Is your call center partner meeting your expectations in their response to the Coronavirus? If not, why not?
In 2020, there is no excuse for a contact center company to not have a thorough risk-mitigation and disaster recovery plan in place (this should have been in place way before COVID-19). It is standard operating procedure for any serious call center business.
For example, the basic mitigation and disaster recovery always include:
Fully redundant, omni-channel cloud technology platform (Telephony ACD).
Multiple data-center with real-time fail over and back-up.
Multiple call center sites in different regions and labor markets.
Fully tested, work-from-home labor model. Fully configured PC's with working monitors, headsets, keyboards, mice and UPS systems.
On-going "plug and play" mutual exchange agreements with other call centers in the cities where we operate (or even cities not too far from where we operate). Agents may literally sit down and start work (in case of disaster, or any situation that may require we relocate our employees to a different site).
Multiple sources of power supply and data connectivity.
Video monitoring of agents who work-from-home.
Maintaining and testing network security, firewall patch/OS updates, and testing network security daily.
Work-from-home set up is conducted buy an authorized supervisor who views the agent work-from-home environment to maintain all security certifications.
Technology systems that "lock down" what agents can view and/or have access to for a secure work-from-home environment.
In the age of coronavirus, maintaining a highly clean, routinely cleaned, virus free environment for all employees and visitors who come in and out of the offices. See our COVID-19 policy here. We will keep this policy in place indefinitely.
We test this policy quarterly ( and in some cases we have agents who always work-from-home). Testing systems and reporting on those tests is an essential and should become standard operating procedure for any call center business.
If your partner is scrambling to put risk-mitigation procedures as outlined above in place right now, then you may have a problem that is putting your company, your customers or even your job at risk.
At Emerging Global, we've had risk-mitigation and disaster-recovery plans in place since we started 14 years ago. And we test them quarterly. They are industry best practices, they work, and you can leverage our experience now. Call me at 480-630-6208, or email me at steve@emergingglobal.com to discuss how we can help.
- Steve Shefveland, Founder & CEO
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