Typhoon-proofing your systems: what to plan before the signal goes up.

What changes on a severe-weather day

• Bookings and classes are cancelled or moved, often with only a few hours' notice, and often all at once.
• Customers ask the same question at the same time: are you open, what happens to my booking?
• Deliveries and pickups stop or change, and orders pile up.
• Staff may work from home, arrive late, or not be able to travel at all.
• The warning can end quickly, bringing a rush of rescheduling when services resume.

The Hong Kong Labour Department publishes a code of practice for work arrangements in typhoons and rainstorms, including “extreme conditions” announcements. Employers have duties on pay, safety and travel. This guide does not cover them: read the current code, and take advice for your own arrangements.

The software side of the plan

• Bulk rescheduling and cancellation. A way to select a whole session, day or location and cancel or move everything in it in one action, not booking by booking. See booking systems.
• Pre-written messages. Ready-made notices for “closed today”, “open late” and “rescheduled”, in English and Chinese, that staff can send in a click. Messaging through approved templates needs set-up in advance. See WhatsApp options for business.
• A banner on the website and app. One switch to show today's status on the first screen customers see.
• Clear rules in the system. Your policy on refunds, credits and make-up sessions, written once, applied consistently and explained in the notice.
• Re-booking that scales. If a hundred customers need a new slot, a self-service link beats a hundred phone calls.
• Operations that can change on the day. Delivery windows, order cut-offs and staff rotas that can be edited quickly.

Keeping the systems themselves available

• Hosting. Cloud and professional data centres are built for resilience, but check where your provider hosts, what redundancy it offers and what it promises. A server in the office is more exposed to power cuts, flooding and access problems.
• Remote access. Staff must be able to sign in securely from home, with the same permissions, without a special trip to the office.
• Backups. Keep copies away from the office and test restoring from them. See back end, data and hosting.
• Internet and power. A small business can lose both at the same time. Know which functions need a fallback, such as a phone hotspot.
• Dependencies. Payment, messaging and delivery providers have their own bad days. Know what you will do if one is slow.
• Monitoring. Alerts that reach someone who can act, wherever they are.

An illustration: a language school

(An illustrative scenario, not a client.) A school runs evening classes across three locations. When a warning is announced at four in the afternoon, a manager opens a “weather” screen, selects tonight's sessions, chooses “cancel” and picks the make-up rule. The system marks the classes cancelled, sends the prepared notice in each family's language, offers a link to book a make-up session, and updates the banner on the website. The same task had meant a morning of phone calls and a group-chat storm.