10 Best Ways to Manage High Call Volume

A spike in call volume can indicate that your business is booming. But without enough manpower, managing the influx of calls can get overwhelming. Each customer expects you to answer the phone promptly and address their concerns or answer their questions as quickly as possible. If you don’t meet their expectations, it can lead to poor customer experience, missed business, losing to the competition, and more.

If your business struggles to manage unexpected call surges, this article is for you. We’ll discuss what you need to know about high call volume, including its signs and causes. This article will also list ten effective ways to manage a high volume of calls, including the use of advanced phone systems.

Using phone systems like Podium is crucial in managing any level of call volume. Podium Phone’s system is nothing like the ordinary phone in your office. It is a VoIP system specifically designed for growing businesses and packed with functionalities that help your team turn more calls into revenue.

What Is a High Call Volume?

Knowing how to effectively manage an influx of calls is crucial for a business. Most customers won’t wait for more than five minutes to speak with your team. Some customers may have the patience to wait on hold for longer, but 78% of them will find it annoying.

Annoyed or frustrated customers aren’t good for any business. Excessively long wait times may prompt them to choose a competitor or leave a bad review. To avoid the consequences of slow response to customer calls due to high call volume, you need proactive plans in place.

High Call Volume Meaning

But how many calls are considered high volume? Gaining an understanding of what call volume is can help you determine numbers that can be considered “high.” Call volume is the number of calls a contact center or any business receives. If the number of inbound calls increases beyond what employees can reasonably handle, it can be considered high call volume.

For most companies, call volume is considered high when it reaches 10%  above their typical or expected call volume. However, for startups or small businesses, the percentage may be lower.

Time is also a factor. Depending on the industry, the influx of incoming calls should continue for a certain amount of time, like two to three weeks, to be considered high call volume. It means you cannot consider a day of receiving more calls than usual as high call volume.

What Causes High Call Volume?

Here are four common factors that cause high call volume:

• Seasonal peaks – Consumers tend to spend more money during Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday, and other holidays. As a result, businesses in certain industries, like e-commerce, hospitality, travel, and retail, tend to experience a significant increase in their call volume during these seasons.
• Product or service issues – Expect more customers to call your business when your new product is defective, or your service stopped because of scheduled maintenance, natural disaster, or other issues.
• Marketing campaigns or promotions – Your business will likely see an uptick in call volume after an effective marketing campaign or promotion, like lowering product pricing.
• Changes in policies or procedures – Modifications to company policies or procedures can confuse customers. When customers seek more information or clarifications about these changes or encounter difficulties understanding them, they are likely to call the customer service team for guidance.

Is High Call Volume Good?

As mentioned earlier in this article, a high call volume can indicate that your business is booming. It means you’re likely to make more money, which is probably why many businesses want to know how to increase call volume. However, it’s not always a good thing.

An increased number of inbound calls can be bad if the reasons for calls are faulty products or unsatisfactory services. If your team isn’t prepared to handle unexpected floods of incoming calls, it can result in long call queues. Customers who do not receive immediate response may think your business does not care about their issues and provides poor customer service.

How to Identify a High Call Volume

Since high call volume can indicate problems with your business, it’s important to identify high call volume. It will allow you to prepare contingency plans and prevent a high call volume from ruining your business.

You can identify a high call volume by paying attention to several signs, including long wait times, high call abandonment rates, a decline in service quality, and a rising backlog of unresolved queries.

When your call center receives more phone calls than the agents can handle at a time, it’s normal for callers to be left on hold for a long time. So, if you encounter complaints about long wait times, it’s time to pay attention to your call volume. Some customers may also choose to abandon their calls if they don’t get an immediate response due to high call volume.

Another indication of excessive call volume is a decline in service quality, as overwhelmed agents may struggle to meet customer demands. Worse, your agents may fail to address customer concerns, resulting in a backlog of unresolved queries.

10 Tips to Easily Manage High Call Volume

1. Implement self-service options.

Sometimes, your team will encounter the same questions from customers. In this case, it helps to offer self-service options.

Customers are unlikely to call if they have access to self-service resources that provide answers to their questions or guides on fixing their concerns. That can reduce the call volume while improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, self-service options allow your agents to focus on handling more complex customer needs.

Here are some examples of self-service options you can offer to your customers:

• A frequently-asked questions (FAQ) page that offers answers to the most common questions consumers ask your customer service reps.
• A knowledge base that gives customers access to product or business-related information, like product descriptions or troubleshooting guides.
• A community forum that allows your customers to interact and share knowledge.
• Video tutorials on more complex processes or popular topics. You can upload the videos on video-sharing platforms like YouTube.

2. Use IVR systems.

Customers expect an immediate response when they call your support line. Ideally, that means connecting callers to your live agents. However, a sudden surge of incoming calls makes it difficult for human agents to answer each call quickly. This is where the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system comes in handy.

IVR is a technology that can engage callers without a live agent. It can automate support case distribution and make your team’s workflow more seamless and efficient. IVR allows callers to choose an action from a menu or set of options instead of being placed on hold right after dialing your customer support line. For example, if a customer calls to ask about a feature of your product, you can set your IVR to direct the caller to your knowledge base or other self-service options.

