Prepare an offline customer contact register for earthquake disruption

Define the register's narrow purpose

An offline contact register should help an agency communicate essential service changes when ordinary systems cannot be reached. It is not a second prospect database or permission to continue outbound campaigns during an earthquake. Start with active clients, critical suppliers and agreed continuity contacts rather than exporting every record.

This is advance business preparation. Nobody should return to premises or retrieve equipment to obtain a contact list during an emergency. Follow current local instructions; Ready.gov's earthquake page provides public guidance separately from the organizational practices described here.

Minimize information and protect access

Include the organization, business contact, approved channel, account owner and a short description of the communication purpose. Exclude unnecessary personal addresses, identity documents, payment details and private employee information. Review applicable privacy obligations and contractual restrictions before creating a portable copy.

Use an approved protected storage method with named custodians and a deputy. Do not place an unencrypted export in a personal messaging group. CISA's backup guidance supports protecting recovery copies and checking their usability, although a contact register is only one small continuity resource, not a complete backup strategy.

Build an illustrative contact worksheet

Create the register before disruption and test it without contacting real customers unnecessarily. The example below shows operational fields, not real personal information. Record when each contact was verified so an old export does not look current.

• Organization: Example Client A; purpose: appointment and service-status notices.
• Primary contact: agreed business email; alternate: contract-approved business number.
• Owner: account lead; deputy: continuity coordinator.
• Verification: contact confirmed during routine account review; record the date.
• Control: approved storage, authorized readers, retention rule and next refresh date.

Reconcile messages when systems return

During an outage, record only essential communication metadata: account, sender, channel, time and the business action agreed. Avoid storing sensitive message content unless necessary and approved. One designated sender per account reduces duplicate or contradictory notices.

When the CRM becomes available, reconcile the temporary log before normal follow-ups resume. Update changed contacts, preserve relevant preferences and remove temporary copies according to policy. Test whether the register can actually be opened by its deputy without relying on the unavailable primary system. A continuity plan is more useful when its fallback resources have been exercised rather than merely listed.