The postal strike in Britain underscores the absolute necessity of having backup carriers in whatever Internet business we're in.
With online marketing, delivery is everything; if that isn't secured, you won't have an Internet business, as some smaller firms in the U.K. are finding out the hard way.
It's interesting in reading about it that larger companies aren't having too much problem with the situation, as they have contingency plans in place for this reason.
Just because we may think of ourselves as a small company, should be no reason to not have backup plans in place in case something like this happens.
This isn't just concerning strikes either; there can be problems in any delivery system that must be assumed will happen.
James Roper, Interactive Media in Retail Group’s chief executive said, "The strike is destroying the industry. Our industry works on confidence and trust of the customers. The Royal Mail is the only doorstep delivery business in the UK. The uncertainty that this is bringing into the market place is a nightmare. It is particularly hard for small firms who do not have the means to engage a replacement carrier at short notice."
The way to combat that is to have a small percentage of deliveries through a secondary service, or maybe even two. That way if disruptions come, you can have something in place that can transferred to them immediately.
In other words don't only have a backup plan, but have an operating backup plan in place, so you can simply transfer a larger load to that service which is already operating.
It is our job to ensure our customers can remain confident in our ability to deliver our products. They won't allow us to get away with blaming outside circumstances.
Having operating backup deliveries in place is a key way to make sure it doesn't happen to us. We must anticipate and be prepared for the worst.
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