How to Ensure Operational Continuity in Call Centers in Mexico During Contingencies?

What are the best practices that set apart a call center in Mexico that can continue operating during a contingency without compromising service levels for its clients from those that cannot?

This document identifies the key actions that enable a call center in Mexico to protect the health of its employees and maintain client operations without sacrificing security, productivity, or service levels. We believe the major differences—regardless of financial capacity to ensure cash flow—can be summarized in four areas:

• Actions to protect staff

• Systems and communications infrastructure

• Contact center operating platform

• Centralized operations control

General Rules During a Crisis

In times of crisis, a call center in Mexico should follow two rules:

1. Forget the imperative to cut costs. Every decision must be based on implementation speed and its impact on maintaining health and operational continuity. The focus should be on survival, not minimizing losses.

2. Establish a contingency control committee immediately. This committee should include the director and top-level executives, available 24/7 to meet and make decisions.

Actions to Protect Employees

Protection must cover both workplace and health aspects. Beyond the moral and legal obligation to safeguard employee health, this is essential for operational continuity and an opportunity to reward employee dedication by avoiding layoffs and income loss. Protection plans vary by contingency type but should meet these conditions (see detailed example in Annex 1):

• Immediate implementation

• Communicate measures through multiple channels: posters, general announcements, and preferably online courses for faster reach

• Enforce strict measures for non-compliance

• Provide resources to ensure compliance with rules and protocols

Systems and Communications Infrastructure

For most contingencies, a traditional disaster recovery plan (DRP) with interconnected systems in high availability solves many issues if backup centers are located at a considerable distance (preferably over 100 km apart). However, national or global contingencies lasting longer than expected cannot be ruled out. To guarantee real operational continuity, the following conditions should be met:

1. Interconnected physical centers with:

   a. High-availability operating systems and applications to maintain operations and client data integrity

   b. Redundant links with different rings, routes, and providers to prevent total communication failure

   c. Active percentage in both centers to sustain critical operations temporarily while measures are taken

2. Second-level protection for prolonged or global contingencies:

   Implement cloud infrastructure (public or private) in high availability. If the issue cannot be resolved immediately, this solution allows operations to continue remotely—from another center or agents’ homes—without compromising service quality.

To achieve this:

• Have a contingency plan identifying an alternate center or operators’ internet access capabilities

• Define protocols for equipment configuration and delivery to maintain quality and security

• Consider remote connection methods to client applications

Contact Center Operating Platform

Redundant systems and communications infrastructure are essential, but remote or distributed operations are impossible without a platform that supports and controls them. The platform must have these capabilities to maintain services remotely and effectively:

• High availability across all voice and digital channel modules (inbound/outbound) and databases

• Scalability to convert backup users into primary users

• Audio compression for VPN environments

• Real-time web-based monitoring of operations

• Communication system between central systems and agents

Centralized Operations Control

Infrastructure and platform enable remote operations during contingencies, but only temporarily and in a limited way if not controlled by a centralized command center monitoring all agent indicators in real time.

Agent performance cannot rely solely on supervisors in remote setups. A command center must connect to all agents to track real-time performance indicators—connection times, AHT, conversion rates, recovery rates, etc.—and automatically alert agents of deviations. If unresolved or severe, notify supervisors, coordinators, or campaign directors based on case importance.

Maintain the same security and quality standards with automated and random monitoring that evaluates performance and provides real-time feedback to agents.

Complementary Technologies

Additional technologies can enhance security and quality levels, such as:

a. Artificial Intelligence: Robots can listen to conversations and detect prohibited words indicating potential fraud or critical errors.
b. Speech and Text Analytics: Monitor a high percentage of conversations (25–30%) in real time or daily to confirm script adherence and objectively measure service quality.

Conclusion

Service continuity is not something that can be improvised. On the contrary, it requires planning and significant investments to guarantee it.

Continuity plans must cover protocols to ensure the health and safety of employees, a communication structure that allows all systems to operate remotely and in a distributed manner, a platform that maintains secure and transparent operations when agent locations change, and a centralized command center that monitors employee performance in real time and takes immediate action in case of deviations.