With an IVR system in place, your human agents can concentrate on solving more complex customer concerns. You can also set the IVR to direct customers to agents specializing in their concerns, which can reduce the number of transfers each agent has to initiate.

3. Prioritize high-impact calls.

Are you familiar with the 80:20 rule in customer success? Also known as the Pareto Principle, this rule says that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your loyal or repeat customers. So, when dealing with a high volume of calls, prioritizing your loyal customers may help you make more money.

But how will you know who in your call queues you should prioritize? You can take advantage of advanced phone system features. Some modern phone systems for businesses allow you to prioritize tickets based on their importance, so agents know which call to answer first. Some business phone systems also provide a quick pop-up profile of the caller to help agents get a better idea of the customer.

4. Provide call-back options.

Keeping customers on hold isn’t good for agents and callers. Callers get annoyed and impatient being stuck too long on hold, while agents often feel pressured to provide a fast solution to the caller’s concerns. As a result, customers end up having a bad experience with your business, while agents might fail to provide effective solutions or accurate answers to customer’s concerns.

This is why the best phone systems for small businesses provide call-back options. Instead of waiting on hold for the next available human rep, customers can schedule a time for reps to call them. They can continue with their day until your team gets back to them.

Offering call-back options can benefit businesses and contact centers in many ways. It helps improve customer experience, increase first-contact resolution rates, and reduce call abandonment rates. It also helps you save money by reducing associated toll charges when keeping a customer on hold.

5. Implement a hatbot.

Offering customers more ways of getting in touch with your business may reduce inbound calls. One popular communication tool that many businesses have started adopting is a chatbot. Thanks to advancements in technology, a chatbot can converse with your customers like a human.

With Podium Webchat, for instance, you can set the chatbot to welcome or start conversations with site visitors, answer their basic questions, and connect them to human agents if necessary.

With the Podium chatbot in action on your site, you get the same benefits as an IVR. And since the widget can be found right on your website, customers will be able to find it quickly when they need help. They will also get responses in real time, even if your team is busy.

6. Update your phone system.

Updating your phone system may not be your priority as a small or growing business, but this can benefit your team. Your business can reduce a high call volume by answering multiple calls simultaneously. However, this strategy requires a multi-line phone system.

A multi-line phone system, like Podium Phones, allows more than one person to answer or make calls. The service also collects all call history and information in one easy-to-access platform, so agents can easily view previous customer interactions.

7. Cross-train agents.

Hiring more people may make sense when your team receives more calls than usual. But this option isn’t ideal when you have limited resources. The alternative? Cross-train your agents. You can cross-train your agents across various business lines. For instance, an agent serving customers through voice calls can be trained to handle online support as well. Or you can train an employee handling back-office tasks on receiving calls.

By cross-training agents, you can increase your customer service staffing without spending money on recruitment and onboarding new employees. It’s all about optimizing your resources.

Cross-training agents are beneficial not only for businesses but for employees as well. It offers your agents an opportunity to upskill. The additional knowledge they learn can also help them become more confident and effective in their roles. It also ensures that agents will remain productive once the call volume subsides.

8. Monitor and analyze data.

It’s easier to manage floods of incoming calls when you expect them because you can plan ahead of time. Unfortunately, spikes in call volume can happen anytime. In this case, monitoring your call center data can help limit surprises. Begin by looking at your call history data over the past few years and then search for trends where call volume begins to increase.

After identifying outliers, determine the specific situation that leads to high call volume. Is it because of seasonal promotions, a newly released product, or a PR mistake? Knowing what causes high call volume will help you identify scenarios that may lead to an eventual call surge.

9. Optimize workforce management.

Review your team’s work schedule if you think there will be a spike in calls due to seasonality or forecasted trends. You don’t want to be short-staffed at times when you need your workforce the most.

Also, determine the number of calls each representative can handle at a given time. It will help you know how many more agents you need to manage high call volume efficiently. You want to ensure your business has enough staff so agents do not get overwhelmed.

10. Consider outsourcing.

If your support team can no longer handle a high call volume, another option is outsourcing your call center workflows. But take caution when you choose this strategy because third-party call centers may not provide the same levels of customer service that your clients have come to expect, which can lead to customer churn.

Update Your Phone System with Podium and Answer Every Call on Time

Podium is your ultimate all-in-one communication solution, designed to supercharge your business growth. The platform’s unique blend of features—including automated responses, call summaries, and call reporting—ensures your customers always feel heard and will stay loyal to your brand. And with the ability to route calls to one Inbox for all of your leads and conversations, you and your team won’t miss any business again. With Podium, your business will be able to attract and convert more leads into money, and retain those customers over time.

High Call Volume FAQs

Q: How do you apologize for the high call volume?

A: Customers rightfully get impatient and frustrated when they are stuck on hold, which commonly occurs when there’s a high call volume. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is be upfront with your callers. A simple greeting explaining the situation may help callers empathize with your situation.

Q: What to do when call volume is high?

A: There are various strategies you can implement so you’re ready to face a high call volume. You can start offering more self-service options or call-back options to customers. You can also get a multi-line phone system to help your agents handle more calls.

Q: What’s the best phone provider to handle high call volume?

A: If you’re searching for a phone system for handling high call volume, Podium offers the best solution. Podium’s Phones service has advanced functionalities, like call routing and auto-response, that can make high call volume management easier.