A Disaster Plan May Only Cost $20/Month, But It’s Priceless When You Actually Need It
Once again, hurricane season has officially begun, but as we all know it doesn’t take an official declaration to put us on alert that disaster could strike at any time. Emergency situations like hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, gas leaks, or evacuations for any reason happen suddenly and are by nature, unpredictable. And all too often they are debilitating or even devastating to our neighbors, cities, customers, and businesses.
While we can’t predict nature or unimagined catastrophic situations, we can take steps to be prepared so that our families, our colleagues, our customers, and our businesses can remain as safe and supported as possible when crisis strikes. The key is preparation, which means getting your disaster plan ducks in a row while all is still calm, not when it becomes chaotic.
Simple & Affordable Plans
It can’t be underestimated that the way in which your business handles and responds to disasters—before, during, and after they’re occurring—is a reflection of your commitment to both your business and your customers.
While most business owners know this to be true, some have the misperception that disaster recovery plans are complicated, too costly, or both. However, disaster plans can be as simple as notifying your answering service that they need to cover your calls, with the pre-planned instructions about how to help customers navigate until you’re back in the office. Plus, disaster plans can cost as little as $20/month to have in place.
For example, in the days before, during, and after Hurricane Irma, the team of virtual receptionists at Voice Link of Columbus, Inc., covered the phones for our clients who needed to evacuate their homes and businesses. They simply forwarded their phones to us and we covered each and every call, answering customers’ questions based on the client’s instructions and keeping business humming along. We carefully recorded all messages and relayed only the most urgent matters to the designated on-call staff members.
Afterwards, our clients said they were relieved to know their customers were still being taken care of while they were busy taking care of themselves and their families. They reported that the simple process made it so much easier to get back up and running once they returned to business. They rebounded much more quickly than if they had to catch up with hours—or, in many cases, days—of calls, emails, and orders.
How It Works
Voice Link’s disaster plans cover offer a variety of solutions and can help you design a custom crisis plan that will cover your communication channels in case anything out of the ordinary occurs—even if you need to close shop for a couple of days for a staff retreat.
With our easiest, basic plan, companies pay a flat fee of $20.00 each billing cycle to set up their account and activate our services, whenever they need to, as often as they need to. It doesn’t matter if they need our services because of a Category 4 hurricane or because their employees have all come down with the flu. They simply forward their calls to us and we charge them by the number of minutes our receptionists spend on their calls.
With this basic plan, clients are not required to use any of our other virtual receptionist or customer service solutions, but they can certainly add those to their plan anytime. With the disaster plan in place, clients have peace of mind that their customers are attended to 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, for as long as needed.
If you’d like to learn more about how to set up a disaster recovery plan, contact Voice Link of Columbus, Inc. Our professionally trained virtual receptionists and customized communication solutions will you save time and money while improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
We offer month-to-month service agreements to meet the needs of any business regardless of size, 24/7, 365 days of the year. Our excellent reputation, expert staff, and state-of-the-art technology will exceed your expectations. Request information online or call us at (800) 262-2799 for a free consultation.