Business Continuity Planning And Protecting Your Incoming Calls

Remember last winter when countless motorists were stranded on snowed in motorways; passengers piled up at airports and trains, and thousands of businesses were unable to open? We were witnessing Britain losing billions of pounds every day, all because of the snow and if this year is anything like the last two, we can expect it all to happen again.

Organisations are spending a lot of money on business continuity planning to protect their assets. Cloud computing is big news and big business, but what about your phone lines during a crisis? Landlines go down, the power goes out, or sometimes, people simply can’t get into work. Last winter, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, £1.2bn was lost per day during the snow. That’s unsurprising when you consider 1 in 3 of small businesses were forced shut as staff weren’t able to get into work. How much would it cost your business if you were closed because of a snow day? Cloud computing allows people to work remotely from home, but how do you ensure your incoming calls are protected by business continuity planning?

Virtual numbers are widely regarded as the answer. They are business numbers (such as 0800, 0845 and 03) that ‘sit’ on top of an existing landline. Incoming calls are routed to the existing landline and when necessary (such as in the event staff are snowed in) the business number can easily be routed to another landline. You can even route to a mobile*, meaning there’s no reason at all for calls not to get through. You can also get virtual geographic numbers (such as 01202 or 0207), that are also routed to a landline or mobile. For a lot of companies in the UK, virtual numbers are a key component of their business continuity planning.

Special business numbers are cheap to run. You can expect to pay around £14.99 per month to run a virtual business number, dependent on what package you go for (free phone versus 0844 or 0845 numbers). Over the cost of a year, that works out to less than £200, considerably less than the losses incurred by businesses with no plans in place if staff can’t make it into work. There are other advantages of special business numbers, including:

• You give a more established impression to people

• It means you can relocate your business without having to change your number

• You can have a much more memorable number than your existing landline number, helping customers to easily remember you. This also helps you stand out from the competition

December is almost here and although we’ve had a mild autumn (the warmest since 2006 in fact!); there’s still time to look at how your inbound calls are integrated into your business continuity planning. A special business number can be up and running in less than ten minutes, so there’s no reason why you can’t protect your incoming calls today. There are a number of providers in the UK, but look for one that will allows you to route your calls in an instant, ensuring you don’t miss out despite what Mother Nature intends.