Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. In business terms, this means that downtime is simply inevitable. And while downtime is extremely expensive in terms of getting business up and running again, yet another extreme expense it causes is a damaged brand image. Disaster recovery planning is perhaps the most important part of a company’s brand. This is because of the huge stress clients put on consistency and data protection with the companies they do business with.
Consistency is key
Being able to do business in a consistent and reliable manner is what separates successful companies from the ones that fall by the wayside. As Kristi Jackson, founder of Women CEO Project, stated, “consistency helps build trust with consumers and other businesses because they see your brand or results frequently and know you mean business.” When a person walks into an Italian restaurant, it’s because they want Italian food. If they arrive one day and find the restaurant is serving sushi – or worse, no food at all – they are going to be extremely disappointed with their visit. The same can be applied to any other business. If a business has had a lot of downtime due to poor disaster recovery, clients are going to be frustrated.
This is exactly why business continuity plans are so important to a business’s clients. As Continuity Insights stated, a company’s brand belongs to the clients more than it does to the company itself. This is because clients can help build a company’s brand image or destroy it if they see fit.
Robust business continuity plans, such as those offered by ISG Technology, right the ship when things are not going well. The reason a good plan is so important is because it guides how employees act in a crisis. DisasterRecovery.org explained that when companies have good business continuity plans, employees can take a more educated and confident role in the company’s recovery process. This means less panic on the side of the employees, which means less downtime for the company, which means less money and brand image lost. Getting the company back on its feet after a run in with a disaster is at the heart of consistency and good brand imaging, and should be a key concern for those trying to take their business to the next level.