High call volume can be a significant challenge to call centers working to satisfy customer inquiries. If you work at or own a call center, customers expect their calls to be answered immediately. Every missed call is a missed opportunity to grow your business. However, there are a few ways to ensure that a call center provides good customer service during periods of increased calls. Here are some effective tips to help manage high call volume in your call center.
Schedule Employees Accordingly
If you are anticipating an increase in call volume, it is a good idea to look at your team’s schedule. It is important that you have enough staff to manage the surge in call volume and take note of any leave or vacations that may affect your productivity. While you don’t want to overwork your team, it is essential to know how many active agents you need on staff and how many calls each representative can handle within a given period.
Include Self-Service Resources
During times of high call volume, your agents will often be asked the same questions repeatedly. Whether you’re running a new promotion or have just released a new product, many of your customers will have the same questions. For this reason, it is good to provide some resources on your website to answer some of these inquiries. You can create a FAQ section on your website that can serve as a knowledge base to deflect common questions.
Encourage Customers to Use the Chat Feature
Another helpful tool is implementing a chat function on your website. Encouraging customers to move to the chat when things are busy frees up the phone lines and allows your agents to be more productive. Chat allows agents to share self-service content with customers, motivating customers to help themselves while the call center agent can move on to other customers. Because chat features are usually embedded in a company’s website, it makes it much easier for customers to find, making it more convenient than a phone call.
Offer a Call Back Service
No one likes to wait on hold for an answer to a simple question. Customers get frustrated, and it puts more pressure on the agent to get the issue resolved quickly. You can avoid the frustration of wait times by offering a call back service when call volume is high. A call back service lets customers request a time for an agent to call them rather than waiting on hold.
Contact TeleRep Today!
If you are ready to install a call center service for your business, TeleRep is here to help. If you still have more questions, our trained professionals are ready to answer them. We know how important customer feedback is to you and your business, so let them know that you care with an answering service. To learn how TeleRep can help you today, visit us online or give us a call at 1-800-638-2000. To keep up with our work and to see what we have been up to, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.