Just as the work day was about to get started in Vermont on Tuesday, the taps literally ran dry at National Life. And that only super-charged our Texas team.
The Vermont campus was forced to close because a particularly large water main burst in downtown Montpelier, draining pressure and ultimately water from other parts of the system, particularly from our hilltop location.
That unleashed a “Quick Reactionary Force” in Addison. Texas teams who work in the Contact Center, ESI and many other areas of the company stepped in and stepped up.
“As I type this note, we are up and running on one of the busiest days of the year,” Mark Farrell, who heads up the Contact Center, reported midway through Tuesday morning. “We have full hearts and our heads are above water!”
It was Mark who activated what he termed the “Quick Reactionary Force,” otherwise known as our recovery protocols.
Various areas of the company have very specific and thorough plans for how to respond to a potential disruption in business caused by the closure of one of our campuses or some other catastrophe. But because of the drills and the planning, there was no actual disruption to our customers.
Our IT teams ensured a smooth transition of phones and other systems from the rapidly vacated Vermont campus to both our Texas and remote teams. Vermont employees went home and signed in.
Here’s how Mark described the Contact Center reaction:
- Vermont CC Associates that can work from home are staffed in and taking calls
- Operational staff in TX adding Associates to the Contact Center to answer calls
- Seasoned Associates in TX have been deployed to the Contact Center to stand by to answer questions for CC Associates real-time and assist with escalations, subject matter expertise, tax questions, etc.
- All TX CC Team Leads are also staffing in and taking calls
- Instant Messaging group chats set up to help assist with questions
- We have also published notices on the public home page and the 800-lines to prepare Agents and Customers that they may experience longer wait times.
- We are getting creative in scheduling coverage for our associates and will be providing lunch to the troops.
And we got a similar report from ESI. Here’s what Tim Ryder, who is in charge of ESI operations, wrote to his team on Wednesday.
“First and foremost, THANK YOU to each of you for your effort and care yesterday! It was so amazing to watch you execute what we’ve rehearsed and for it to go so well.
“We answered our calls with an average wait time of 14 seconds which is consistent with our normal monthly average and the worst wait time any caller experienced was just over 3 minutes. No calls were abandoned and we were able to process our business through Docupace as normal yesterday. Anyone calling in wouldn’t have known that we were actually serving them remotely all across Vermont instead of being physically together. And a special shout out to Matt Crowley and Chris Longhi who worked much of yesterday from their desks to allow everyone to get home and get up and running online.
“ESI – You truly proved your battle readiness yesterday and I was so impressed with your effort.”
Mark shared a similar sentiment. “The team really showed how we care for each other – just like a family does!”
Calls to the Sales Desk were also rerouted to Addison.
And back in Vermont, members of the Document Management Services team stayed in the largely deserted building to ensure that important check processing that needed to be completed got out the door on time.
Finally, the facilities team was on deck throughout the day Tuesday, shutting down critical water systems so they couldn’t potentially become contaminated, and then arranging and delivering bottled water so the campus would reopen on Wednesday. Team members also helped to coordinate the return of public transit buses for employees and tenants to get back home.
Facilities spent a good part of the day on Thursday restoring clean-water systems once the city finished testing its water supply and giving the all-clear.
Congratulations to everyone on both campuses and multiple departments for seamlessly maintaining business continuity.
