How Stores Survive When Crisis Strikes: The Business Continuity Plan

No one likes to think their business would ever be directly affected by a crisis, whether it’s manmade or a natural disaster. However, it’s important to stay prepared for situations like data breaches, heavy storms, and more. Retail establishments and financial institutions alike are at risk of disruption to service and operations when unexpected events occur, which can result in data loss, property damage, and even reputation damage. And unfortunately, for establishments that are unprepared or underprepared, they may never successfully recover.?

Whether you’re operating a commercial/retail business or a financial institution, here are a few reasons why it’s important to have a cash management partner with a structured business continuity plan (BCP) ready to implement when a crisis strikes.?

Getting Access to Cash After Crisis?

Establishments like banks, grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, and gas stations provide the most critical needs to the general public in the recovery process after a major event or natural disaster. In terms of immediate response, if critical businesses like these don’t have a cash management supplier with a solid BCP in place, it could spell disaster on top of an already chaotic situation.?

For these businesses to function quickly after a natural disaster, they often must operate on a cash-only basis due to offline credit card or point-of-sale machines. It’s easy to take these modern conveniences for granted when they’ve become something most people use every day. Even if businesses have back-up generators to power point of sale systems, these aren’t always foolproof. Without a reliable cash management partner and BCP, a cash-only operating system can come to a grinding halt.?

The same goes for banks and financial institutions. Customers need and expect to withdraw cash to purchase basic resources like food, fuel, and medicine. Financial Institutions need a dependable cash transportation partner to deliver the cash they need to keep operating and to reopen doors as quickly as possible.?

Factors to Consider in an Emergency?

A reliable cash management partner understands that the foundation of their clients’ emergency response relies on them. Cash management providers must be organized, able, and ready to act in an emergency or crisis. Critical businesses and financial institutions need cash not only delivered but picked up as well. This is to prevent situations that leave them vulnerable to looters, robbery, or burglary threats due to having an on-site surplus of cash.?

For businesses that need to urgently be back online and operating during these times, having a quick recovery plan can make the difference between being able to reopen or not. If their cash management provider has a thorough business continuity plan in place, this works to limit the amount of time they themselves are offline, which means the faster they can send armored carriers out to deposit cash into ATM machines, deliver cash, drop off change orders, and service smart safes for customers.?

These are all critical things to think about when selecting a cash management partner for your business. Selecting one with a solid BCP should be one of your main requirements, especially if you are operating on the Gulf or East Coast.?

Learning From Past Experience?

The 2017 hurricane season was the most active—and most destructive—in more than a decade, causing an estimated $200 billion in damages. Hurricane Harvey, which poured a year’s worth of rain in less than one week onto Southeast Texas, became the second-most costly hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since 1900. Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit land less than one month after Harvey, causing devastation and billions of dollars in damage to parts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean. 367 of Loomis’ Houston clients, and 1,160 Florida clients were affected by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and the quick enactment of Loomis’ BCP enabled these clients to weather the storm without worry of long-lasting effects on their business.?

Business Continuity Plan in Action?

Loomis has a BCP alert system in place, allowing customers to subscribe and receive real-time notifications via text, email, or phone. This proactive approach allows us to notify customers in the event of a service disruption, rather than them having to seek out information when their scheduled services have been missed.?

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Loomis SafePoint? operations teams were able to:?

• Quickly monitor all safes in the Houston market, identify which were online or offline, and dispatch teams to customer locations who reported being offline to safely remove cash from their safes.?
• Identify ATMs that were operational and reachable; this was critical to get as many machines as possible back in service so those in need could access cash.?
• Bring in resources from around the country to set up a dedicated contaminated currency processing room at our Houston branch.?

These steps were also repeated for customers in Florida and Puerto in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, where remote management technology to and from the smart safes enabled the Loomis team to prioritize pickups based on the capacity utilization of the safes and whether they were online or offline. Offline safes indicated that the business had either lost power, were flooded, or both, showing a higher risk of loss or theft at these locations.?

Stay Prepared with Loomis?

Don't wait for disaster to strike. In the event of an emergency, you’ll want the pros by your side. Contact Loomis today to discuss your cash management needs and how our business continuity plan can keep your establishment running smoothly.??