Arise-BCDR-Whitepaper

1 © Copyright. 2015. Arise Virtual Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

How the Virtual, Crowdsourcing Model Ensures Seamless

Service Operations During Planned and Unplanned Events

With virtual service organizations, there is no downtime. The

ability to provide continuous service during natural disasters, as

well as planned events is a quantifiable advantage. With the

flexibility of a virtual environment, companies can have

peace-of-mind knowing their business and customers will be

insulated from potential service-impacting events.

WHITEPAPER

2 © Copyright. 2015. Arise Virtual Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction

In today’s extremely competitive business environment, where customer

expectations are higher than ever before, service interruptions are simply

unacceptable. Regardless of the reason, busy signals or long on-hold

times can damage brands, diminish loyalty and cause customers to turn

to competitors.

A State of Emergency

Ensuring business continuity is vital to business success, like never

before. Virtually every aspect of a company’s operation is interconnected

and vulnerable to disruption. While all parts of a business are affected,

as a result of natural or man-made disasters, the customer contact

organization is the most vulnerable.

According to a recent Frost and Sullivan Market Insight report, “customer

contact organizations are at the heart of business continuity/disaster

recovery (BC/DR) strategies, as they are the go-to information centers in

times of calamities and disasters.” When disasters strike or systems fail,

customers want help and they want help now. They expect immediate

service and are not willing to compromise. When dealing with a service

organization, during times of crisis, customers demand even greater

levels of service, attention and problem resolution than usual. Being

“down” for days, or hours is not an option when every minute of downtime

could prove fatal for a company.

Yet, according to Frost and Sullivan, fewer than one-third of companies

are prepared for a business interruption. While many companies have

complex disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place, most

of these plans are built with a concentration on data processing and IT

recovery. Many of these same organizations have not given the same

level of consideration to the continuity of their contact center – the very

place that will have to handle customer calls during and after a disaster.

When Disaster Strikes

Natural disasters are happening everywhere and more often than ever

before. We don’t have to look too far to see evidence of this today.

Whether it is West Coast wildfires, Midwestern tornados, coastal

hurricanes or severe storms and flash floods around the globe, the result

of even a small event can have a big impact on your business, your

employees and your customers.

© Copyright 2015. Arise Virtual Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2

3 © Copyright. 2015. Arise Virtual Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. © Copyright 2015. Arise Virtual Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3

Even with unpredictable weather raging on, disrupting the economy, the

environment and businesses, most disaster recovery plans only identify

critical business response for recovery after a catastrophic disaster.

Most plans do not tackle the preservation of service delivery or address

the greater likelihood of partial failures and service disruption during

catastrophic and equally debilitating unplanned events.

The harsh reality is that regardless of where a brick-and-mortar contact

center is located, at some point it will be at the mercy of Mother Nature.

That same center will then have to support customers who are not

affected and not interested in excuses. No matter the reason, whether

it is operating in the aftermath of a tornado or providing customer care

during a blizzard, busy signals and long on-hold times can damage

brands, diminish loyalty and cause customers to turn to competitors.

Not Business as Usual

While in the past, customers might have accepted a call-back the next

day or a “closed” recording, during a disaster or unplanned event, this is

no longer the case in our instant access world. When companies try to

rebuild after a major disaster or recover from an unplanned event, they

need to keep their customer base strong. They need to reassure their

customers by handling their calls and function, as if it is business as

usual.

Consumers demand 99.999% uptime; but, when disasters and

unplanned events happen there are unique business challenges when

operating a physical brick-and-mortar contact center; such as ramp time

to gather and train agents, increased costs to due overtime and strains

on operating technology.

Most companies operate using redundant processes and business

systems that allow them to operate smoothly and economically, with an

acceptable level of customer service when times are good. However,

when issues arise, business services, systems and structures are really

put to the test.

Many organizations believe they will operate without interruption by

having multiple, redundant contact centers in different cluster locations

or geographic regions around the globe. centers are not flexible enough to

respond quickly, adapt to call fluctuations and have hundreds, if not thousands,

of skilled, ready and available people at a moment’s notice.

This is forcing companies to seek out virtual contact center outsourcers, who

have reshaped and focused their services to provide flexible, on demand, real-

time support.


