Managing a call centre during busy hours can be challenging, but it’s important to take steps to get it right. After all, the consequences of a poorly managed call center during peak hours can be extensive, impacting staff morale, customer satisfaction, and ultimately the profitability of the business.
A build-up of requests, long customer wait times, and overburdened staff benefit nobody. Customers — who have higher expectations than ever — can grow frustrated, resulting in subpar customer satisfaction. At the same time, stress among call center team members can reach new heights, resulting in an increase in staff turnover. Both of these things can prompt ongoing consequences that undermine the organization’s reputation and overall financial well-being.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. By incorporating a call centre peak hours strategy, businesses can get a handle on demand and ensure that they offer an exceptional level of service regardless of how many people are calling.
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at call centre scheduling, including how businesses can incorporate the most effective strategies to benefit customers, employees, and the organization as a whole.
What Does Peak Hours Mean in a Call Center?
First of all, let’s take a look at what constitutes ‘peak hours’ in a call center context. These are periods when the call center faces a higher-than-usual number of calls. In other words, the busiest period of the day (or week), when more people are trying to get through than normal.
When this period occurs varies from business to business. In some cases, it’s during lunch hours; in others, it may be at the start of the day. Businesses undergoing the call centre optimization process must first identify which periods receive the greatest number of calls.
The Impact of Poorly Managed Peak Hours In Call Centers
It’s normal for there to be mild fluctuations in the number of calls received by a call center. However, there can be instances when there’s an unmanageable surge in calls, which can threaten to overwhelm call centers that are unprepared to deal with the increased demand placed on an understaffed department.
Nothing good comes from having a long line of customers waiting to speak to a customer service representative. In many cases, the customer will simply give up on waiting and hang up the phone.
Let’s take a closer look at the short- and long-term impact that inadequate call centre forecasting and scheduling can have on businesses, staff, and customers.
The Short-Term Impact
For the Business
Businesses that fail to manage call demand may face decreased revenue, increased overtime pay, and reputational damage if the increased wait time violates service level agreements (SLAs).
For Staff
Overworked, undersupported staff are more likely to experience stress, resulting in low morale and poor productivity. Fatigue and a perceived necessity for time optimization result in an increased likelihood of employee errors.
For Customers
Customers quickly grow frustrated when they’re waiting for longer than anticipated to speak to a customer service agent. Increased demand on staff results in a poorer level of service and an increased likelihood of dissatisfied customers.
The Long-Term Impact
For the Business
Over time, the business’s reputation is negatively impacted. Customers begin to lose trust, resulting in reduced customer lifetime value. The business then has to make additional financial investments to remedy failures in a bid to win back customer trust.
For Staff
Long-term stress leads to staff unhappiness and burnout, resulting in increased staff turnover rates. Businesses have to increase operational costs to hire and train new employees, all the while losing the advantage of having a cohesive team in place.
For Customers
Customer trust begins to erode, and long-term dissatisfaction takes its place. Customers leave for competitors while acquiring new customers becomes difficult due to negative word-of-mouth and poor online reviews.
Strategies for Optimizing Scheduling During Peak Hours
It’s normal to experience the occasional unexpected surge in calls, but if it’s an ongoing, repeated issue, it’s important to take action. By taking proactive steps to manage demand during peak hours, call center managers can minimize the risk of potential negative impacts on customers and the business as a whole.
There’s no single action that will lead to call center optimization. Instead, businesses must take a multipronged approach that works to meet their specific needs. In doing so, they’ll have a foundational framework that helps to take increased call center demand in their stride.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common call center optimization strategies that businesses implement.
Forecasting Demand
Increased call center demand can seem to come out of nowhere, but there’s usually data available that can highlight when it is likely to occur. Businesses can utilize historical call data and analytics to accurately assess call demand throughout different seasonal periods, days, and hours.
Once the business has a clear overview of call demand, they are in a better position to staff adequately, ensuring enough staff members are on duty during busy periods, without overstaffing during quiet periods.
To do this, businesses can analyze historical data to identify call trends. Software tools that utilize predictive analytics can also help schedule staffing hours accordingly.
Flexible Scheduling and Shift Swapping
Giving employees a degree of control over their schedules can help boost employee morale and ensure peak hours are covered. This approach accommodates individual, personal schedules, allowing team members to swap shifts to cover peak periods. Scheduling software is available that allows team members to select or swap their shifts, all the while retaining management oversight to ensure peak hours have been covered.
