From managing unpredictable call volumes to making sure your staff are engaged and productive – running a customer service call centre comes with distinct challenges. Of course every business faces its own challenges, but a call centre is a unique environment with unique challenges. How do we know? Because essentially, we are one!

Team performance

Overworked, stressed agents are more likely to make mistakes, staff absences increase, and staff retention becomes difficult. All of which puts even more pressure on your team to hit their targets. When you are under-resourced, it’s not just Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that take a hit; Customer Feedback Scores drop too.

Recruitment

Often there’s no quick fix for resource challenges. Sometimes a recruitment freeze means you cannot grow the team regardless of mounting call volumes. Perhaps you only need a part-time resource or can’t offer consistent or regular hours, therefore limiting your ability to attract and retain high calibre agents.

The bottom line

Do you care about the bottom line? Of course you do! An under-resourced team is a common challenge for call centres and the knock-on effects of this can have a negative impact on productivity, quality and therefore, profitability.

The solution? Outsource

If you need a flexible and scalable resource to provide relief for your team during peak demand periods, then outsourcing overflow calls to an external call centre partner could be the answer. You can choose to divert a set number of calls per day, or just specific call types, and an external partner will support you to improve all aspects of your call centre team’s performance.

Having an overflow solution offers a wide range of valuable benefits:

• The gift of time: It gives your team back time and relieves pressure. You no longer have to recruit and manage all of the resources for your call centre team. You can more easily cover staff absences, even at short notice, without adding more pressure on your internal team. There is also the freedom to take the team off the phones and dedicate time to regular team briefings and training sessions.
• Performance: Reducing the stress on your team will lead to higher wellbeing and better performance. This positive impact on team culture means reduced absenteeism and improved staff retention. More realistic workloads mean fewer errors and improved quality of service.
• Improve service levels: In the customer service business, the ability to scale up at short notice is invaluable – whether in preparation for annual or seasonal peaks or in response to unexpectedly high call volumes. The external call centre team will provide dedicated agents, but they will also have a larger pool of quality staff they can assign to your calls at short notice, covering all bases. Imagine being able to maintain or even improve your service levels when call volumes hit a peak.
• Retain control: You can choose to divert only specific call types, leaving your in-house team to deal with the higher value calls, or whatever works best for your business.

Why now?

Although you may not require an overflow solution for your customer service team at present, there may come a day in the near future when you do. As they say, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

We have experience in managing inbound campaigns for clients across a variety of industries, and are trusted by brands such as Escape Hunt, Funding Circle and Eon. If your call volume has been impacted or is expected to be impacted by COVID-19 (Coronavirus), we can help. As one of the UK’s leading outsourced sales companies, our experienced, committed and motivated team are all based in the UK and are currently working from home, continuing to support our clients’ campaigns.

To find out how we could help you with your customer service overflow, get in touch today or call us on 0345 241 3038. Or hear more from our existing customers here.