Ventura County (Thomas) Wildfire Out of Control

ContactRelief Recommendations for Contact Centers

ContactRelief is making public recommendations made to its subscribers, Tuesday, December 5th, 2017.

ContactRelief recommends suspension of contact with consumers in multiple zip codes in Ventura County, California until further notice. To obtain the list of the affected zip codes, become a ContactRelief subscriber.

Thomas Wildfire Remains Uncontrolled

On Tuesday, December 5th, 2017 at 1:30 AM CST, ContactRelief issued a recommendation to suspend contact with consumers near Santa Paula, California as a result of the Thomas fire, a fast-moving wildfire in Ventura County, California, 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. We are now increasing the scope of that recommendation to include additional zip codes.

Fanned by heavy winds and dry conditions, the fire has expanded overnight to over 48,000 acres. Up to 45,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area, and at least 150 structures have been damaged by the fire. Power outages impacted over 200,000 people overnight and over 20,000 people still are without power as electrical companies work to restore service.

The fire is burning on multiple perimeters as over 1,000 firefighters attempt to battle the blaze. Officials issued mandatory evacuation orders and road closures, and multiple school systems announced school closures in the area.

A high wind warning is in effect for the area until later tonight. Dry conditions and high winds mean that the fire will be difficult to control and further evacuations may be necessary.

ContactRelief is recommending suspension of contact in 5 zip codes in Ventura County, California. The affected population is approximately 116,000 people. We expect that this recommendation will be in place through Wednesday, December 6th or until evacuation orders are lifted.

Why You Must Also Prepare for Man-Made Disasters - The Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Contact centers need to be prepared to act quickly and decisively not only for forecasted events like hurricanes, but also for man-made disasters that cannot be predicted. On Sunday night in Las Vegas, over 50 people were killed and over 500 injured in a senseless mass shooting at a local music festival.

ContactRelief issued a recommendation to suspend contact to accounts with zip codes surrounding the Las Vegas Strip on October 2nd at 12:30 AM PDT, a little more than 2 hours after the incident began, and expanded this contact suspension recommendation at 4:30 AM PDT to include all of the county surrounding Las Vegas (Clark County, Nevada) as more details became known.

If you are like most companies, you can't afford the staff to perform the around the clock monitoring required to act promptly, the management of multiple concurrent disasters, and information gathering it takes to know when and where to suspend and resume contact for all types of possible events. But why bother when ContactRelief has this and more for less than $300 per month.

Why You Must Act Now

Our offer of free access to our service will expire soon. We provide the only service specially designed for contact centers and focused on all aspects of the customer experience during natural and man-made disasters. We can not only tell you when and where to suspend contact, but when and why you should resume contact, and how you can improve your brand image by the actions you take during these periods. Because before starting ContactRelief we owned and operated large contact centers, we understand your business perspective, and our recommendations are designed to help you deliver a great customer experience while still enabling you to achieve your other objectives.

Don't Delay

The next disaster is on its way. Become a ContactRelief subscriber and keep your company protected from disaster. Our full recommendations consist of the areas to be suspended and the list of zip codes covering these areas. For as little as $300 per month your company can quickly implement a solution that protects your company and its customers. As we say at ContactRelief, "It's just smart business."

Contact sales@contactrelief.com for more information.