Written by Stefanie Beach-Coker
Does it really give you peace of mind, or is it just something we say?
I’ve been in the DRBC industry for more than a decade now. I am still very passionate about this line of business and take DR and DR testing very seriously. I also think that some of the comments we make to our customers roll off our tongues without much critical thought. We’ve witnessed and mitigated many hurricane threats in my tenure at Corus360/RES-Q™ Services, all of which our team has been all hands-on deck at the first sign of a storm headed to the US. What this means to our customers is that we are already pulling their configuration/SLA information before a storm has approached the proximity of their facility.
Part of what we provide to our customers is ongoing updates and notifications on the actual storm along with updating specific requirements they may need they have to put RES-Q™ Services on alert or declare a disaster. Year after year we send the information out during storm season, but the threat of Hurricane Florence seemed to make us all stop and think. She was a very large and unpredictable storm that was slated to impact different areas of the Carolinas. Maybe it was due to the area (I am a resident of NC with many customers close by) or the number of customers that needed to be contacted in preparation for Florence’s landfall.
Additionally, this storm made me really pay attention to the things I wrote and said instead of just letting words “roll off my tongue”. Whatever the reason was, I was very in tune to the urgency and consistency of the information we were sending out to our customers.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one taking this event seriously. For the first time, I heard back from EVERY customer I personally reached out to. It was enlightening to hear the responses and reactions. The customers that perform regular DR testing or had already developed their recovery solution to a more resilient state were elated to hear the warnings early on and responded back with a “Thank you!” and for us to all be safe as well. The customers, that for whatever reason hadn’t reached that point, had a totally different response to my notifications.
At times, during the build up to Florence and anticipating where she was really going to be an impact, I felt like somewhere in a state of panic and disbelief that it may actually happen to them. It’s a very scary time when a storm is approaching, and our main concern should be able to be with our families and prepare our homes. Now when I say to a prospect or a customer that DR testing will give you peace of mind or make you sleep better at night, it no longer “just rolls off my tongue”.
The words are no longer a sales pitch but a genuine testament to what I’ve witnessed: services that do what we want them to do – give us peace of mind. This is why DR testing matters. Precedent and personal understanding about our customers have led to deeper conversation and better business continuity and DR planning for our customers across the board.