{"id":317546,"date":"2020-06-16T05:42:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T12:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genesys.com\/?post_type=blog&p=317546"},"modified":"2020-06-16T05:42:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T12:42:13","slug":"the-new-normal-redefining-business-continuity","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.genesys.com\/en-gb\/blog\/post\/the-new-normal-redefining-business-continuity","title":{"rendered":"The New Normal: Redefining Business Continuity"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section full_width=”stretch_row”][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last week, I had the unique opportunity to spend (virtual) time with Barbara Gonzalez, Genesys Global VP for Strategic Business Consulting, and two Genesys customers. The customers were Paul Bourdeaux, Vice President, IT for eFinancial in Bellevue, WA, and Colin Salvensen, Head of IT for Mr. Price Group Ltd., South Africa. Over the course of a few meetings, we created and then delivered a webinar about business continuity, in which we all shared stories about how businesses are adapting to the new post-pandemic landscape.<\/p>\n

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eFinancial<\/strong><\/p>\n

eFinancial was founded in 2001 as a software startup working to simplify the process of purchasing life insurance online or over the phone. The systems they\u2019ve developed since are aimed at helping middle-market consumers get the life insurance they need and want, often on a single phone call. Before the recent pandemic, eFinancial<\/a> operated with three contact centre locations in Washington, Illinois, and Arizona.<\/p>\n

As Bourdeaux explained during the webinar discussion, like most organisations, eFinancial had a business continuity plan in place, but it centered on potential issues in individual offices. The plans were focused on how to respond if an office had to close for a snowstorm, power outage or natural disaster. Another planned-for emergency was a data centre failure. But, Bourdeaux acknowledged, quickly deploying a full-scale, work-from-home initiative across all locations was never part of the plan.<\/p>\n

A long-time Genesys\u2122<\/sup>\u00a0PureConnect\u00ae<\/a> customer, in 2019, eFinancial began investigating alternatives to this on-premises contact centre solution. Two articulated goals were the ability to more easily scale up the business as well as enable select agents the option to work securely from home. In late 2019, the decision was made to migrate from PureConnect on-premises to the Genesys Cloud\u2122\u00a0platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The planned launch was a phased approach, beginning April 30, 2020. Bourdeaux explained that this changed as the result of COVID-19; eFinancial had about three weeks to prepare for a full cut-over of 100% of its sales and operations staff. With a largely successful migration to Genesys Cloud behind them, Bourdeaux said that eFinancial would be updating its business continuity plans to, \u201creflect the new remote workforce capabilities that we’ve discovered with Genesys Cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Price Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Price Group<\/a> describes itself as a cash-based, omnichannel, fashion-value retailer. Targeting younger customers, the company predominantly retails its own-branded apparel, home goods, financial and cellular services in over 1,200 store locations.<\/p>\n

During the webinar. Salvesen explained that the lockdown in South Africa meant that all of the company\u2019s stores were closed on March 23, 2020. Contact centre work continued, however, with agents handling calls with common themes. How do I actually pay? How do I keep in good standing? How do I get orders that were placed before the lockdown? To handle the volume of calls, even outbound agents became, as Salvesen said, \u201cpurely customer care agents.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa is taking a phased approach to exit one of the strictest lockdowns globally beginning May 1, 2020. As the country moves into winter for the Southern Hemisphere, retailers supplying necessary warm clothes will be allowed to resume operation.<\/p>\n

Salvesen believes that, for Mr. Price and most companies, emerging from lockdown will include re-examining digital engagement offerings. The pandemic has accelerated that conversation both as a result of listening to the voice of the customer, which has long advocated for better digital interaction choices, and necessity \u2013 limiting visits to shops. For Mr. Price Group, cloud will be part of its digital transformation journey. \u201cI think a lot of companies and CEOs will be accelerating those discussions,\u201d said Salvesen.<\/p>\n

The South African re-opening of business plan recommends that employees over 60 years of age continue to work from home. We\u2019ll likely see a similar measure in other countries and individual cities, states and communities \u2014 and there is no way to know how long they will be in place. A cloud contact centre application will be part of the solution to keeping these at-risk employees working.<\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both eFinancial and Mr. Price Group are happily in the process of creating back-to-work plans. eFinancial is exploring different options for agent schedules because, as Bourdeaux explained, \u201cOne silver lining from this crisis is that we’ve learned that offering greater flexibility won’t necessarily detract from our productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Mr. Price, Salvesen believes that “while eCommerce has been around for quite some time, in the new normal, we’re going to have a new normal of eCommerce as well.\u201d\u00a0 That new normal will include \u201cstepping-up service levels and stepping-up the amount of context\u201d available for agents during interactions.<\/p>\n

While I have shared some great insights from the hour Barbara Gonzalez, Paul Bourdeaux, Colin Salvesen and I spent discussing \u201cthe new normal,\u201d there are certainly more. For readers of this blog, the next steps should include listening to the entire webinar, \u201cThe new normal: Redefining business continuity<\/a>,\u201d which is available on demand.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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