Abzorb

It is an unfortunate fact that most businesses will have lost their landlines at some point and will have had to bear the cost and frustration of customers not being able to phone and place orders with them. There are several options that can be taken to minimise the disruption and cost when landlines are lost. Understanding the options and planning ahead is key to minimising disruption.

The options include –

Smart Divert.
This is aimed at analogue line users. It provides a number that can be dialled from any phone to activate a diversion. With Smart Divert, even if your lines are down, you can still divert your calls, simply by calling the access number from your mobile. This is an enhanced version of Call Diversion; the standard service requires you to enter the codes from a telephone connected to the line you want to divert - not much use if the line is down.

Site Assurance.
This is aimed at ISDN30 customers. It provides a helpline number that allows customers to divert calls to a predefined number. The service is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It takes approximately three days to have the Site Assurance service applied to your lines. Once applied, it can be used whenever needed and diverts are often in place within 5 or 10 minutes.

Both Smart Divert & Site Assurance have small monthly costs.

For ISDN2 line users, the choices above do not apply. Those using ISDN2 must ensure you are with a service provider that can react to your problem when you need them to as, if you need to divert your lines, you will need them to place an order with BT to facilitate the divert.

Any Service Provider can, in the event of a line fault, activate a divert to your choice of number, however, in the event of equipment failure, a fault divert cannot be used. In the case of ISDN30 without Site Assurance, a non-fault divert takes up to two days to go live and another two to be turned off.

Clearly, once you have understood how to divert your lines, you have a choice of where to divert them to.

Many choose to divert to a company mobile phone. This is not as limiting as it sounds. If Call Waiting and Voicemail are turned off on this mobile and a “Divert on Busy” is set to a second mobile, two calls can be handled at once. This can be multiplied upwards by diverting on busy from the second to a third mobile and so on. If calls in group are included, other than the initial diversion from the landline, no additional call charges are incurred.

Some companies may choose to pay monthly fees guaranteeing seats with telephones in a call centre, should disaster hit. This is not quite as flexible as using mobiles, as it involves staff relocating to the centre. However, computers and internet access are usually available too.

If it you want to guard against the loss of internet, some very simple steps can be taken.

Contact your ISP and ask what their dial-up numbers are and the settings you would need. Then make sure you still have a working dial-up modem should you need it. Test it.

Alternatively, many companies have a mobile broadband connection on standby that can be brought in to use in the event of a loss of ADSL. Routers can be obtained that have a socket to connect the mobile broadband stick. If the ADSL goes off, it automatically routes to the mobile network.

In summary, it is important to know what type of lines you have and decide on the strategy you would use in the event of a total loss. Plan ahead.

For more information, contact us on 01484 405300, or email info@abzorb.co.uk