During the holiday season, the normal call volume of a 24/7 call center can increase rapidly.

If you’re managing a team of customer support representatives or outsourcing to a call center, you might often use a different approach to handle changes in call volumes that the holiday rush can bring.

You may stretch your staff’s availability, reroute your calls, or adjust your calling schedule to accommodate the increased workload. Ultimately, a precise measurement needs to be fulfilled first before these steps can be carried out.

While you can simply count the average amount of calls you receive in a day, coming up with a number may not be enough to identify true call behavior.

For instance, you counted a total of 500 calls that reached your lines. How many calls were abandoned? How much time did each representative spend per caller? How long did it take for them to respond?

If you get the calculations right, your 500-call number, when broken down, may actually mean that:

• your 24/7 call center answered only 100 calls and left 400 unanswered;
• your representatives are fatigued because of the complexity of the 100 calls; and
• the other 400 customers were frustrated because they weren t able to get in touch with an agent.

It can be tough to keep track of call activities, so using a call calculating software to analyze the movements is reasonable. With this, you will be able to forecast when calls will peak and therefore pattern the schedule of your staff to match the time when customers’ calls come in.

If your monitoring program tells you that the estimated volume of calls for the coming holidays will exceed the volume that your representatives normally handle, you may need to hire part-time employees or partner with a backup call center.

Know if the holiday peak hours will cover the normal break period so that you can adjust your staff’s schedules. This doesn’t mean that you should shorten or take away their added activities like training; you only need to move it a bit earlier, hold it several minutes after noon, or assign extra representatives during crucial hours.

You can also base scheduling tactics on order deadlines, shipping schedules, and the billing notices of your brand to determine the call behavior and strategize your call routing. For example, if deliveries start arriving in the first week of December, you can expect that period to be filled with logistics-related queries.

This may congest your phone lines, especially if billing, ticketing, and other types of concerns go through the same number. Set separate routes for these calls to organize your system and prepare your staff better. This will give them a clearer idea of what kinds of questions they will receive.

The arrival of calls can’t be helped, but you can do something to limit or totally eliminate less intricate inquiries. Do this by giving your customers self-help options such as user guides and FAQ pages on your website.

If you run an outbound 24/7 call center, your calling routine may need to consider religious holidays and bank schedules. People may find it disrespectful if your telemarketer calls on a Sunday when some groups hold festivities or while your customers are in church. It may also be futile to make outbound calls in the morning after midnight countdown parties or do phone-based debt collection when banks are closed.

Make high call volume a thing of the past. Outsource with Open Access BPO to ensure efficient handling of holiday-related issues. Send us a message today for more information about getting your own 24/7 call center team.