Seasonal call volumes! Peak periods! Clouds of worries entangle almost everyone present in a call center.
Before the sky is to fall, everyone keeps on running around to gather data and tries to scrap them to form a plan and get through the peak months until they take a deep breath.
Ramping up the call center to meet the seasonal peaks is one of the tough situations, which operators face frequently.
Global call center of today faces two types of peaks: Seasonal and Periodic Outbursts. Seasonal peak is sudden, but periodic outbursts make us stay informed of the invariant time when we become super-busy. If you are aware of the hectic time, it becomes easy to prepare your sales technique, which you can do during sudden outbursts.
Fusion CX has witnessed unexpected growth in the call volume a number of times. Efficient planning and call handling techniques kept us a step ahead and armed our call center from becoming flat-footed. Getting ready for the peak seasons is not so strenuous.
So, how Fusion CXites get through those peak periods? Here, are five ideas that can help our readers get a clear view about our work process.
#IDEA 1: Time to Get a Hold of Yourself
Fusion CXites consider this as the most valuable idea to get through the peak seasons. It helps our agents to drive their mindset throughout the season. For the organizations like us who experiences a lot of seasonal variability, peak season is exhausting. We rush on with the calls from the onset since we have faced such call trends before.
However, Fusion CXites keep up with their wits and work successfully throughout the period. Most importantly, our agents make it a point to stick to the process that generated successful calls every time.
#IDEA 2: Employing Creative Operators
The seasonal peak periods require extra staffing, and it shoots up the call center budget. It is better to blend the call center teams, notably with the team who handles peak season with the team who does not handle peak period calls.
At Fusion CX, we train the agents to handle both line of business. We consider this as a viable solution than laying new staffs every year. Even leveraging the calls to virtual agents makes the job attractive, even if it is short-term.
#IDEA 3: Plan Accordingly Forecasting the Future
Chalking out a forecast plan might drastically affect the year-end goals. It is better to look at the upcoming peaks a few months ahead and answer some question to yourself. These questions include:
- Are we following the same trend as the last year?
- Is there any significant change in the business that might influence the peak patterns this year?
- Have we increased or decreased in our productivity compared to last year?
At Fusion CX, we ask these questions to determine the staffing levels and shifts we need to make. We look at the call forecasts as the core staffing need, thus project on our growth performance. If the forecasts say that we need staffs, we start with supplemental workforce over the phone.
We incorporate things such as training class preparation and interview scheduling to support the seasonal peaks.
#IDEA 4: Need Better Communication
It is better to stay aware about the happening in the upcoming weeks and set the acceptation accordingly, both within and outside the contact center. Well, apart from that a call center needs to make sure that they have enough capacity and resources to train and monitor the supplemental staffs.
Further, reaching out to every department related to the call centers (marketing, IT, human resources) will help to move through the peak season smoothly.
At Fusion CX, we align the operations accordingly, so that we do not face those unexpected surprises in the midst of high call volumes.
#IDEA 5: Utilize Call Monitoring To Re-Evaluate Training
Often the call centers go over about 90% of the calls made by a representative, and cross off the rest call as “one offs,” but do not make those “one-offs” a norm. We abstain that at Fusion CX.
The calls that we received last year is different from the ones we get this year, as the business changed, both internally and externally. Staying informed about what is going with our customer base helps to reduce the call burden.
In the end, let us sum up the five points: to handle peak periods it is good to move on with the calls in the way you do it in the other time of the year.
All ideas mentioned above are some of the valuable ways, which state-of-the-art BPOs like Fusion CX prefers to use. None is going to reinvent the wheel for you rather it is all done before. Just stick to the plan that made you successful.
We Fusion CXites are forever ready for the peak seasons. We stay calm on the bench instead hunching on the desk wondering for our next strategy.
Fusion CXites did away with their worries about high call volumes. Will you like to experience the same?
