When everyone calls at once: communication during outages

An outage rarely starts in the contact centre. It starts in the network, in an application, in the post or with the weather. It reaches the contact centre ten minutes later, at full force.

Everyone affected has the same question, and they all ask it at once. At that moment, a plan still being drawn up is no help. What helps is a sequence agreed in advance. This post proposes one.

#Why the order matters

During an outage, the number of people on shift is fixed for a few hours. What you can change is how many people need to call at all, and how the rest are served.

So the sequence does not start at the phone but before it. Everyone who has read the answer before picking up the phone frees the line for someone who really needs help.

#The sequence in six steps

1. Detect and confirm. Someone establishes that there is an outage and names one person responsible for communication.
2. Inform proactively. A notice on the website and in the app, and a notification by SMS or email to known affected customers.
3. Announce on the phone. A short message right at the start of the voice menu: what is known, and when the next update will come?
4. Update self-service. The bot, the voicebot and the help pages all answer from the same, updated knowledge article.
5. Offer a callback. Instead of waiting in the queue, callers leave a number and are called back.
6. Reschedule at short notice. Move breaks, offer voluntary overtime, bring in trained colleagues from other areas.

#Proactive: the answer before the question

The most effective step is the second one. Notifications reach affected customers whose contact details you hold, without anyone having to call. On the website, proactive engagement places the notice exactly where people are looking for help.

Content matters. A good outage message says what is known, what is not yet known and when the next update will come. It does not promise a time nobody can keep.

#On the phone: short, honest, early

The announcement in the voice menu comes before all menu options. It takes a few sentences and ends with an offer: a callback, a pointer to the status page or a transfer if the caller's concern has nothing to do with the outage.

That last option is often forgotten. Someone calling about something else must not drown in the outage wave. A separate option for "another concern" keeps those contacts visible.

#Callbacks instead of holding

During a peak, the queue is the most expensive place for everyone. Callers lose time, the line stays busy, and some hang up only to try again straight away.

A callback brings order to the wave. Callers keep their place without staying on the line, and the team works through the callbacks once the first peak has passed. More on this in Callback instead of hold.

#Rescheduling at short notice

The day's plan was set in the morning. Now it has to change within minutes. In scheduling, four levers help, and they should be agreed beforehand:

• Move breaks without cancelling them.
• Offer voluntary overtime through the mobile self-service app rather than a phone round.
• Bring in colleagues from other areas who are trained on the outage topic.
• Postpone lower-priority work, such as emails without a deadline, in a controlled way.

After the outage, the event belongs in the forecast. How to plan for events like this in future is covered in Forecasting with events.

#Who does what, and when

A sequence only works when responsibilities are clear. The table below is a starting point for your own outage protocol.

#What to prepare on a quiet day

Most decisions in an outage can be made on a quiet day. Whatever is ready then only needs to be triggered when it happens, rather than debated.

The exercise is the item most often postponed. Yet only an exercise shows whether templates can be found, permissions are right and the announcement can be changed within minutes, before it really matters.

#Do not forget the all-clear

An outage does not end when the technology is running again. It ends when the people affected know. The all-clear goes out through the same channels as the first message: notification, website, announcement, bot.

The guide Workforce planning in the contact centre: the basics shows how to account for events like this in planning.