SMEs putting themselves at risk this winter
The recent severe weather conditions have caused many implications to office life as staff have been unable to reach the office as the roads are impassable. Despite the warnings from weather forecasts, YouGov found in a survey, conducted on behalf of NewVoiceMedia, that senior decision-makers in SMEs admitted to not having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place in the event that the office is inaccessible.
A minor 17% of those surveyed had a disaster recovery plan in place that enables landline calls to be routed to individuals within the organisation, so that business could carry on as usual. Further to this 14% of businesses admitted to having nothing in place for rerouting calls, meaning that should a customer try and call into the office the phone would ring continuously.
With the advances in technology available at present, it is no longer acceptable for a business to shut down if staff can’t make it into the office. There is technology available for companies to route all their incoming calls to staff mobile phones or landlines so they can work effectively away from the office and maintain a seamless level of service. Alternatively there are businesses who provide a paid for answering service if staff are unable to manage calls from the office.
In addition to re-routing calls, SMEs should ensure staff can access their email accounts from their personal computers at home along with a selection of documents that can be sent to the personal computer to be worked on in the home whilst absent from the office.
Many SME senior decision-makers ignore disaster recovery, believing it is an extra expense and inconvenience that rarely gets used. However it is possible that the loss of customers through not being able to answer calls can exceed the costs of investing in a disaster recovery plan.
