How Do BPO Call Centers Manage Peak Hour Traffic?

 


Peak hour traffic in call centers refers to a particular time within the day when a call center receives the highest volume of incoming calls. These peak periods can vary depending on the industry, geographical location, and specific business operations. 


To give an example, let's suppose an e-commerce company has outsourced its customer service operations to a BPO company. The latter's call center starts getting a sizable volume of calls after business hours, let's say after 9 am, as that's the time when most people shop online as well as check their orders. It's just convenient to shop while traveling to work or before starting one's shift. As the day passes, the call center gets more and more calls, and it experiences peak hour traffic during noon, say between 1 pm and 3 pm. 


This article details the challenges BPO call centers face during peak hour traffic and how they can manage it effectively. Read on.


Challenges Faced By BPO Call Centers During Peak Hour Traffic


Here are the challenges faced by BPO call centers during peak hour traffic.


1. Long Waiting Time and Unfavorable CX


During peak hours, when all agents are already on calls, the customers who are calling have to wait a little longer than usual. With every second of waiting, customer satisfaction and customer experience goes down.


2. Agent Burnout

 

During peak hours, agents are overworked and at higher risk of burnout. This is a much more serious issue than it seems as it is one of the leading reasons behind employee attrition.


3. System Overload


During peak hour traffic, it's not only agents who are completely exhausted. It also affects communication systems and tools as well. When systems are overworked, it could lead to communication breakdown.


4. Higher Rate of Abandoned Calls


When customers wait for a long time, they are more likely to abandon the call. Studies show that about one in four callers will hang up the call if they are made to wait for more than one minute. More than 90 percent of callers will abandon the call if they are made to wait for over five minutes.


5. Lower Service Quality


When call center agents have to deal with such a massive volume of calls, they may not be able to give quality time to every call. That affects the service quality.


Best Practices for Managing Peak Hour Traffic


Here are some best practices for managing peak-hour traffic:


1. Leverage the Right Technology


One of the best ways to manage peak hour traffic is to leverage the right technology tools. Sophisticated call and contact center software solutions come equipped with advanced call routing, IVRs, AI-driven chatbots, and many more features that help streamline calls.


2. Encourage Self-Service


In today's age, self-service is the next best thing to customer service. BPO call centers can manage peak call traffic by providing self-service options such as online FAQs, forums, and automated services.


3. Monitor Data and Analytics


BPO call centers need to be vigilant about the real-time analytics and metrics concerning call traffic. They must monitor the number of ongoing calls versus the number of waiting calls. Based on that information, they can route the calls efficiently.


Taking Everything Into Consideration,


Peak hour traffic is not easy for BPO call centers. But there is nothing they can do to avoid it. However, they can manage it by adopting the best practices and leveraging the right technology.



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