Hiring Part-Time or Flex Staff
Businesses that have specific high-volume periods may find it advantageous to employ part-time or flex staff, which will provide additional support without incurring the cost of additional full-time employees.
This adds a degree of flexibility to scheduling, ensuring that peak times can be covered. It also provides support for full-time staff members, who will no longer be burdened by managing increased call demand on their own.
To do this, businesses should recruit and train a pool of part-time or flexible workers, who will be on call to fulfill shift demands during anticipated peak call periods.
Utilizing Skill-Based Routing
Directing customer phone calls to the appropriate member of staff can enhance call efficiency, helping to maximize agent productivity and decrease overall call time, since the call will be in the hands of the right customer service agent.
To do this, look at setting up a call distribution system. This involves screening calls to identify the nature of the call, and then assigning them to an agent that has the corresponding skill set.
Offering Call-Back Options
Call centers can significantly reduce demand — and wait times — by offering a call-back service. This involves giving customers the option to request a call back at a later hour rather than waiting on the phone.
This will reduce call queue lengths while also meeting customer expectations, resulting in less staff pressure and enhanced customer satisfaction. Call-back software is available that provides callers with this option.
Monitoring and Adjusting in Real-Time
Understanding call demand in real-time can help relieve employee pressure. By utilizing live analytics, call centers can have a consistent overview of demand and make immediate scheduling adjustments, should they be necessary.
This approach gives call centers a flexible, dynamic approach to call control, enabling them to respond to a surge in drop in call volume. Incorporating real-time monitoring software and having an action place for adjustment, such as calling in flex staff or reallocating agents from lower-priority tasks, will both help.
How You Can Leverage Analytics 365 to Optimize Your Call Center During Peak Hours
Analytics 365 offers a powerful call analytics tool that can help call center managers to identify a whole variety of call patterns that make it easier to manage the call center’s operations. The software, which uses Microsoft Teams, makes it easier than ever for managers to identify customer wait times, historical call demand, and call drop off. The tool also helps managers keep an eye on key call center metrics, including average time, number of missed calls, and call volume trends.
The Potential Obstacles Faced When Optimizing Your Call Center Schedule
The tips we’ve outlined above will help optimize call center scheduling, but keep in mind that there can be a number of obstacles encountered during implementation. Before undertaking the process of optimization, keep the following factors — and how to counteract them — in mind.
Resistance to Change
Employees and management teams can be resistant to operational changes, even if they will lead to improvement. Utilizing change management strategies, including clearly outlining the benefits of the changes, providing training sessions, and involving team members in the transition process can all help to win support.
Technology and Resource Constraints
Many of the most effective optimization strategies involve the use of advanced scheduling software or tools, which may be beyond the budget or resources of some call centers.
To counteract this issue, budget-conscious call centers should identify cost-effective software solutions and explore any available partnerships or grants that can help businesses upgrade their technologies.
Training and Adaptation
It’s likely that staff members will require training to bring them up to speed on the new working processes and systems, and this may not always be time-effective. Putting together a step-by-step training program which provides ongoing support and resources can allow employees to learn at a time and pace that suits them.
Accurate Forecasting Difficulties
Forecasting call demand is a key component of optimizing scheduling, but it can be tricky, especially for businesses that operate in volatile industries. Without accurate forecasting, accurate staffing becomes impossible.
Call center managers can use historical call record data, analyze industry trends, and utilize predictive analytics tools to enhance their forecasting capabilities. Forecasts should be continually reviewed and updated based on new available data.
Balancing Flexibility and Control
Providing employees with flexible scheduling opportunities is recommended, but it can pose a challenge for peak-hour employee coverage.
With call center scheduling software, businesses can offer employees flexibility within set parameters. This will help to provide a balance between the business’ and employees’ needs.
Employee Burnout and Turnover
Even with correct scheduling, employee burnout and high turnover rates can still occur, especially following intense working periods. Businesses can manage this by implementing wellness programs, monitoring workloads, providing stress-management support, and fostering a positive workplace culture.
Conclusion
Optimizing call center scheduling is paramount for ensuring staff well-being and customer satisfaction, but it won’t happen on its own. By taking a proactive approach, call center managers can ensure that there are always enough workers to comfortably manage demand.
To get started, book a demo of Analytics 365, our workplace analytics tools can provide invaluable data about when your customers are calling, the workload placed on employees, and average wait time, among many other insights. With Analytics 365 and the tips we’ve outlined above, you’ll be on your way to an optimized call center in no time.
