Your Customers Are Ready For Your Business To Reopen – Are You?
Small businesses around the country are starting to reopen their doors to the public, or are starting to make realistic plans to do so. Making sure that you’re ready to get back to business not only means making sure your inventory is stocked, but that you’re ready for an influx of customers – and their phone calls. Without a plan for the potential high call volume you might be facing, you may find yourself quickly overwhelmed.
The number phone calls a business receives is one of the first things to climb when you’re dealing with an increase in customers, as does the potential for a service issue. A poor phone experience can tarnish your reputation with both the customer who had it and everyone they tell about it. Making sure that you’re prepared for any potential spikes in call volumes can ensure you keep your business running smoothly immediately post-pandemic and beyond.
Your customers aren’t the only ones that will appreciate having a plan in place for dealing with high call volumes. Your employees will also appreciate having a plan in place to prevent becoming overwhelmed with calls or to streamline common inquiries. With that said, let’s delve into some tips you can use to help manage high call volumes in the post-pandemic age.
- Schedule Smartly and SufficientlySimply put, if you don’t have enough employees available to serve your customers (in person or over the phone), you’re not ready to reopen. But it’s not enough to simply employ enough people, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got enough available to meet demand. Think about how many customers a service agent can realistically work with in an hour, and make sure you have enough workers available to meet the potential maximum for each shift. To do otherwise risks both a bad experience for the customer and potential burnout for your employees.
- Give Customers a Self Service OptionYou can free up time for your employees and better serve your customer by giving them a way to get answers to the most common questions your business receives. You can set up information boxes with your hours, location, current specials, mask policies, and more, giving callers the answers they need at the push of a button. An added benefit is that it frees up your employees from fielding the same questions over and over, allowing them to focus on more pressing tasks.
- Consider Additional Service ChannelsOne way to cut down on the number of calls you receive is to give customers trying to reach you another contact method. Adding a live chat option on your website allows visitors to reach you quickly and efficiently, and can significantly reduce the number of calls you receive. Providing a website form or email address can let a customer ask detailed questions, while allowing your team the time to write more thoughtful, detailed responses. Social media can also be a useful communication tool, letting current and potential customers see your customer service ability firsthand.
- Funnel Calls with an Auto AttendantAn auto attendant system can not only keep up with high call volumes, but quickly and efficiently get your callers the information or individual they need. An auto attendant like AccessDirect’s answers all incoming calls simultaneously, ensuring that your customers never hear a busy signal. Your callers are always greeted by a professional greeting, which clearly lists the options available and allows them to choose the one that best matches their needs. You can send them to a recording with commonly asked questions, voicemail for non-urgent calls, or a live service agent for immediate help. Auto attendants are incredibly customizable, and can easily be programmed to best meet your business’s needs.
These are just some of the ways you can manage high call volumes at your business. What each of these tips boils down to, however, is making sure that you put yourself and your employees in a position to succeed. Ensuring that you not only have enough employees to meet demand, but that you have also given them the tools to handle high call volumes and customer inquiries will mean the difference between succeeding post-pandemic and not.
When your business reopens, make sure that your company can meet an eager and demanding public. Curious about how you can manage current or potential future high call volume at your company? AccessDirect can help! Call or chat with us today to get a custom solution tailored to meet your specific needs at an affordable monthly price. We’ve helped thousands of companies over the past 20 years, and we’re ready to help you too.
