in the loop: Since a data breach could literally happen at any time, it would be hard to give your answering service enough notice for them to staff up accordingly to answer a high volume of calls. However, if you are solely using them as a back up in case a data breach occurs, they can prepare by setting your line distribution to the largest pool of operators available.
• Set up your call handling in advance: You’ll need to let the answering service know what to say to callers and how to answer questions. If you don’t prepare, then you’ll find yourself scrambling around trying to get things in order when you’re already in the midst of dealing with a big hiccup. However, assuming the data breach hasn’t happened yet, it can be difficult to prepare when you don’t exactly know what to prepare for. For example, you can’t give your answering service information on how the breach happened or what data was leaked if it hasn’t happened yet. So, it’d be best to add standard call handling and FAQs to start, and then fill in the rest of the information as needed.

Pro tip: If your business is required to provide some sort of free credit report or protection to your customers, you can set up specific call handling so the operators can assist callers with signing up for those services. 

2. They Can Save You Money

During a data breach, companies will inevitably lose customers, which can be a big hit especially for small businesses. By spending a little extra money each month to have a back up plan in place, you can have an affordable solution to a potentially major problem.  Not only will answering services help protect your brand and save you from losing a ton of business, they are also a much more cost effective alternative than paying your staff over time to stick around and answer calls.

In addition to being an affordable solution, many answering services don’t require long term contracts. So, if you only need to have your calls covered for a brief period of time, using an answering service that can be activated and deactivated quickly will be the most cost effective and efficient solution. With both per minute and per call pricing options available, you should be able to find a pricing plan that works for you and your business.

3. They Can Save Your Brand

Data breaches are crippling to any business, and can severely damage a company’s street cred. By acting as an extension to your business and providing amazing customer support, a virtual receptionist can help deescalate any situation and keep your callers happy. While your remote agents are busy on the battle field taking calls from unhappy customers, your in-office staff can focus on the bigger picture, like finding immediate resolutions and coming up with a plan for the future. Here are a few tips to make sure your callers get the proper assistance:

• Make sure your customers know which number to call: If you are outsourcing data breach calls to an answering service, you’ll want to make sure your customers know which number to dial at any given time. If they should be calling one number during the day, and a different number after hours, make sure that is clear to them. Put your number(s) in as many places as possible, like your website and various social platforms. It’s incredibly frustrating for someone who is just trying to get answers to feel like they can’t get in touch with anyone. During a time when your brand is vulnerable, you want to be as transparent and as easy to get in touch with as possible.
• Take advantage of outbound calling: Check if your service does outbound calling, which could really come in handy during a data breach. Instead of waiting for calls to come to you, placing calls to those affected will help you get ahead of the curve and address issues right away. While your customers probably won’t be happy about the breach, they’ll appreciate your honesty and may even thank you for reaching out to them first.

4. They Are Available 24/7

The greatest comfort in outsourcing is knowing that receptionists will be available 24/7. When you stop answering calls in your own office, the answering service can easily pick up where you left off and make for an easy transition.

No matter what kind of business you run, you should always be prepared for the worst, which means you should always have a live voice on stand by.

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For any industry, loss from fires, floods, natural disasters and other calamities can be mitigated by a well-designed business continuity plan (BCP), inclusive of an IT disaster recovery plan, that will outline specific, predetermined steps to be taken to help the business recover. This is especially true for the call center industry, which your business may rely on 24/7/365. Call center destruction impacts employees and their families, and quite obviously, the client base that the call center supports, should services become temporarily or completely unavailable.

If you are currently outsourcing to an answering service that was hard-hit by Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma and had no business continuity plan in place, then you know firsthand how quickly communications can cease. Depending on the type of business you run, disaster recovery may not have been a major issue. But if you could not function without your offsite receptionists, then you were likely faced with a tough choice: can we stay afloat while we wait for the service to bounce back, or is it time to jump ship in search of a safer port-of-call?

Whether you’re working with an answering service, or you’re in the market for one, the guide below will provide an overview of the questions you’ll want to ask them to ensure that your business has maximum protection from any unwelcome events that may interrupt call center support. The more comprehensive the BCP, the more likely you won’t be dragged down with a sinking ship.

Power to the People

No, it’s not a rally cry. We mean power. Real power. Every piece of technology that the call center uses requires electricity. Ask these questions:

• What if your primary power source is cut off? Do you have a generator?
• If your generator goes down, do you have additional battery backup?
• How often do you check your backup systems to make sure that they are working properly?
• Are your building and systems grounded in the event of a lightning strike or other power surge?

