Have you ever considered what you would do if your business phone system went down?
For most businesses, the telephone is a vital lifeline for the business operations. Whether to receive inbound sales enquiries or to support existing customers you cannot afford your direct communication channels to fail.
A comprehensive disaster recovery plan will identify all business critical operations and the potential risks associated with them. If you don’t have a plan in place, here are some guidelines for what you should include:
- The stakeholders involved in the disaster recovery process
- Who is responsible for managing your business telecoms strategy?
- How will you ensure your staff know what to do in the case of an emergency?
- In the event of your phone lines going down, how will people contact you?
- In the event of your phone lines going down, how will you make contact with people?
Many businesses have now switched over or have plans to switch over to a VoIP telephone system (Voice over Internet Protocol), to take advantage of greater flexibility, improved system features and reduced costs.
VoIP systems have some big advantages, especially when it comes to business continuity planning. Because it doesn’t use a wired infrastructure, in theory the system can be accessed from anywhere as long as there is internet access. So if for whatever reason you are unable to access your office, for example if there was a flood or a fire, you’ll still be able to remotely access your communications system and put in place a procedure for responding to and making calls.
One thing to bear in mind though, is what you would do if your internet connection goes down at your office. The last thing you want is for your customers or potential customers to attempt to get hold of you only to hear a dead line tone.
Do you have a recorded message set-up on the phone that will be switched on of the phone lines fail? Are inbound calls diverted to an emergency call answering service? Do you have a back-up internet connection?
If you are concerned that you may not have a well thought through back-up plan in place, get in touch with Raspberry Beret today. We can offer advice on business telecoms and continuity plans, making sure that you are always prepared for the worst.