Download - Disaster readiness & the contact center
Disaster readiness & the contact centerfor “always on” customer service
TELUS International
2010
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Mission critical contact centers
For many companies, contact centers are the lifeline to connecting with customers either via phone, email, online chat, and now social media channels like Twitter
As a result, contact centers are becoming mission critical to managing corporate brand and reputation
But what happens when something goes wrong and the contact center goes down? Besides testing for equipment failure, have HR issues, environmental risks and things like social unrest been considered?
Companies need to be prepared for a wide variety of events that could impact customer service – especially when busy tones or long hold times are unacceptable
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What defines mission criticality?
Impact on process When disruption of process hampers flow of work When idle time has a negative impact on customers When slow-downs hamper downstream process
Impact on lives When service disruption is life-threatening When idle time or disruption has a negative morale impact When labor relations are damaged When the work environment is compromised When social or environmental issues challenge the business operation
Impact on the bottom line “Each Call is Worth” how much money in lost opportunity? Delays may cause unrecoverable labor loss Disruption causes customers to defect
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What could go wrong?
Natural Disasters Ice storms, earthquakes, heat waves,
floods, hurricanes Tornadoes, avalanches, pestilence,
drought, disease
Infrastructure Disasters Regional power loss Water contamination or water main
breaks Gas leaks, traffic grid breakdowns
People-initiated Disasters (intentional or not)
Terrorism, sabotage Political demonstrations, organized
labor strikes
What’s coming? September often marks the
beginning of a season of extreme weather.
In Canada, experts in the Canadian Hurricane Center believe 2010 will be especially active and predict there will be more than five category three or higher hurricanes this season.
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Evolution of disaster implications
The scale and scope of disasters is continually expanding over timeBuilding or blockCityRegionNation
Varying impact on: Personnel and their families (immediate and extended) Traffic patterns Interventions by first responders Infrastructure (power generation & transmission, transportation networks) Supply chains and cash flows
Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
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Interdependencies brought about by tighter business relationships and just-in-time supply chains
A single domino takes out many more dominoes than before As a result, firms need to be stronger than before
Regulatory requirements mandate information availability & accessibility. Some examples:
Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404 (SOX 404) – financial reporting controls Personal Information Protection & Electronics Documents Act (PIPEDA) or equivalents Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards
Customer expectations for availability continue to increase
The scale and scope of disasters are affecting wider swaths of employees for longer periods of time
Workplaces are affected Homes are affected Immediate and extended families may be affected
Evolution of disaster implications
Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
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Goes from being an infrastructure problem to a people problem Brings its own series of challenges
Human factor reduces flexibility in disaster response efforts Employees are worried about health and safety of immediate and
extended family members Limits ability to move employees around and what can be asked of them
However, it can easily become an infrastructure problem as well Employees who are sick, afraid to come to work, or who are under
pressure at work can mean that essential business and maintenance activities are not performed, leading to future problems
Evolution of responses
Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
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The conventional wisdom on temporary facilities has been thrown out the window
What made sense before no longer does For example, with Hurricane Katrina, facilities in the States next door
were affected as well Lights off facilities are expensive and do not make economic sense in
our “better, faster, cheaper, leaner” new economic climate This means a trend towards recovery sites further and further away from
the disaster zone Each new disaster calls the conventional wisdom in to question
Geographical diversity becomes the watchword There is a need to have temporary facilities located on different power
grids, different water sources, etc. Distances from the primary site are affected as well
In light of employees’ willingness (or not) to be away from their families, this brings its own set of problems
Evolution of responses
Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
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Employees working remotely for extended periods of time How do you motivate them and keep them motivated over time? How are tasks assigned; what is critical from one day to the next? Manage them day-to-day over time?
Need to reproduce the dynamic found in the workplace Ability to communicate, collaborate in a timely manner with colleagues
Otherwise productivity will suffer as the ties that bind team members break down
Ability to work on projects together and ensure that outcomes are achieved in spite of modified workflow
Evolution of responses
Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
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Disaster recovery stats? There is not a great deal of public industry stats on disaster recovery due to the
fact that many business interruptions are rarely reported and if they are, they are highly underestimated to the world – Disaster Recovery Journal
But…some interesting claims around DR include: According to leading industry analysts such as Gartner, IDC, and Forrester,
organizations stand to lose between $84,000 and $108,000 for every hour of IT systems downtime
Many firms appear to be over-confident in their ability to manage the business continuity risks facing their organizations leaving them highly vulnerable to physical disruption – Marsh 2010 Business Continuity Benchmark Report
Many companies are unprepared to enable the majority of their employees to effectively telework during workforce disruptions such as transit failures or natural disasters – Cisco, Securing the Mobile Workforce US Survey, 2009
With increased reliance on third parties for mission critical services, how much do businesses know about their outsourced providers?