VoIP and Phone Connectivity

A call center without phones is like a car without wheels. There’s not a whole lot the answering service agent can do other than sit there. Ask these questions:

• Are you using a hosted PBX with an automatic backup so that calls can be remotely rerouted to alternate lines, e.g., cell phones or voicemail?
• If you have an on-premises PBX system, do you have an SIP provider or hosted backup? (Centers with an on-premises PBX system will be at a loss to accept or reroute calls if the PBX fails, unless they are using an SIP trunking system or a hosted backup.)
• Is the system easily scalable for spikes in call volume?
• Do you have copper phone lines as a backup if all else fails?
• Do you have spare phones and VoIP connectors if individual devices fail?

The Data Dilemma

Many answering services provide more than message taking. They may be placing web-based orders, scheduling appointments online, managing your live chat channel, and more. Ask these questions:

• Are you running your data lines on a separate circuit than your voice lines? (The answer should be yes. If VoIP goes down, you may still have data. Or if data goes down, you may still have VoIP.)
• If data lines are affected, can agents access call center systems to work from home or from an alternate location, if necessary?

Servers and Networks and Software, Oh My!

Infrastructure. It’s an important word because it encompasses a lot of stuff. Call centers use a boatload of different software, they probably have a number of systems working off a shared network, and depending on their size, they might house a whole room full of servers. Ask these questions:

Software

• Do you have up-to-date copies of all software applications stored in a safe place or available in the Cloud?

Networks

• How will calls be processed if your network connection is lost?
• If LAN connectivity fails, do you have a redundant router to provide an alternate default network gateway?
• Can the network be accessed remotely, if necessary?
• Do you have separate systems in place for things such as hold music, call recordings, and voicemail?

Servers and Databases

• How often do you check your servers to make sure that they are working properly?
• Where are your servers located, on-site or off-site?
• If the servers are on-site: 1) Do you have off-site backup?; 2) Are the servers housed in a separate room from the rest of the center?; and 3) Is the room well-ventilated, with a separate HVAC thermostat to ensure a constant temperature?
• If your backup servers go down, do you have Cloud backup?
• How often do you back up data? (The answer should be daily.)

How the Call Center Can Help

Aside from the above technical considerations, it’s important to know what your options are when assessing business communications disaster recovery. Ask these questions:

• What communication channels will you use to inform clients of potential problems?
• Do you have a service level agreement, or will you enter into one?
• Do you have a plan in place to colocate calls at another call center in case of emergency?
• Do you have a distributed workforce to help, such as at-home operators?
• Do clients have access to scripting software to make emergency changes or to download for their records?
• Will you provide credits for service outages?

What You Should Do if Your Call Center is Down

Just in case your answering service cannot recover from a catastrophic event, you’ll want to have a backup plan.

• Choose a point of contact at your workplace, and designate this person as responsible for informing all key players of the present circumstances.
• Unforward your phones, and determine how to triage calls.
• Ask your phone provider if they have a hunt group feature that will ring different numbers in succession until someone picks up.
• It may be necessary to send out an email blast or post to your social media account to inform your customer base of a short “transition time” while you’re reestablishing communication channels.
• Search for answering services that offer a free trial, and for ultrafast set-up, opt for the most basic script – name, number, and regarding. That will give you a little time to decide what will work best for your business.

What You Should Do if Your Call Center is Up, but Your Phones are Down

As many businesses recently experienced, you may be located in the danger zone while your call center is in the clear. In that case, you’ll need another checklist on hand to get through the days ahead:

• It is a good idea to have an emergency recording saved that will inform callers of existing issues and let them know when they can expect a return call. For example, “Thank you for calling. Due to the hurricane, requests are currently taking up to 72 hours to process. We will return your call as soon as we are able. Thank you for your patience.”
• If you do not have interruptions in cell phone or Internet connectivity, and you can view your call log via an online portal, then make sure that you have users set up or that the appropriate personnel know how to access the site.
• If you lose your business phone lines altogether, and they were forwarded when your system went down, you’ll need to ask your phone provider if your lines will remain forwarded or if they will have to be re-forwarded remotely.
• Have an alternate, simplified version of your script available in case your existing script contains transfers or reach protocol. Implement it as quickly as possible, either via your online portal or by requesting programming assistance from the service. If your lines are down, the operators will not be able to contact you, and this will lead to increased, unnecessary usage.

Even if we happen to know when and where disaster will strike, it doesn’t always mean that the area is prepped for a crisis. As a business owner, anytime you put your livelihood in the hands of another, you’re taking a chance. So, do your due diligence, research the questions we’ve put together, and have a disaster recovery plan of your own so that you’ll be ready for whatever Mother Nature throws at you.

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