Earlier this week, I found myself with a front-row seat to an unexpected natural experiment in business continuity. As I gazed out from my Santiago hotel window, I watched an entire city go dark while the hotel I was staying in carried on as if nothing unusual was happening.
The worst power outage in more than ten years had swept across Chile, affecting millions of people and businesses. From my vantage point, the cityscape was mostly black—only scattered buildings with backup generators remained illuminated in the darkness.
Yet inside the Mandarin Oriental Santiago, it was a different story:
- Power was restored in under a minute
- Scheduled events proceeded without interruption
- Restaurants were packed (as venues outside were closed) but operating smoothly
- Staff maintained their usual excellent service levels
- Internet remained functional while most of the country was offline
This wasn’t luck. It was preparation for a predictable disruption.
Business Continuity and The Predictable Unpredictable
While showing companies how to reduce friction in their customer experience, I often encounter an interesting paradox: Organizations invest mostly in optimizing for normal conditions but often neglect preparing for the inevitable disruptions. Being ready for the latter reveals the true strength of their customer commitment.
These events aren’t the true “black swans” that no one can anticipate. Rather, they’re what I and others call the “predictable unpredictable”—events that will certainly happen, though their timing remains uncertain:
- Extended power outages
- Internet service failures
- Loss of key personnel
- Supply chain disruptions
- Weather events
- System outages
When these disruptions occur, they create a unique moment of truth in the customer experience—one that can either cement loyalty or send customers fleeing to competitors.
The Hidden ROI of Disaster Preparedness
A common objection to robust continuity planning is cost. Backup generators, redundant systems, and comprehensive training require significant investment with no guaranteed return date. However, this view misses the substantial hidden ROI of being prepared.
Consider the Mandarin Oriental’s position during Chile’s blackout. While other hotels were turning away guests or providing minimal services, they:
Immediate revenue: They didn’t lose any bookings and probably gained some from hotels that went dark. Their restaurants were filled – their own guests had no place to go, and no doubt they attracted additional guests from outside.
Demonstrated value: The premium price point was suddenly justified by superior preparation.
Created brand advocates: Guests like me are now sharing their story with thousands of potential customers. Stories of the Great Chile Blackout will be told for years to come.
Established competitive differentiation: When I return to Santiago, my accommodation choice is already made.
The ROI picture changes dramatically when you factor in the lifetime value of customers gained during disruptions and the reputational damage avoided by maintaining service levels.
Business Continuity and Disruption-Resistant Customer Experience
How can your organization prepare for the predictable unpredictable? Consider these strategies:
1. Map Your Vulnerabilities
Identify your critical service components and potential failure points. What systems, if interrupted, would prevent you from serving customers effectively? For each vulnerability, develop a mitigation strategy proportional to its likelihood and impact.
2. Design for Degraded Conditions
Perfect continuity is rarely achievable, but graceful degradation is. When Southwest Airlines faced a systems outage in December 2022, they stranded millions of passengers partly because their IT systems weren’t designed to recover elegantly from failure. Design processes that can operate at reduced capacity rather than failing completely.
3. Train for Disruption Response
The hotel staff in Santiago didn’t appear stressed or confused during the blackout because they had clearly trained for such scenarios. When we stepped off an elevator just as the power failed, a hotel staffer didn’t just point us at the stairs. Rather, she said, “I’ll come with you,” and walked us to the ground floor.
Regular simulations and role-playing exercises help teams develop the muscle memory needed to maintain composure during actual disruptions.
4. Communicate Transparently
When disruptions occur, clear communication becomes as important as the response itself. Customers understand that problems happen, but they expect to be informed. Develop templates and protocols for crisis communication in advance, focusing on clarity and honesty.
Shortly after the outage began, guests received a notification in their room explaining what was happening. It explained that air conditioning systems might not be operating at full capacity and reassured guests that the hotel would do everything it could to maintain comfort levels. This not only kept guests informed, it likely prevented a deluge of calls from guest who thought their air conditioning was broken.
5. Create Redundancy in Critical Systems
Identify your “non-negotiable” service elements and build redundancy around them. For my hotel, these included power, water, internet connectivity, and security systems. Non-critical systems, like a massive pool waterfall, were shut down. Your critical elements might be different, but the principle remains: What can’t you function without? What can you sacrifice if necessary?
6. Look Beyond Your Customers
Not every business has the opportunity to do this, but preparing for disaster can include helping others in the community. I have described how the big Texas supermarket chain, H-E-B, has relief trucks ready to go when there’s potential for a disaster. They often arrive at a site hit by a hurricane before the Red Cross or FEMA. They don’t care if you are a customer or not – H-E-B is there to help. People remember this.
Business Continuity – The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
In an age where customer experience has become a primary battleground for business, preparing for disruption offers an overlooked competitive advantage. When your competitors are apologizing for service failures, you’re building loyalty by delivering when it matters most. You are helping your customers when they are experiencing maximum stress.
As businesses face increasing volatility—from climate events to supply chain disruptions to technological failures—the ability to maintain service continuity will increasingly separate market leaders from the rest.
The next time you’re evaluating your customer experience initiatives, ask yourself: “How would we perform if our primary systems failed tomorrow?” The answer might reveal more about your customer commitment than the results from your latest satisfaction survey.
Customers remember how well you performed under difficult circumstances. No doubt many hotels kept the lights on during the Chile blackout, but was their guest experience as seamless? I’m sure some guests in my hotel were entirely unaware of any problem outside.
Where do you think I (and other guests who shared my experience) stay on my next trip to Santiago?