When your internet goes down, do operations stop with it? Well, if your phone or payment systems need a connection or your team works online, the answer is yes.
And even a short outage can be enough to throw off your team’s day between the missed calls, delayed responses, frozen screens, and frustration staring at a machine that won’t process a payment.
All of this is exactly why we discuss failover options when designing systems. Because outages happen, but your customers should continue to get the experience they expect, and your team shouldn’t have to “wait it out”.
What causes outages?
Most often, it’s a surprisingly common issue like:
- There’s a service provider disruption (this ranges from faulty equipment, doing maintenance, or overloaded causing a network congestion in your area)
- Construction damage
- Power interruptions
- Weather and natural disasters that affect infrastructure
What this means for your business
If you don’t have a plan in place for any of the above, you’re going to feel it. You can’t control every point of failure – not the construction crew outside and not the upstream carrier’s maintenance.
But you can control how your system responds when that does happen. When we engineer a built-in failover option, it’s automatic. It protects the flow of your operations and requires no action by your staff.
Here’s what we are talking about when we say ‘failover’
Failover is a backup connection that automatically takes over if your primary connection fails.
Think of it as a safety net, it’s part of your setup and switches over instantly with zero action needed on your end. It keeps your phones, tools, and services working continuously either through another internet provider or a cellular connection.
It means your business doesn’t have to stop just because your connection did. Failovers work best if they’re engineered to be automated, pre-routed and maintained.
The “invisible” risk of not having a failover
Even a short outage causes hours of chaos.
Here’s what could happen:
- Calls don’t go through, and now a customer is frustrated or already looking elsewhere
- Your payment terminal can’t connect, so transactions aren’t possible
- Your team can’t look up details or records – instead of quick answers, your team is having to tell them “we’ll get back to you”
- A break in connection could cause data corruption, where you lose hours of work
And all the while? Your staff are sitting there unable to do their tasks because your system won’t let them.
The Phone Experts Group approach
Whether we are installing a unified business communication system or brokering your internet between major providers, we always have a conversation about all your options.
We don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach that restricts you to one system.
We take the time to understand the structure and flow of your operations, and that’s what shapes the solution. We look into how your team works, how your locations are setup and what’s practical for your industry.
Here’s what that could look like:
- If your main internet goes down, your system switches to cellular
- If your internet goes down, we route traffic to a different internet provider
- If you rely on cloud tools that have a credit card and debit card terminal, or VoIP phones, we make sure they stay functional while your primary connection is down
And because we are local to Alberta, we guide you through what makes sense in your area with your set up. Then we test it and support it around the clock.
It’s about being prepared
With a well-engineered failover solution, your operations will not be dependent on one connection.
Not sure what that looks like for your business? Our experts are happy to walk you through the best options for your setup and build something that makes sense for you.
