Four Reasons Why Call Centers Require You to Wait

Want to outsource a part of your business process to a call center? This article highlights some major reasons why there may be a delay on their part to answer the queries of your customers.

If you have had previously interacted with a call center, the biggest expectation that you might have had is that there is minimal time waiting. You imagine call centers to consist of a large room of people who are answering calls directed to the same number at a time, with a group of callers available to answer the phone 24/7. Even though all of this is most of the time true, and is the direction many successful companies go in for customer service, your expectations for having extremely short wait times can turn out to be pretty off.

If your company needs a form of outsourced customer support, you should instead consider healthcare answering services and save money by hiring a team of representatives fit for a small call volume. In the meantime, though, if you are curious as to why it takes so long to get a hold of a call center representative, here are a few reasons why.

There is always a chance for the call center to be understaffed. Call centers are often notorious for their low hourly wages, so it is no surprise among people who work in the industry to come across centers where there aren’t enough calls to take everyone’s calls. When there are more callers calling than there are representatives that can answer, there are bound to be a queue of people who have to wait until representatives are done talking to previous callers.

A call center is sure to experience an unexpected rise in callers every now and then, which is something that happens beyond their control. Call centers typically get their largest volume of callers in the morning and afternoon, but when something happens, such as a region-wide service outage or product launch that didn’t go as planned, the number of callers will spike and the waiting times are sure to be prolonged. To alleviate wait times for callers that have separate issues, a message often plays at the start of the system menu when the caller first calls to let them know that they are aware of whatever issue that the majority of callers are calling about.

Call centers always make sure they have enough staff for their busiest times of day, but what about the night time? While there are people who decide to wait until night time to call a company’s customer service, whether it’s because they are relaxing at home or to avoid the large call volume, wait times at night can actually be longer than wait times during the day. This is because not many call representatives are eager to work late night shifts, like from midnight to 8 A.M. This means fewer representatives will be available to take calls, leading to understaffing once again.

When it comes to being a representative at a call center, there are more things that he or she has to prepare for besides picking the phone up. These representatives are trained in reading and choosing script to coincide with calls, having an F.A.Q. page for their reference, and how to deal with upset callers. Especially when the representative is still learning on the job, these calls always take some time, leading to longer holding times.

How much do answering services charge? It is certainly more affordable than many call centers. Consider a speedy answering service for your company or medical facility and expect next to no waiting times.

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