For call centers, redundancy is important. Even more for call centers that offer 24/7 services. It is important to always be there for our customers so we can offer all our services for them and help them when they need it.
It is part of the customer experience, always being there when they need us. But how do we do it when we have natural disasters, hacker attacks, or our service providers stop working? These are things we cannot control. But there are many things we can do to be able to keep the operation working and have minimum loses. We should worry about the redundancy of our centers. How do we make our contact centers redundant? Are we redundant enough? We can tell you some actions you can take to improve the redundancy of your contact center. But first, we would like to talk about the problems call centers can go through to understand why and when we need the extra services, systems, and locations for redundancy.
Maybe the most vulnerable asset contact centers have are their IT systems. IT systems are to make things easier for contact centers, but we need to be aware of the problems we can have if something would stop working. These can completely stop our operation, filtrate, or lose important customer information.
The problems that can affect them are many, but we will mention some of the most common or that we consider the most important.
Natural disasters. These can cause blackouts. Without electricity, our systems will not work. Natural disasters can also cause problems in buildings, even the destruction of the facility. This can put our servers and storage systems in risk. Our service providers can also have problems that could make them stop working correctly and affect our operation directly. For example, let’s say our network provider cannot give the service and all our systems that need internet connection will not work. Another thing can be hacker attacks or viruses that can compromise company and client information, just to mention some. Or maybe it can be something as simple as some of our call center headsets not working.
Now, let’s see what you can do to avoid or reduce the impact of these kinds of problems to your business:
First, one of the most basic things you can do for redundancy is to have a power generator. This will let you have energy when there is a blackout or big storms affect the power cables that provide energy to your contact center. This will also help you avoid calls with your customers being cut off, which is not good for customer experience.
Another basic and maybe the simplest redundancy alternative is having extra hardware in stock. This will help you with one of the most common issues at the contact center, when a computer, headset, mouse, telephone, etc., stop working. You do not need to wait for your vendors to replace the equipment, you can replace it with the backup you already have and keep working without any problems.
Make sure you have several ISP carriers. This will do a similar job as with the power generation issue, but with internet service. If one network provider has problems, you can change from one to another to have the internet connection at any time. Also, try to have service providers located in different parts of the country, if possible. This way you will still be safe if a major problem affects the city or state where your other providers are.
It is recommendable to have servers and storage systems at different locations, as we just mentioned. Take for example, and we hope this never happens to you, but it still a possibility, if you only have your servers in one contact center and a catastrophe damages the building, you could lose not only your center but its information, information that could let you start over again in another location.
If you want to be redundant, make sure to have vendors and providers that also are redundant. Cloud-based systems, providers that have data centers in different locations, etc. Ask your vendors about their redundancy.
Last but not least important, having your operations in several locations. As we mentioned, this will let you keep giving service to your customers, maybe when they need it the most. During natural disasters or any kind of problem that can affect your operation, you can continue servicing your customers at another location.
Checklist
We have a Power generator and its working
We have enough Hardware Backups for regular troubleshooting
We have several ISP Carriers to switch to as one goes down
We have our servers at different locations
We have our storage systems at different locations
Our vendors and service providers offer redundant solutions
Our operations are at different locations
At Call Center Services International you can have the confidence of having redundant satellite service centers located in Tijuana (minutes from the San Diego border) or in Mexico City. Our Nearshore Contact Centers have several ISP carriers to support internet connections to US customers and power generators at each center. Our goal is to offer you a redundant center to properly take care of your customers. Contact us today to request pricing!