How to Alert customers in a crisis!

A few years ago when the volcano erupted in Iceland it send plumes of black smoke into the air and the ash cloud thus prevented air travel throughout much of Europe. People were stranded as all alternative travel routes and methods quickly became oversubscribed.

Holidays turned into nightmares, business trips became affected and many people and companies were caught completely off guard and with limited resources.

For those business men and companies who needed to be at alternative venues or were expecting customers, deliveries or anything else to occur at their shops, offices and other places of work there was confusion and panic on how best they could advise people on what was happening.

Last year during the UK riots many shops, offices and other places of work were smashed up, broken into, set alight and damaged. This meant staff were not required, delivered needed to be cancelled and appointments changed.

How best could everyone be quickly notified of the situation?

Using an Emergency Alert service as part of a Business Continuity Plan would help.

This allows the user to create lists of user groups (such as staff, suppliers, customers etc) and in the event of a crisis a quick email can be immediately sent out to the relevant group (or all of them) to advise on the emergency.

Constant updates can be sent to keep everyone updated and of course alternative methods of trading can be communicated at the same time.

Such a service would work remotely from a laptop, Tablet, iPhone and also directly off a Smartphone so it’s extremely convenient. IN fact any device with a WiFi or Mobile Internet connection would work.

Emergency Alert service can be picked up as part of a free business continuity tool alongside other useful tools like Business SAFE and automatic online backups. These all make disaster recovery less painful and quicker to put in place.

Ensuring business continuity for any company has to be a paramount investment right now as so many things can and do go wrong each day. Some of which is within our control but so much, like Volcanic ash episodes and rioting comes suddenly and dramatically out of the blue and potentially turns the business world upside down and inside out within the blink of an eye.

Business continuity tools are the answer and there are many free business continuity tools and services available.