Business Continuity Plan (BCP) – A Guide for Call Centre Professionals

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a proactive strategy designed to ensure that your business operations can continue seamlessly during and after an unexpected disruption.

For call centres and customer experience (CX) operations, a robust BCP is critical to maintaining service levels, protecting customer trust, and ensuring operational resilience.

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A BCP outlines the steps and resources required to keep your call centre functioning during unforeseen events, such as:

• Natural disasters (e.g., floods, bushfires, earthquakes)

• Infrastructure failures (e.g., power outages, internet disruption)

• Health crises (e.g., pandemics like COVID-19)

• Security threats (e.g., cyberattacks, data breaches)

The goal is to minimise downtime, safeguard customer interactions, and ensure employee safety, even under challenging circumstances.

Key Considerations for Call Centres

The nature of disruptions can vary, so your BCP should address:

1. Employee Accessibility: Can your agents work remotely or from alternate sites?

2. Technology Resilience: Are your systems cloud-based or capable of rapid failover?

3. Communication Protocols: How will you notify employees, customers, and stakeholders about disruptions and updates?

Why BCP Matters

For industries like emergency services, a BCP can be life-saving.

For others, such as telemarketing, the impact might be financial but still significant.

Regardless of your industry, a well-prepared BCP ensures your business remains resilient and capable of meeting customer needs, even in the face of adversity.

4 Common BCP Solutions for Call Centres

1. Remote Agent Solutions

With advancements in cloud technology, many call centres enable agents to work from home.

Cloud-based PBX or ACD systems allow remote agents to access queues, transfer calls, and maintain performance metrics just as they would on-site.

Advantages:

• Quick implementation

• Cost-effective for long-term flexibility

• Minimal infrastructure required (internet and headsets)

Search our Supplier Directory for Cloud Contact Centre solutions >

2. Back-Up Site

Establishing a second location for your call centre can be a comprehensive but costly solution.

Backup sites should be geographically distant enough to avoid being affected by the same event as your primary location.

Types of Backup Sites:

• Hot: Fully equipped and ready for immediate use.

• Warm: Partially equipped, requiring some setup time.

• Cold: A barebones site requiring significant setup time.

Tip: Instead of investing in a backup site purely for your business, consider reciprocal agreements with nearby businesses/contact centres to share backup space as part of your BCP (ACXPA Members can use our Members Directory to find nearby call centres).

3. Call Re-routing

Establishing a second location can be a comprehensive but costly solution.

Multi-site call centres often reroute calls to unaffected locations during disruptions.

This approach can ensure continuity but may reduce capacity and lead to longer wait times for customers.

Example: Triple Zero emergency services in Australia operate across multiple centres to ensure uninterrupted service.

4. Outsourcing for Continuity

Partnering with an outsourcer that offers BCP solutions can provide on-demand access to infrastructure and agents.

This option is particularly useful for businesses without the resources to maintain a dedicated backup site.

Types of Outsourcing BCP Solutions

1. Hot Seats

• Fully configured and ready for immediate use.

• Suitable for critical operations where downtime is unacceptable.

• Provides a seamless experience for agents and customers.

2. Warm Seats

• Partially configured, requiring some preparation (e.g., software setup, login creation).

• Ideal for moderate-risk scenarios where a short delay in operations is manageable.

3. Cold Seats

• Basic infrastructure (desks, computers, phones) available but no pre-installed configurations.

• Requires significant setup time, making it best suited for less critical operations.

Benefits of Outsourcing for Continuity

• Scalability: Outsourcing providers can scale up or down quickly based on the disruption’s scope.

• Cost Efficiency: Avoids the capital expenditure of maintaining a backup site year-round.

• Expertise: Providers often have experience managing large-scale disruptions and can offer insights into best practices.

• Geographical Diversity: Many providers operate across multiple regions, reducing the risk of a single point of failure.

Search our Supplier Directory for Outsourcers providing BCP solutions >

Developing Your Business Continuity Plan

A well-designed BCP requires careful consideration of your operational needs, risks, and budget.

Follow these steps to create or refine your plan:

1. Risk Assessment: Identify potential threats and assess their impact on your operations.

2. Critical Operations: Determine which functions must continue during a disruption.

3. Technology Review: Ensure your systems support remote work, call re-routing, and failover capabilities.

4. Training and Testing: Train staff on BCP procedures and conduct regular drills to identify gaps.

5. Review and Update: Regularly update your BCP to account for changing circumstances and technologies.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Call Centres

This BCP Template for Call Centres is designed to guide you through the process of creating a customised plan that aligns with your operational needs.

It includes all the critical components of a robust BCP, such as risk assessments, activation processes, and communication strategies, tailored specifically for call centres.

By using this template, you’ll have a practical framework to:

• Identify potential risks and their impact on your operations.

• Develop actionable steps to mitigate disruptions.

• Ensure your team is prepared and trained to respond effectively.

• Protect customer relationships and uphold service quality during emergencies.

With this template, you can create a comprehensive BCP that not only prepares your call centre for disruptions but also sets your business apart as a reliable and proactive organisation.

Download it now and take the first step toward operational resilience.

Need help urgently?

If you are in the middle of an emergency and need urgent call centre support, our Supplier Directory lists outsourcers that provide crisis management solutions.

They can quickly mobilise to help get calls answered, supply phone numbers, develop scripting, relay messages and lots more.

Search for Suppliers of Crisis Management solutions >