APT Travel Group: Continuing to deliver excellent service through a disaster
After over 90 years in business, APT knows what it takes to service customers even when disaster strikes their business. Learn how they continued operations after a fire with their well-developed and regularly tested disaster plan.
APT Travel Group
The APT Travel Group started its business in 1927 and is now the largest, locally-owned travel group in Australia.
With over 90 years in the touring industry, APT Travel Group has grown an extensive portfolio of touring and cruising brands. Their key focus is to deliver an unwavering customer service and unforgettable holiday experiences for every individual. It maintains an unparalleled commitment to innovation in defining what travel means, not only in Australia but the world.
Key benefits
- Seamless transition of the team to the secured site during a disaster
- Continuous connectivity with key customers and suppliers
- Expert designed and tested disaster recovery plan
- Secure and comfortable office recovery suites for relocated staff
A disaster leaving its office unusable
APT Travel Group’s primary focus is on its customers.
It strives to always deliver an unparalleled customer experience for any holiday. APT knows this doesn’t begin on the trip – it starts with the first interaction with their clients, usually over the phone.
One day, disaster struck – a fire in an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) occurred in ATP’s office. Thankfully, no one was injured, and the fire was managed effectively but the travel company was left without a useable facility for their customer support centre.
Since client care is a core pillar for the travel company, they knew downtime wasn’t an option no matter the disaster. Without a usable customer support centre, ATP would not have been able to effectively support its customers and developed and tested a business continuity plan for this reason.
A well tested plan is the best step one
APT worked with Interactive’s experts to develop their business continuity and disaster plan ensuring that no matter what happened, their operations could continue.
This plan was also regularly updated and tested to ensure all staff knew what to do in light of any event. The UPS fire left the building unusable for employees calling for APT’s customer support staff to immediately be relocated to their disaster recovery (DR) site at Interactive’s Port Melbourne office recovery centre.
Step one was to call the Interactive Service Desk. This ensured all systems were readied in time for APT staff to start work at first thing the next day. When staff arrived in the morning, they found their desktops were already configured, the telephones ready for calls and all in a clean, professional and well-designed environment. The seamless changeover to the DR site allowed for APT’s operations to quickly return and resulted in no loss of contact with customers around the world.
“We have been able to return to operation so quickly that our customers didn’t notice any interruption.”
- Anthony Bianco, ICT Infrastructure & Support Services Manager at APT Touring
Future-proofed for anything
Designing a plan for office recovery in a disaster requires a close relationship between you and your business continuity provider.
APT and Interactive have worked together to ensure that, should a disaster happen, APT’s business is able to continue without missing a beat. In this case, the plan came to fruition as designed.
Interactive understands the importance of amenities for customers experiencing a disaster. When onsite, APT was able to use our meeting rooms, catering and even on-site barista. All our business continuity suites and disaster recovery sites are state-of-the-art and generous in space. We know that access to comfortable facilities during a disaster can go a long way for staff morale and stress levels.
APT Group’s customers never realised they were calling an alternate site and the APT team found a well-designed, comfortable and professional site waiting for them to continue designing great holidays for their customers.
