9 Proven Ways to Handle High Call Volumes Efficiently

Long wait times are among the top three reasons* for why customers stop doing business with a company. Some surveys suggest that high call volumes can contribute up to 75%** of lost deals.

According to Accenture***, poor customer service constitutes an annual cost of $1.6 trillion for US businesses alone. But answering high call volumes costs you more than just money, as it also has the knock-on effect of worsening employee burnout.

Therefore, getting used to managing high call volume should be a priority for every business, especially when they’re already noticing signs of their call center call volume suffering from too many calls. In this article, we’ll show you 9 ways to do that.

Key takeaways:

• High call volume occurs when the number of incoming calls consistently exceeds typical levels, often due to factors like seasonal spikes, technical issues, or marketing campaigns.
  
• Not managing high call volume leads to longer wait times, reduced customer satisfaction, and employee burnout, affecting both business performance and staff morale.
  
• Combat high call volume by optimizing staff scheduling, implementing self-service options, and utilizing tools like call-back systems and intelligent call routing to manage the load efficiently.

What Does It Mean to Experience High Call Volumes?

High call volume is bad for business. On average, it is recommended you maintain an 85% call center occupancy rate (i.e., how many agents are on a call at any given time) to ensure you have some free lines and your employees have time to rest.

If you go beyond that, there are a number of things that happen. First, your response rate and average handle time (AHT) increase, meaning people have to wait on hold longer. This in turn lowers customer satisfaction (CSAT) and leads to higher churn.

At the same time, the high call volume also negatively impacts your workforce. If your agents are consistently overworked, their odds of burning out increase, while their productivity falls. In extreme cases, this can lead to mass resignations.

9 Best Practices to Handle High Call Volume

For the reasons outlined above, efficiently managing a high volume of calls can be the difference between building an extensive network of satisfied customers, versus losing them to long wait times and poor customer experiences. That’s why you should:

Key Tips for Cold Calling Success

There’s more you can do to improve your response and conversion rates than just optimize the times of your outreach and follow-up with prospects more often. Below, we’ll discuss some of the things you can do to boost your results even further.

#1: Implement Callback Options

Don’t want to frustrate your customers by keeping them on hold? Make sure they get the service they need on time with a Callback feature! This also allows you to evenly distribute the workload even during peak hours and maintain smooth operations.

#2: Order Calls Based on Priority

Not all calls are created equal. But by using call center features such as VIP Queues, you can effectively focus your efforts on customers who are essential for your bottom line. You should ensure they get the attention they deserve before anyone else.

#3: Use Intelligent Call Routing

Don’t waste valuable time on unnecessary call transfers. Let customers choose the reason for their call and patch them through to the right agent on the first time, by assigning employees key abilities and leveraging Skill-Based Routing.

#4: Support Self-Service

Not every call necessarily requires an agent’s attention, and not every customer wants to call you. Implement an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system with a pre-prepared list of routine answers, and let customers choose to solve their issues on their own, even faster.

#5: Optimize Scheduling

Fortune favors the prepared. Investigate historical call center data via Analyticsand identify your peak call volume times. Account for this in your scheduling and create a workforce management systemthat can handle even the most difficult times.

#6: Shorten Average Handle Time

Coach your agents to handle the most common questions and issues with ease. Streamline the process even further with productivity tools, such as CRM integrations and sales scripts, and help your team solve more calls faster by lowering AHT.

#7: Coordinate Efforts Live

When push comes to shove, you’ll need to effectively focus the team’s efforts on what matters most – managing all calls on time. Evaluate how clients are feeling with AI-powered Sentiment Analysis and communicate priorities across the company with a Real-Time Wallboard.

#8: Outsource Communications

Still struggling to keep up with all the calls? Not partial to hiring new hands and mouths to handle all those conversations? Then you may want to consider outsourcing a part of your process to a 3rd party provider, whether in the short or long term.

#9: Invest in Better Technology

Sometimes, it’s neither your workforce nor processes at fault. It may be that you’re just using an old or inefficient solution. Thankfully, nowadays, comprehensive tools like CloudTalk are affordable, easy to onboard, easy to use, and extremely scalable.

Resolve High Volume Calls Quickly & Easily

High call volumes are an inevitable part of running a business, but how you manage them can make or break customer relationships and operational efficiency. 

By understanding the causes and using proven strategies such as the ones outlined in this article, you can turn a high call volume into an opportunity to enhance customer satisfaction. The key is to stay proactive and keep talking.

And if you need a place to do that efficiently, then you should give CloudTalk a try. After all, it’s completely free for the first 14 days!

Sources:

• Invoca
• TimeTrade
• Accenture