Call Center Disaster Recovery plan

[jenna]

I am setting up a new call center for a software company. We are still quite small but plan to have 6 CSR's by the end of 2002. One of the tasks before me is to develop a strategy for keeping the Center up and running in the case of a power outage, disaster. There are various opinions here as to what our sevice level needs to be... our center will support customer calls regarding our software... I could use some advice on the following:
1. As a software company what will customers expect for "up time" customer support?
2. What things should I ensure I put in place to provide continued service in the event of a power outage or disaster?
3. Anything else you would advise that we consider?????

[cjw17]

You might want to consider a contingency site. Does your company have any other call centers or office locations you could relocate to in an emergency? Your telecom people would need to be consulted about routing calls, and the site should be tested annually. You'd need desktops there that are configured to whatever you normally need to operate, perhaps at a lesser or minimal level of service.

If your company doesn't have another location, there are outside providers of this service. We use a company called Comdisco. The problem with using an outside vendor is that in a large scale emergency, like the World Trade Center disaster, many companies contract at the same contingency site.

You also might want to look into some telecommuting options for your CSR's. My husband's office was uninhabitable for 2 weeks following September 11, because he already had telecommuting set up at home, his workflow wasn't affected at all.