Company contact centres can be invaluable during a crisis – but only if they’re fully up to speed.
When a crisis occurs in a business or organisation it’s likely that the crisis management plan will be dusted off and the dedicated crisis management team assembled. No doubt a detailed, multi-level strategy will be implemented to ensure the immediate issues are covered and the long term reputation risks are minimised.
But in the heat of the moment it can be easy to overlook the crucial part that your telephone contact centre will play in fielding customer and even media enquiries, and the importance of making sure your team is responding in a way that is appropriate, relevant and fully up to date with what may be a very fast moving situation.
Your contact centre represents ‘the company’ or brand to your customers. When a crisis occurs your customers expect – and deserve – to get information that’s fast and accurate. They won’t tolerate being passed from pillar to post and if they end up dealing with someone in Melbourne or Mumbai when the problem is in Manukau, it’s an instant turn off.
Next time you review your company’s crisis management plan, ask yourself how well integrated and prepared your telephone contact centre is by considering the following:
- Is your contact centre manager part of the designated crisis management team? Are they attending regular crisis management training sessions and delivering appropriate internal training to their team?
- What systems are in place to ensure contact centre staff receive regularly updated information as the situation unfolds?
- If your contact centre is managed off shore – can it be easily activated after-hours in an emergency? Kiwis calling at 8am don’t want to hear that your contact centre keeps Australian hours and won’t be open until 10am!
- Do you have trained people on call? Answer times still need to be reasonable in a crisis.
- Can your phone system cope? The best prepared contact centre is no use to anyone if overloaded lines mean customers can’t get through.
- Have you reserved appropriate 0800 numbers? Consider the issues your company is likely to face and think about word numbers that may be useful.
- Consider organising a simulated crisis exercise to test your systems and identify any weaknesses.
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