Increase in BPO services spending: Worldwide CAGR of 9.1% and US CAGR of 8.8% from 2008-2013 across key horizontal services (customer care, finance, human resources, procurement and training) – IDC Worldwide and US BPO Services Forecast, 2009
Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
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What to look for in your contact center partner There are many benefits to working with an external partner specializing in
contact centers and customer service.
Not only are these providers experts in call center operations, but also, a good provider will have robust, always evolving DR /BCP plans that are tested on a regular basis.
When considering a BPO / contact center outsourcing provider, a sample of what to look for:
A provider that has located in sites with DR / BCP in mind E.g. Locations with low incidence of natural disasters, or in metro areas for improved
infrastructure robustness and labor access DR / BCP plans that address physical infrastructure, technology, and HR issues A proven track record when something does go wrong Highly redundant, self-healing networks A contractual uptime guarantee with a definition of what this actually measures Global reach for geographic diversity to re-route calls if needed Audited by a globally recognized risk management firm Complies with recognized organization guidelines like Disaster Recovery International Is able to leverage relationships with local service providers for telecommunications, power, etc.
in the affected area
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Case study - example
In Sept. 2009, Typhoon Ketsana swept through the Philippines affecting more than 1,000 TELUS team members. Flood waters wiped out the homes of almost 400,000 Filipinos and displaced some 2 million residents.
For TELUS International, the key focus in this disaster situation revolved around employees and ensuring that employees could get to work to continue to answer customer calls.
Innovative methods were used, including: Contacting employees: TELUS International was one of the first
organizations to broadcast using text messaging and local radio plugs with a 24/7 emergency hotline for employees to verify their safety
This included a PABX backup plan to ensure the hotline would remain operational even with power outages
Getting people to work: developing an enhanced transportation system (nicknamed Noah’s Ark) where agents could be picked up and transported directly to work
Extended family support: making sure families were okay, so that agents could have peace of mind while they continued to work through the disaster
Cash payouts: offering employees in distress cash and hotel accommodations
View from front door of TELUS House, Manila
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Case study – example continued
Results:
Our business continuity and disaster recovery planning efforts successfully ensured that none of our 4 Manila-based facilities experienced any power or connectivity outages
We were able to seamlessly re-route call volumes to our Canadian, Nevada and Guatemala-based facilities to address agent shortages
Less than 1 week after the calamity was announced, our operations were back to normal Team members and family members
wading through water to get to work
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Case study – example continued
Takeaways:
How much do you really know about the robustness of your provider? Have you asked the right questions?
When evaluating a contact center provider, ask for examples of worst case scenarios. This would include questions like:
How is staffing planned for unusual situations Can calls be seamlessly re-routed to other locations, including other sites and/or
geographies? Will the voice and data network allow for global, next-available-agent call routing? Can agents in other locations still take calls in the languages required? How do you test your environment? Do you actually take real world scenarios into
account, not just equipment failures? How much notice is needed to put alternatives into action?
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About TELUS International
Our contact center and disaster readiness expertise:
TELUS International delivers contact center programs in the Philippines, Latin America, the UK, South Korea, Canada and the US for global clients
BPO / Contact center locations were carefully selected with DR / BCP in mind
It maintains the only OC12 network into the Philippines, with two high bandwidth cable connections that make TELUS International’s contact center operations 100% redundant and self healing, including dual E300 failover redundant circuits
IT infrastructure operated at a 99.97 uptime level in 2009 and is expected to operate at 99.99 for 2010
Its parent company, TELUS, is one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies. TELUS is a founding member and Chair of the Canadian Telecommunications Emergency Preparedness Association (CTEPA).
Complies with Disaster Recovery International and UN White Hat Disaster organization guidelines
Audited by Marsh, a globally recognized Risk Management firm
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Resources (a select list)*
Organizations:
Disaster Recovery International – http://www.drii.org
Business Continuity Institute - http://www.thebci.org/
Marsh – http://global.marsh.com/
Article:
High availability vs. uptime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability
Publications:
Disaster Recovery Journal – http://www.drj.com
Continuity Central – http://www.continuitycentral.com
* Select resource list is for reference purposes only and does not reflect any endorsements of TELUS or TELUS International.
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Connect with us:
For further information on our contact center and business process outsourcing (BPO) programs, please contact TELUS International:
Web: http://www.telusinternational.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TELUSint
Email: [email protected]
1.800.306.1586 (toll free North America)
1.780.392.0160 (global)
Copyright 2010 TELUS. Other company and brand, product and service names are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.