The Office Response Telephone Answering Blog

How to handle Call Centre Overflow calls.

Introduction

Whilst our marketing team spend many hours hunting for organisations that are struggling to handle their calls the most effective way to deal with inbound call traffic peaks can often be to treat the causes and not just the symptoms. 

Here’s some solutions that may help you to take the “axe out of your head” and there’s also some ideas to dull the pain whilst the wound heals.

Why are people calling you?

When you map the reason that most people are calling you certain patterns appear. Callers always either ask to speak to somebody or they ask about “something”. What are the “somethings”? Can you group them as predictable “call types”?

Now you know why they’re calling can you help without talking to them?

If the caller can’t get an answer to their issue they’ll keep calling. And calling. And calling…….

Can you reduce the number of repeat callers by assisting them in ways other than a “one to one” telephone conversation?

 Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

If you know the most common “call types” can you use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) before the call is presented to an agent to deal with the callers reason for calling? My bank, HSBC, do this very well. Call their customer service number and a number of options are offered to reduce the calls going to their call centres, press 1 to obtain your balance etc.

IVR can also be used to give callers updates about ongoing and known issues. A broken lift in a residential apartment block can be reported many times whilst an up to date announcement on an IVR about the incident’s status can be a sensible option.

Can you do anything to reduce the call volumes?

Look at ways to reduce the variability and unpredictability of the demands made on you to answer calls. Some of the solutions to this are not just  to be found within the contact centre management team but will involve other departments.

Simple solutions like controlling how you do promotions and marketing for example. We helped a passenger transport authority to handle a tidal wave of calls that they created by sending out 2 million letters in one go about renewing bus passes. If only the letters has gone out in stages. 

Mail order companies who’s customer service departments are being swamped with calls tend to look at customer self help options to reduce call volumes. Putting information inside orders about returns policies and how to deal with faulty products reduces calls? Another mail order client of ours reduced calls by spending money on upgrading the packaging the used. Less damaged products equaled less calls. And happier customers too.

Can you give more information via your website, via email or via text messages to mobile phones?

What days of the week are busiest?

 If you deal with the public and choose to close your call centre on weekends then is Monday a particularly busy day? Or Friday?

 Closing on Saturdays and Sundays can build up demand to deal with customer service issues leading to manic Mondays. Another shameless plug here but if you don’t have the call volumes to justify opening over the weekend an outsourcer could do it for you in a more cost effective way. You’d find that you’d get reduced call volumes during the work week which you may find easier to deal with.

 Call Back “systems” to even the workload over the day.

 Setting up  some sort of call back system to allow callers to leave a message and to be called back later rather than sit in a queue or repeatedly call back can help you to even out your workflow. If you are overrun with calls early in the morning but have quiet periods after lunch then you can get back to people then.

Their are a number of automated call back systems on the market or you could send these calls to an outsourcer. If your outsourcer cannot fully deal with the caller’s issue then at the very least they can gather information to allow you to prioritise the calls you want to deal with first. There’s efficiencies to be had in prioritisation.

This spreads out the demand and it gives you some control over it too – so is a pretty good solution.

What times of the days are you struggling with calls?

 We spend hours pouring over our call handling performance data looking at individual 15 minute slots. It’s very revealing and we’d advise anybody missing calls to do the same exercise.

 Call centre managers don’t need to be mathematical geniuses to know that larger teams of agents are more efficient at call handling. 10 agents will handle many more than twice as many calls in the same period as 5 agents. What this means is that you are more likely to be missing a greater % of calls during your quieter times, when you have less staff in the office, than you are during the busiest periods. The evenings and early mornings are especially vulnerable. This is where outsourcing can give you extra call handling capacity in a more cost effective way than scheduling extra people to man your own centre.

 Look at your call forecasts

 The science of figuring out just the right number and mix of agents to provide adequate service levels without incurring unnecessary personnel costs is crucial yet complicated. It takes sophisticated forecasting tools even to begin to manage such uncertainty, but computer science and new workforce management tools are up to the challenge. 

 We have call data going back to 1999 to call on and we use Q-Max workforce management tools to assist with call forecasting and staff planning.

 Can the calls be handled elsewhere?

 Moving the calls elsewhere – whether that is an automated or human service, whether it is in-house/outsourced/hosted can handle immediate peaks without losing the call.

 But you need to ask yourself some questions;

Does it actually deliver the service your require?

Does it result in the same level of first call resolution?

Does it essentially just postpone the problem? (by the caller calling back later..)

 If you are considering the outsourced option we would suggest that you work with your outsourcer prior to going live to script as many call  types as possible to offer first call resolution. The goal is to be more than a “talking answerphone” that will simply store up the problem for you to deal with later.

 Webchat

 Web Chat offers you the ability to handle 3 customer enquiries via human resources in the same time it takes to get through one call. This might be a magic solution to handle more customer interactions without increasing your resources.

 Can you change the way you work and answer more calls internally?

