Workforce Planning isn’t always easy and accurate forecasting can be a difficult task. Customers aren’t always predictable and unexpected events can happen that cause surges in call volumes. No matter how good your forecasting is, there are always going to be times when demand is greater than what you had predicted, and you don’t have enough staff to handle the workload.
Examples of things that can cause spikes or surges in demand include:
Seasonality: At certain times of the year like end of the financial year or school holidays, there may be an increase in call volumes.
Product Launches or Updates: New product releases, service updates or changes in policies can generate a spike in customer enquiries.
Marketing Campaigns: Promotions, discounts, or advertising can drive an increase in customer interest and result in more calls.
Service Outages or Technical Issues: System failures, outages or technical problems often result in a flood of calls from frustrated customers.
Crisis or Emergency Situations: Events like natural disasters, pandemics or security breaches can lead to a sudden surge in calls.
Social Media or Viral Events: Negative publicity or viral social media posts can cause a rapid increase in customer demand.
These unexpected surges in incoming calls can be mentally and emotionally exhausting for your staff and can cause increased stress and burnout. Staff may struggle to keep up with the influx in calls resulting in longer wait times for customers and potential frustration on both ends. As your staff are rushing to get through calls, the quality of their service may also be lower than usual. If this continues for a prolonged period, its also likely to lead to increased absenteeism as staff take time off to recover from the stress.
Unfortunately, budgets don’t always allow for an increase in staff and offering overtime doesn’t always help if your staff are already stressed and burnt out. So, what can you do?
That’s where leveraging the latest technology can help. Tools like Intradiem (Real Time Management automation) and calld.ai (virtual agents) can help ensure the service you offer doesn’t suffer during peaks in demand.
Adapting with Intradiem and calld.ai
Intradiem and calld.ai play pivotal roles in adapting to call surges. Intradiem provides real-time management automation that can ensure your staff stay focused and engaged during periods of high demand. It optimises agent schedules and prompts them if it looks like they need help, ensuring that critical tasks are prioritised during peak times.
In tandem, calld.ai enhances efficiency with AI-powered agents capable of handling routine customer interactions naturally and effectively. This reduces the burden on human agents, allowing them to focus on complex, high-value tasks. Together, Intradiem and calld.ai form a powerful solution that keeps operations running smoothly, regardless of call volume fluctuations.
Managing Call Spikes with Peak Assist and Surge Guard
If you’ve done the planning and you know that you are going to be understaffed or if you are watching what’s happening on the day and notice that there is a sustained surge in calls, that’s where you can use calld.ai’s Peak Assist or Surge Guard to keep things running smoothly. These AI-powered virtual agents scale up instantly, ensuring you meet demand without overloading your human staff. By taking a proactive approach, you can reduce customer wait times, maintain service levels and ensure business continuity, no matter how unpredictable the call volume gets. Let calld.ai handle the spikes so your team stays focused and engaged!
The calld.ai Advantage
calld.ai stands out with its ability to deliver human-like conversational experiences powered by a private Language Model (LLM) that continuously updates with real-time data. This ensures accurate, context-aware responses, even for complex queries like subscription changes or account management. Its advanced AI capabilities not only improve customer interactions but also enhance operational agility and trust.
Future-Proofing Contact Centre Operations
Implementing advanced AI-driven tools like Intradiem and calld.ai enables contact centres to handle both predictable and unexpected call surges with ease. This proactive approach to workforce management optimises resource allocation, improves efficiency, and supports long-term business growth.
Leveraging these innovative solutions helps organisations remain resilient, responsive, and ready for the challenges ahead.