The Current State of Change

Customer contact centers are often the heart of a company, intertwined

with every other part of an organization. To think that there is one,

single, fail-safe solution for all planned and unplanned events is just

not reasonable. However, when organizations take into account a full

range of business perspectives including: security, scalability, flexibility,

geographic needs, regulatory compliance, cost, customer service,

availability and reliability, the answer becomes clear that virtual contact

centers are more than a trend or a fad. Virtual contact center services can help

an organization maintain continuous business operations during disasters and

unplanned events, while seamlessly handling their ever-changing daily business

requirements.

With true geographic diversity and an advanced technology

infrastructure, home-based, cloud, customer contact solutions can

provide peace-of-mind in times of crisis. A virtual, cloud-based approach

ensures service resiliency so that business is not interrupted.

Benefits of working in the cloud:

• Provides access to a widely distributed network of work-at-home

professionals.

• Ensures quicker recovery from unanticipated customer contact volume

fluctuations.

• Creates a frictionless customer interaction in times of urgent service,

making it as easy as possible for the customer to get what they need,

when they need it.

• Enables companies to streamline their operations and achieve significant sav-

ings as a result.

When selecting a virtual contact center service provider, look for an

outsourcing provider that is flexible and able to work with changing

business priorities within seconds, not hours. They should be able to

leverage advanced tools and sophisticated technology systems to ensure

uninterrupted service. A committed outsourcing partner will help their

clients design contingency plans, rather than just react to them ensuring

better understanding of customer contact fluctuations. The bottom line is to be prepared. Select an outsourcing

provider, who not only provides virtual, work-at-home services, but also truly understands the intricacies

and expertise needed to help reduce overall risks. One who provides

instantly flexible, security-rich business continuity, designed to address

your specific vulnerabilities and requirements.


Service Without Interruption

Arise’s virtual contact center operates in the cloud and uses an

innovative crowdsourcing model that can easily accommodate

call volume fluctuations. Fortune 500 and other industry-leading

organizations have partnered with Arise to fortify their operations during

unforeseen events because its model has unique business-continuity

capabilities, unavailable in other types of call center environments.

employees can be reluctant to work extra hours and frequently require

over-time pay when they do.

Arise provides its virtual services through crowdsourcing, using a

network of independent businesses (IBs) rather than employees. This is

a significant differentiator for Arise and an essential element in providing

seamless customer care during times of crisis. IBs are constantly looking

for opportunities to maximize revenue potential. Therefore, when a

client unexpectedly needs help handling their call volumes, IBs are

usually eager to step up and accept the additional workload. This is a

major advantage over the employee-based call center model, where

employees can be reluctant to work extra hours and frequently require

over-time pay when they do.

State-of-the-Art Technology

In this virtual environment, independent, customer service, sales

and technical support providers perform call handling services

from geographically dispersed home offices. With no commutes, it

is faster and easier for them to take calls at a moment’s notice.

In addition, these virtual resources service Arise clients in 30-

minute increments according to forecasts, which they can easily

access and select through Arise’s award-winning, online and mo

bile workforce management system, Starmatic®. Should a client

need an immediate increase in call coverage, this vast resource of

skilled providers can be quickly ramped up or down, as necessary.

Arise’s advanced technology system allows it to provide operation

al efficiencies, not available in traditional brick-and-mortar

environments. For example, to quickly engage an independent

business for an immediate need, urgent service requests are sent

through real-time communication channels, such as instant

messaging and text.


Additionally, the Starmatic® proprietary, award-winning, scheduling

system, developed from years of first-hand experience, allows for on-the-fly

adjustments to coverage levels, thereby ensuring high quality service

at all times.

Mirroring Call Curves

The ability to mirror changes in call volumes, with levels of re

sources is one of the strongest benefits Arise provides to its

clients. Not only are service metrics held constant during

unexpected events, but costs are kept to a minimum, due to the

unique combination of incremental service intervals and non-

employee professionals. Payment only is made for actual time

taking calls. This avoids paying for underutilized resources like

those typically found in brick-and-mortar centers.

The majority of independent service providers on Arise programs,

invest just part of each week taking calls, which creates a large

network of resources that can be called upon when “flexing” is

needed. Consider this example: All 100 resources on a program

average 10 hours a week. A heat wave hits and a client needs to

cover unplanned calls. If every resource added just one more hour

a day for 5 days, the client would benefit from a 50% increase in

coverage from knowledgeable professionals.