 Can you train non call handling staff with the skills needed to answer calls and to step in when “all hands are needed on deck”?

This is particularly useful if your peaks are concentrated into short time slots.

Can you reduce you average call lengths to answer more calls per hour?

 By introduced new skills to better engage the customer and control the call you could achieve reductions in handling time, faster response times and a reduction in repeat calls.

 This type of investment in people can have other benefits in employee engagement and staff retention and get the gains you need right across the day not just at the peak.

 CONCLUSION

 After working through all of my suggestions (and I dare say some of your own that I’ve not mentioned) and you still got overflow calls then unfortunately there is no magic formula – if you have X of calls being presented then you have to have X of resources to handle it.

by

Martin Blain

Sales Director

Ofcom to tie business up in further red tape?

Ofcom, the communication regulator, want to introduce even further rules to reduce the number of “silent calls” received by consumers from automated diallers, http://bit.ly/d9TTpE .

Diallers are a fabulous tool to increase the efficiency of outbound calling operations by dialling a mass of numbers from a database, the answered calls are then connected to an agent who handles the call whilst the unanswered calls are dropped. Reported increases in efficiency can be spectacular, reported here as a 495% increase, http://bit.ly/al70oY . Normally when the dialler connects to an answering machine it drops the call but mistakes occur when the call is answered by a person and they are left with the dreaded “silent” call.

The number of complaints about silent calls has declined by 50% over the last 10 years but is further legislation really necessary when people can already help themselves with simple measures like registering with the Telephone Preference Service? Are new rules really needed which will inevitably have cost implications to users of diallers.

Is this the nanny state in operation and further evidence of the red tape strangling business or a serious social issue that needs solving?

By Martin Blain

Sales Director

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C J Garlands Call Centres and SRCL Ltd. The dangers of expansion.

Two events of significance took my attention yesterday, my daughter’s Business Studies exam and the failure of North East based Garlands Call Centres with the sad loss of 1000 jobs.

The AS level exam centred on a case study of a fictitious South East based stonemasons, SRCL Ltd, and the ambitious growth plans of their MD, Joe Kring. Joe’s plans to grow turnover by 50% over 3 years would have involved opening regional offices with the consequent increase in SRCL’s fixed cost base. Within SRCL the other senior managers were uncomfortable about the risks involved and there was a clear signpost to a question about the “dangers of over expansion” particularly expansion based on goals of increasing turnover and not profitability. I’ve an encyclopaedic mind for clichés and “turnover for vanity, profit for sanity, but cash is reality” comes to mind.

As it happened the question did not appear in the exam but it must have been a topic of discussion in Garlands as apparently 3 years ago they employed 3000 and turned over £50million. The decline in business brought about by the credit crunch and the loss of contracts to offshore competitors left Garlands with the fixed costs of an infrastructure that they clearly could not sustain. We had an idea of their desperation some months ago, we had been competing with them for a contract with a price comparison website and due to one of those infamous email errors we were sent the provisional contract between Garlands and the unnamed customer. Our view of Garland’s pricing was that it was so low it was suicidal as indeed thats exactly what it turned out to be.

Chey Garland, the owner of the failed company will no doubt have made her millions, but our hearts go out to the Agents, Team Leaders, Trainers and Administrative staff who no doubt gave their all to Garlands and today wake up to the reality of their unemployed situation whilst the senior managers lick their wounds and question the wisdom of those expansion decisions.

By Martin Blain

Sales Director

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Do regional accents affect you?

A recent study by Sitel, which surveyed more than 2,000 people across the UK, found that the Geordie accent is not only the friendliest in the UK but also the most likely to put you in a good mood.

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me. Not because the Tyneside accent isn’t pleasant and friendly, it is, but rather because it’s sometimes difficult to understand. Cheryl Cole experienced this last year when American TV bosses raised concerns that US viewers would not be able to understand her on the stateside version of X Factor.

Our telephone answering service is based in Bristol. However, due to the cosmopolitan nature of the city, our call handling agents have a broad mix of accents, ages, sex and race. As mentioned in a previous blog, what is important to us is the ability to speak clearly, professionally and have a broad understanding of the English language.

The Times reported in January that Britain’s regional accents are not only surviving, but are tightening their grip. Geordie, Scouse, Mancunian and Brummie inflections are becoming more distinct and dominant because they are one of the few remaining badges of identity against the homogenising effects of modernity.

“People want to protect their identity,” said Dominic Watt, a lecturer in forensic speech science at York University. “You could be parachuted into pretty much any British city and the shops look the same, people dress the same and have similar pastimes and interests. What still makes these places separate and distinct is the dialect and accent.”

People with regional accents, like Cheryl Cole, are proud of their local ‘twangs’ and feel that its part of who they are.

So should we be encouraging accents in our regional neighbours to instil a sense of belonging or toning down our accents of origin so that everyone is fully understandable? As another famous Geordie on Big Brother often exclaims – “YOU DECIDE!”

by Steve West

Marketing & Business Development Manager

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Acceptable English Language in Call Centres?

