How to Implement a Disaster Recovery Policy

This policy outlines the procedures to follow in the event of a Salesforce outage. It provides a preconfigured option for situations where you are unable to log in to Salesforce to manage calls or modify call routing.

If you are currently experiencing a Salesforce outage, this article will likely not be able to help you. This article is intended for proactive preparation for a future Salesforce outage.  

During a Salesforce outage, you may experience:

• Users are unable to login to Salesforce and access Natterbox (this includes Freedom CTI in Salesforce, SCV, Freedom mobile and Freedom Web).

• Queries, updates and create apps fail because they can’t interact with Salesforce

• Admins unable to login and make changes to routing policies

Please note: you may not experience any or all of these issues during an outage. Ensure to test what features are still available to your users during the outage. For example: you may still be able to login to Freedom web or Freedom mobile if you are experiencing issues with your production org.

With that in mind, we recommend creating an outage plan for how you want to handle calls not routing with Salesforce data and users unable to answer calls.

You may want to explore your options for making or receiving calls during an outage. There are three main options, using a deskphone (instead of a CTI/mobile app), using associated devices or sending calls to mobile numbers from the routing policy. The latter option is what this guide covers.

The Build

There are two parts to this: first, a new policy regarding the routing of your calls during an outage, and second, modifications to your existing policy (or policies) to verify an outage.

Please note: this policy will not fire for any network or Natterbox issue just for a Salesforce outage.

New Policy

This new policy may be integrated into the existing policy rather than establishing a separate one. The rationale for maintaining it as a distinct policy could be to facilitate a standardized outage process applicable to multiple policies and/or to manage the disaster recovery policy independently from your inbound call policy.

Furthermore, this policy is customizable and can be modified to align with your business requirements. However, we advise against utilizing Salesforce date (whether through the query, update, or create apps). During a Salesforce outage, such actions will not be possible.

1. Create a new policy (Call Policy) and name it ‘Disaster Recovery’.

2. Add a new action container from the ‘from policy’ container

3. Add an email app (within the same container).

   1. Add the email of a manager

   2. Configure the appropriate subject and body messages

4. Add a speak app (within the same container).

   1. Enter a message like this “We are currently experiencing an outage. Please call back at a later date. If this is an emergency, please stay on the line.”

5. Add a connect a call app (within the same container).

   1. Add the mobile for where the emergency outage calls will go

   2. Extend the ring time to 60 seconds (if desired)

   3. Ensure ‘Call is connected’ is the only option checked under ‘Trigger When’

   4. If you want to add multiple numbers to call during an outage, add more ‘connect a call’ app

6. Add another speak app (within the same container).

   1. Add a message like: Sorry the emergency line is currently busy. Please call back later.

Changes to Existing Policy

1. Add a new action container to the beginning of your policy

2. Name the container ‘Disaster Recovery’

3. Add a query object app:

   1. Name this item: Query Organization

   2. Result Set: Organization

   3. Trigger When: Records found AND Records not found

   4. Record Type: Organization

   5. Selected Fields: Organization ID

4. Copy this app and past it twice in the same container

5. Connect the 3 apps to the normal policy route

6. From the bottom of the container, add a new ‘To Policy’ app.

   1. Select ‘Call Policy’ and choose the name of the new policy you created above.

7. Save your policy.

Other Ideas for Outage Policy

• A hunt group with multiple phone numbers in the group.

  • These could ring all at the same time or ring a number first, then call others.

• Sending an SMS

• Leaving a voicemail