Given how common traffic spikes and unpredicted peak periods are for most contact centres, it isn’t a surprise that attrition and under-staffing emerged as 2020’s top challenges/priorities.
In 2020, 27% of contact centres said attrition was their no.1 problem, up from a little over 19%, the previous year. 167.1% also report that they do not have enough staff to handle workloads (i.e., their budgets cannot keep up with demand). What happens if, in this environment, you face an unpredictable traffic spike – up to 10x times, as is the case during the holiday season?
Every contact centre must prepare for traffic spike and peak periods as part of their regular business continuity plans, notwithstanding crises like the pandemic. There are five steps to achieving this.
Invest in call-backenablers
Call-back enablers can be a massive help for inbound contact centres, allowing agents to reach out once free. It saves customers the hassle of waiting on hold for minutes or even hours to solve a query during peak periods, instead conveniently specifying the right time to call back.
Cross-train inbound and outbound agents
Cross-training your agents is helpful when there is a disproportionate traffic spike in one channel. For example, during a promotion, your outbound team will probably be working overtime to penetrate the entire prospect list. But during the peak holiday season, you will receive an overwhelming number of inbound calls pertaining to cancellations, returns, shipping, and other order updates. Cross-training helps to flexibly switch resources and optimise allocation in such scenarios.
Develop self-service capabilities
Self-service can significantly reduce your call volumes by resolving common customer queries without the intervention of a live agent. This could range from conversational chatbots to more customer tasks coming under the ambit of self-service (e.g., altering the address for active order or tracking a refund).
Provide agents with contextual insights
Research suggests that 45% of an average call duration comprises “dead air”, where an agent is silently looking up information while the customer waits on hold. This places enormous strain on your already stretched resources during peak periods. Contextual insights popular the agent experience (i.e., their dashboard or UI) with helpful suggestions and data on the customer, reducing lookup effort.
Use predictive forecasting and scheduling
Predictive workforce management tools study historical demand patterns to anticipate spikes and peak periods with startling accuracy. They may not be able to prepare you for a global crisis, but you will enable to estimate staffing needs during promotions, the holiday season, after a new product launch, etc., and adapt your shift schedules accordingly. Some tools would even autogenerate the best-fit schedule for the scenario at hand.
While some time periods will bring a spike in traffic, others will bring an inevitable trough. It might be a good idea to partner with a temp staffing agency if your contact centre witnesses huge variances and fulltime investment isn’t a feasible option.
