As we all can attest, there are only so many hours in the day. But as many business owners have learned the hard way, there’s another resource that can feel equally as scarce as time: Skilled workers. Call center leaders are often faced with the dilemma of not having enough agents at the ready to answer the phone—and few realistic ways of addressing the problem internally. However, call center outsourcing companies represent an easy solution to this problem. Offering experienced, readily available and cost-effective agents, call center outsourcing companies are ideal for businesses hoping to properly address overflow within their call centers.

What causes overflow calls?

The biggest driver of overflow activity is an uncharacteristically high number of inbound calls. In most cases, that influx is a direct result of seasonality shifts, a change in pricing like a popular promotion or a required action that the customer must take. Think about a florist and the way that business can ebb and flow with the seasons. Leading up to holidays like Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day, it’s not uncommon for the shop to receive more calls than they might in the summer.

Another significant source for overflow activity is understaffing or staffing shortages due to companies either forecasting their needs incorrectly or simply not having access to a large enough pool of qualified candidates to choose from. In either event, the result is not enough people to answer the phones.

What happens if a company can’t keep up with its calls?

Call center outsourcing companies are essential because failing to properly account for call volume and having too many abandoned calls can spell doom for even the most successful businesses. Every call that goes unanswered could potentially mean lost revenue. In the worst-case scenario, those customers not only take their business elsewhere but also write about their experience on one of the many popular online review sites, which can have lingering ramifications and prevent future customers from calling the business.

An example of call center outsourcing companies in action

ShyftOff has extensive experience working with businesses to handle overflow calls, with one of the best examples coming through a partnership with a nonprofit consortium named Sustainable Westchester. As we wrote about in our full case study on working with Sustainable Westchester, the nonprofit was struggling with the volume of calls being driven by a recent change made by the local energy utility. In addition to overwhelming employees, overflow and abandoned calls were putting the reputation of the nonprofit and the energy utility at risk. That’s when Sustainable Westchester began inquiring about call center outsourcing companies and found ShyftOff.

ShyftOff utilizes the GigCX model, which results in substantial cost savings and brings highly-educated and skilled agents to the table for companies that need help staffing their call centers. After meeting with ShyftOff and hearing the benefits of our unique model, Sustainable Westchester signed on to be a client. ShyftOff agents were able to start answering calls the very next day. That speed and agility is one of the biggest differentiators that separates ShyftOff from other call center outsourcing companies and was specifically mentioned by Sustainable Westchester in our case study.

Have you been researching call center outsourcing companies?

If so, we’d love to talk with you about ShyftOff. Reach out to us today.

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