So, we’re halfway through the day which has seen more than one million public sector workers in England go on strike over pension changes.

Whether the strikes are right or wrong is not our place to argue, but the impact on business is undeniable.

With the majority of schools closed due to the teachers’ strike, working parents have faced huge challenges to find childcare in order to be able to go to work. Those who can’t find cover have had to take the day off, leaving some businesses short staffed.

One positive impact of the disruption (for me, anyway!) was that the rush hour traffic was lighter than usual this morning. But anyone using public transport to get to work has faced a whole different set of problems, with the strikes meaning the some services are cancelled altogether. Others are running on limited service.

The strikes highlight the need for disaster planning to ensure continuous service for your customers, even if your staff can’t get into the office to answer the phones.

A non-geographic number provides a solution to this challenge. With online call routing and service changes, your staff can work from home on days like today. You can simply reroute your calls to their home numbers, add a call whisper so that they know it is a business call coming through, and even set up hunt groups or ring groups when you have teams that usually sit together but are working at different locations.

What an 0844 or 0800 number can’t guarantee is that the kids will be quiet whilst your staff are taking calls at home. Technology isn’t that advanced yet, but hopefully your customers will appreciate the fact that their call was answered and forgive a little background noise.

How are the strikes affecting your business? Let us know.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 at 1:37 pm and is filed under non geographic numbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.