The Labour party includes an interesting proposal in it’s new manifesto, it’s a plan to test migrant workers on their knowledge of the English language before they are able to work in a governmental call centre (or is that center?). Presently teachers, police officers and doctors have to pass a language test and under a new Labour government this would be extended to include other public sector workers such as nurses, social workers and various other roles. But what standards should we expect?

Running a quality telephone answering service we already feel the need to test our call handling agents on their spoken and written English language skills during the recruitment process. Ironically some of the worst candidates are UK educated who have English as their native language! However we have to accept that English is the world’s language and it is a “living” language constantly evolving and inventing new words and phrases that are acceptable to one group and frowned upon by another set of people.

So if public sector workers are to be tested for their language skills who should set the standards and what should those standards be? Should I be “sniffy” when I read color not colour, program not programme , gray not grey? Is the future a English institution (or is that an English institution?) to protect “English” English in the same way as the French have L’Académie Francaise? Is it acceptable for the spelling to be poor if the message is clear?

by Steve West

Marketing & Business Development Manager

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UK’s “Best” Economic Barometer?

Is there a better indicator of the state of the economy than the call volumes of a Telephone Answering Service?

As the fall out from the collapse of the US housing bubble spread through the world’s financial markets, calls received at Office Response started to fall in January 2008 and continued downward as we headed towards Easter of that year. Britain’s economic recession was officially announced a full 12 months later after 2 consecutive quarters of decline in the size of the economy. We spotted the trend a long time earlier and acted to reduce our cost base, unfortunately including making redundancies, months before many other UK business followed. The FTSE 250, often a better UK economic indicator than it’s big brother the FTSE100 that get’s 80% of income from outside the UK, did not bottom out until June 2008.

Whereas we have specialities in some market sectors, our client base is taken from many diverse business types and the depression in calls was directly related to the falls in activities of the general economy. Telephoned enquiries come many months before the flow of funds that follow the actual placing of orders hence the unique position we have as an economic indicator.

And what’s happening now at Office Response? Well, taking into account seasonal factors, we have just recorded call numbers for March 2010 at 8.7% above our predictions; it’s a bit early to be announcing a new trend of economic activity but it’s interesting none the less.

What might be going on? Is it increased business profits? Our financial year end is March and we are back to a healthy profit position principally as a result of our lower cost base. I’m sure that many businesses may be similarly profitable and could be releasing their purse strings as a result of the confidence that the profits bring -  perhaps consumers are going on a pre-election splurge prior to a possible VAT rise? We would preach caution until we see the effects of the inevitable slashing in government spending and the expected hike in taxes that will be needed to tackle the country’s budget deficit but the upturn we’re experiencing is pleasant none the less.

We’d be interested in your feedback about the state of your organisation’s finances and outlook. We will keep you posted about our call volumes. For the brave, is now the time to invest in some of the UK’s smaller stocks?

by Martin Blain

Sales Director

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Contact Centre industry confident for 2010

It’s been a strange start to 2010 at Office Response. Lots of snow, the threat of more swine flu and further increases to call volumes outside of normal business hours have all posed challenges and opportunities for us.

The good news on the commercial front is that we have had a good March with regards to new business coming on board. And we warmly welcome more of it! We are all optimistic of a returning growth in the economy and, it seems, the call centre industry is ahead of the game when it comes to being positive.

A recent survey by Noble Systems of 1200 independent contact centres shows that 97% are expecting their businesses to grow or remain stable this year.

We didn’t contribute to the survey  but we certainly share the positive outlook for the near future.

by Steve West

Marketing & Business Development Manager

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Student misery blamed on SLC Call Centre

A National Audit Office report published today shows  that the Student Loan Company (SLC) answered fewer than half of the calls to its contact centre from February 2009 to January 2010.

In a withering report, it criticises the Government and the SLC for poor governance, defective computer systems and a lack of contingency planning, which left hundreds of thousands of students without funds weeks after the start of term.

By the end of 2009, only 4,000 of 17,000 applications had resulted in a payment, taking an average of 20 weeks to be processed.

The loans firm will have to deal with twice as many applications from both first and second year students this year and the National Audit Office (NAO) does not want to see the cock-up that occurred last year.

Maybe they should outsource their overflow calls to us….

by Steve West

Marketing & Business Development Manager

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Is this unacceptable?

So the BBC has reported that HM Revenue and Customs Call Centre ‘missed’ 44 million calls last year according to Whitehall’s spending watchdog. Despite employing the equivalent of 10,500 full-time staff at a cost of £233m, it still failed to pick up 43% of the 103 million calls received. During the busiest periods of the year – such as the tax credit renewals peak in July – just one in three calls was actually answered! I don’t know about you but, as a tax payer, I find this both infuriating and unacceptable.

If a telephone answering service provided this level of service they would very quickly lose customers, lose credibility and lose profit.

So why are they getting away with it?

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