In a recent blog post, I had talked about handling hiked call volumes. A response from a reader relating to this article had mentioned why over staffing agents is not an ideal action that ought to be taken to handle hiked call volumes. With staffing being the highest expense of call centers, additional staff may turn out to be an unnecessary burden.
Staffing more agents to the queue would serve the purpose for only that specific scenario. Once the call volume is back to its usual rhythm the excess agents would have to remain idle for a significant amount of time. The right idle time for any agent is considered to be 15% by almost all call center companies.
Here’s an overview of the response we got from our reader on how the call center management should cater to a temporary hike in call volumes:
Proper IVR Usage: A proper IVR (Interactive Voice Response) can help a significant amount of customers without the need to speak to an agent. For instance, companies that handle payments can use their IVR to accept payment depending on the payment mode. A lot of telecom companies use smart IVR for such services, thus avoiding a long queue of inbound calls.
Ensure all of the management staff attend to customers: During unanticipated hikes in calls all management staff should be delegated to pick up calls and attend to the customers. This not only helps with meeting the call volume but also builds up the morale of the agents and ensures that management is still in touch.
Effective skill based routing: Assigning dedicated teams to handle specific issues can help customers who have simple issues to get connected to an express lane. For instances where a known issue is in place this technique is the best method to handle such a scenario. Every call hike would have a reason, this is one of the best methods to handle such cases.
Call Back Options: Whenever a long wait time is announced on the IVR, the call abandon rate and the repeat caller rate tend to increase. Hence adding the option of accepting voice messages and promising the caller a callback at a specific time helps handling spiked call volumes to a large extent.
Call center management has always been about managing intense situations like call volume hikes and handling them in the most resourceful way possible. Though major techniques have been mentioned here, its only with the nature of business and constant monitoring of the nature of calls can we come up with good working strategies.
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