Building Connectivity: Emergency Response to Tenant Outages
When one of your tenants experiences a network outage, the most important consideration is getting the issue resolved as quickly as possible. If the tenant does not know who to contact immediately, their frustration levels will quickly compound.
Often, the tenant will immediately call their telecom providers, only to be told that the problem lies with their own equipment or the building’s connectivity. Now, it’s up to the tenant to do the research, which means they call up the property manager and say, “We have a problem and I need your help to fix it.”
Without the proper processes and methodologies in place, this scenario can quickly spiral out of control. The tenant is losing productivity, time, and money with every minute their connectivity is down, so not knowing who to call to fix the problem can be extremely frustrating.
As they struggle to understand the issue and the number of phone calls they make increases, they start to look for someone to blame.
Finger-Pointing Gets in the Way of Problem Solving
It’s important to provide your tenants with clear and concise instructions to follow during network outages. Give them access to an online tenant portal (that can be accessed on a device like a phone or tablet using an outside network) with a simple process for service request, as well as a single point of contact phone number for all their telecom services within their building, including emergency repair and diagnostics.
By providing your tenants with a single point of contact to use in the event of an emergency, you are effectively eliminating any confusion for the tenant and providing them with the peace of mind of knowing that their network outage is being addressed as fast as possible by a qualified firm acclimated to their building.
Reducing Network Down Time
Regardless of whether the service interruption is caused by the service provider, inside wiring or customer premise equipment, it’s critical that you have the right processes in place to quickly identify and rectify the issue.
Effective disaster remediation starts by being prepared before an emergency situation arises. To minimize network down time, you and your building engineers should always:
- Restrict and record access to your buildings demarc and telecom spaces
- Escort contractors to telecom spaces when new services are ordered
- Actively document and maintain your communications infrastructure, including Moves, Adds, and Changes (MACs) of completed work in your riser spaces
- Require tenants to schedule an approved contractor to decommission all cabling runs from their suites to the riser when they are moving out. (Be sure to escort the contractor and document the newly available cable pairs!)
With these processes in place, the chances of a network outage being due to an inside cabling and/or connectivity issue are significantly decreased.
If an emergency does arise, actively maintained documentation of your telecom spaces will reduce troubleshooting time and give the contractor access to the necessary resources to quickly determine the reason behind the network outage.
Dependable connectivity is one of the most important building amenities and when your tenant’s network goes down, it can potentially mean thousands of dollars in lost revenue. If you and your team are unable to provide a solution for quick and effective disaster remediation, consider working with a riser management partner who can ensure that your tenant’s connectivity is actively protected and provide streamlined emergency repair and diagnostic services.
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