Protecting Your Card Program From a Natural Disaster

Nobody thinks about a possible natural disaster, until it happens. For our homes, cars and material possessions, our insurance policies protect us financially, and our friends and family support us emotionally. But what about your business?  This week’s historic flooding in Texas spawned from Hurricane Harvey will likely affect millions of Americans and thousands of businesses for the many months ahead.  How quickly businesses bounce back may depend on how prepared they were in advance of this devastating event. Is your business prepared for a natural disaster? What is your disaster recovery plan?

Although no one can fully prepare for the unknown, disaster recovery should be a strategy for all parts of your business, including your card program. Whether you have a gift card, membership card, healthcare card or a direct mail card program, it needs to continue in the event of a fire, flood or other type of disaster. What safeguards do you currently have in place to keep your program moving in the event of an emergency?  And, do your vendors also have disaster recovery plans mapped out?  If you are not sure, it is a question worth asking – – before it’s too late.

Think about this scenario:  You are a national retailer and your gift cards are currently in production for the upcoming holiday season.  As the deadline nears to ship your cards to your stores and to third-party distributors, the building in which your cards are being produced has been hit by a tornado…and all is lost.  Now what?  Does your card vendor have a back-up plan? Do they have somewhere that they can shift the work to and still meet your tight deadlines? Or will you be stuck rushing to find another card vendor to complete your cards in time? And how about your data…is it safe?

These are important questions that you want to ask your card vendor now versus later.  CPS Cards is extremely pro-active in preparing for any event that could possibly put our clients’ projects in jeopardy.  With our two state-of-the-art facilities, we are able to offer duplicate equipment and production capabilities.  This ensures that, at any time, if an event were to cause a production issue at either of our facilities, the other would be able to receive files and have the project up and running quickly.

Disasters are not something we think about on a daily basis, however, the long-lasting effects of a fire, tornado or flood can certainly derail, not only your current card program, but future programs and revenues as well.  Make sure that your vendors always have a backup plan to protect your program, before it is too late.