Moments of Truth: Business Continuity and Disaster

Recovery Case Studies

According to New York Times and Wall Street Journal’s Bestselling

Author, Shep Hyken, there are moments of truth and moments of misery

created each time a customer comes in contact with an organization.

These moments of truth are the moments that ultimately determine

whether a service strategy will succeed or fail, and the moments of

misery ultimately determine if a customer will stay or leave. All too often,

customers experience moments of misery when a contact center is

dealing with a disaster or unplanned event.

However, it does not have to be this way. There are smart organizations

that have found a better way to turn these moments into opportunities,

showing their customers how good their organization are.


By partnering with the right virtual service provider, they are building

long-term customer loyalty and providing total customer satisfaction even, in

the face of a disaster.

Help When It’s Needed Most: A top roadside assistance provider

was experience heavy call volumes due to extreme weather conditions,

stranding motorists in times of need. The company partnered with Arise to

implement a business continuity plan (BCP), where once the plan was

activated, Arise had the ability to quickly get up to 150 agents servicing

within a very short time frame. Implementation of this program began in

August 2014 and was successfully launched in January of 2015 with 630

certified agents. As a result, the client activated the business continuity

plan a total of 23 times in 2015. In addition, 23,064 calls have been

serviced utilizing the business continuity solutions, and Arise had a 86.8%

“fill “ rate on BCP ask.

Help After Hurricane Sandy: Early on October 29, 2012, Hurricane

Sandy struck the Northeastern coastline of the United States. Among

the devastation left in its path was a major cruise line, forced to

reroute nine of its ships and 20,000 passengers. The cruise line was

unable to internally handle thousands of calls resulting from last

minute cancellations, port of call changes, and shortened itineraries.

Leveraging its existing relationship with Arise, the cruise line was

able to secure immediate assistance with a single phone call to

Arise. Instantly, Arise issued an urgent service request and added the

equivalent of 120 full time resources to handle the unexpected call

volume. This was a 60% increase in capacity over the forecast for

that same period. Additionally, Arise and its network of independent

businesses worked closely with cruise line management to distribute

updated policy information to affected customers.

• Assistance When Disaster Strikes: When the cruise ship, Costa

Concordia, partially sank after hitting a reef off the coast of Italy, Arise was

one of the first companies the major cruise line called for assistance, to help

handle calls from concerned customers. Detailed communications were de

livered to the Arise network and an urgent service request was sent out via

text, phone and email asking for additional assistance. Over the period of

increased coverage, customer satisfaction remained steady and the

cruise line’s service metrics were consistent.


One Company. Countless Options

With virtual service organizations, like Arise, there is no downtime.

The ability to provide continuous service during natural disasters, such

as Hurricane Sandy or winter blizzards, as well as planned events

like product launches or seasonal business cycles, is a quantifiable

advantage of the virtual crowdsourcing model. With the flexibility of a

virtual environment, a large network of independent businesses, skilled

service providers and an advanced technology infrastructure, Arise

Virtual Solutions provides clients peace-of-mind, knowing their

customers will be insulated from potential service-impacting events.

Better Results With Arise

Arise Virtual Solutions is changing the way companies think about call

center services. Arise provides a virtual platform to connect primarily

work-at-home service professionals running small call center

businesses to Fortune 500 and other large companies. For over a

decade, Arise’s platform has enabled superior and extremely flexible

customer contact, business processing and consulting solutions for

numerous companies around the globe, uniquely blending crowdsource

innovation, virtual technology and operational efficiencies to deliver

an enhanced customer experience for a company’s customers.

Today, Arise leads the market in multi-channel

customer support and on-demand contact center services.

Arise accesses a diverse network of independently owned, small

businesses to provide flexible, efficient, high-quality contact center

services in the cloud, including customer care, sales, technical support,

ecommerce and social media support. No matter how customers

choose to connect - phone, email, live chat or text – the Arise network of

providers is there to help.

8

Arise Virtual Solutions Inc.

3450 Lakeside Drive

Miramar, Florida 33027

US: +1.954.392.2774

Toll-free: +1.855.274.7301

International: +44 (0) 795 780 3983

Email: [email protected]

www.arise.com

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