How to Manage High incoming Call Volume in Retail During the Black Friday Period?

Review Data From Previous Years

One of the first things you need to do is review data from previous years. This will give you a better idea of how many calls you can expect to receive and when they’re likely to peak. Once you have this information, you can start making some decisions about staffing levels and call routing.

It’s also important to have a plan for dealing with after-hours calls. Many retail businesses are open late on Black Friday, and this can mean an increase in calls outside of normal business hours. You’ll need to decide how you’re going to handle these calls, whether it’s through an answering service or by having someone on call.

Improve Customer Service With ACD

The Black Friday period is one of the busiest times of the year for retail businesses. Not only are there more customers in stores, but there is also a significant increase in call volume as people try to reach businesses to:

• Place orders
• Make returns

This can put a strain on customer service teams, leading to longer wait times and frustrated customers.

One way to manage high call incoming volume during the Black Friday period is to use an automated call distribution (ACD) system. ACD systems route calls to the next available agent, which helps to reduce wait times.

In addition, ACD systems can provide valuable insights into call volume trends, which can help businesses staff their customer service teams more effectively. 

Diabolocom Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) will make sure that incoming calls are all sorted amongst the call agents. 

Implement Intelligent IVR

Not only do customers flock to stores in search of deals, but they also inundate call centers with questions and requests. This can lead to long wait times and unhappy customers. However, there is a way to manage high call volume and provide excellent customer service: Interactive Voice Response or IVR.

Traditional IVR is a type of technology that lists the customers’ choices and attaches a group of agents to each choice.

Intelligent IVR allows customers to interact with a computerized system to get the information they need.

Unlike traditional IVR systems, intelligent IVR can understand natural language and provide accurate responses. This means that customers can get the answers they need without having to wait on hold or talk to a live agent.

ACD and IVR system from Diabolocom reduce call volume and wait times during the Black Friday period.

Integrate Your Incoming Calls With CRM

One helpful step is to integrate your incoming calls with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This way, each call is automatically logged and your agent can quickly pull up information about each caller. Your agent can also spend less time looking for information and more time on the phone with customers.

Equally, you can easily track all interactions with your clients, whether they are through voice calls, emails, or social media channels. By taking some time to prepare for the rush, you can help ensure that your agents are able to provide an excellent customer service experience, even when the phone lines are jammed. 

You can also integrate your CRM with a cloud-based call center solution such as Diabolocom to access all customer interactions and transaction data in one place. This gives you an entire view of each and every incoming call history, which helps you make data-driven decisions. The main goal of integrating your CRM to Diabolocom call center software is to handle your incoming calls volume more efficiently.

A single and centralized customer information platform supporting agents across all channels.

“CRM integration with Diabolocom call center software helps you easily access valuable customer data to manage your incoming call volume efficiently and provide excellent customer service.”

Create Workflows with Call Center Software

Call center software can help you manage the increased call volume by creating workflows. For example, you can create a workflow that automatically routes calls to the next available agent.

This ensures that each call is handled promptly and reduces wait times. You can also use call center software such as Diabolocom to record calls and listen to them later for quality control purposes. 

Choosing Diabolocom call center software can also help you review how your team members manage calls. Call monitoring, data, and analytics reports available in real-time give you a detailed understanding of how your agents are performing. This will help you make improvements to address the customer’s needs more efficiently.

Manage Calls With Diabolocom

Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and retail customer service teams are under immense pressure to handle a high volume of calls. This can be a daunting task, but with the right call management system in place, it doesn’t have to be.

Diabolocom is a flexible and scalable call and customer management solution with premium call quality, blazing-fast deployment, and compelling ease of use. As a cloud-based call center software, Diabolocom helps:

• Prioritize inbound call flows to improve call quality and agent productivity
• Reduce processing time
• Improve call qualification, distribution to agents, and processing
• Equip call agents with vital customer context by pairing Diabolocom with CRM
• Make better decisions based on customer data

Diabolocom offers a variety of features to help businesses and call centers manage their inbound and outbound calls while maintaining the highest levels of client experience quality. These features include self-service, IVR, ACD, callback, automated emails and SMS, in addition to analysis and monitoring options. 

Diabolocom can be easily and quickly integrated into the market and in-house CRMs. Users of the Diabolocom solution interfaced with a CRM can implement and develop routing scenarios, mixing customer knowledge and agent skills. As a result, customer experience is definitely improved.

Cloud-based Diabolocom contact center solution is also suited to remote working, allowing businesses and contact centers to bring on additional agents when needed.

In addition, the software provides detailed reports on call activity, allowing businesses to assess their performance and make necessary adjustments.

With Diabolocom, retailers can ensure that all calls are answered promptly and efficiently, even during peak periods.

Create a Crisis Plan

To manage the increase in call volume, it is important to create a crisis plan that includes:

• Additional staff
• Extended hours
• Differentiated call queues
• Consider Remote Hiring
  

While many businesses hire additional seasonal staff to handle the increased demand, this can be costly and disruptive to company culture. Alternatively, businesses can consider remote hiring to manage high call volume during the Black Friday period.

Remote workers are often more flexible and can be hired on an as-needed basis. In addition, they can be trained quickly and do not need to be managed in person. As a result, remote hiring can be a cost-effective and efficient way to manage high call volume during the Black Friday period.

Allow Call Back Options

One way to manage high call volume during this time is to allow callers to leave a message and receive a callback. This way, they don’t have to wait on hold for an extended period, and you can return their calls when you have more capacity.

Additionally, you can use an automated system to give customers an estimated wait time so that they know how long they will be on hold.

Communicate Clearly With Your Customer

First, make sure that your phone lines are properly staffed. This will help to reduce hold times and ensure that calls are answered promptly.

Next, take the time to train your staff on how to handle high call volumes. This will help them to be more efficient and effective in their dealings with customers.

Finally, make sure to communicate clearly with your customers. Keep them updated on wait times, changes in store hours, and any other information that may be relevant to their shopping experience.

Manage the increased call volume in the Black Friday period.

Unify Your Business

With extended hours and massive discounts, it’s no wonder that this annual event attracts hordes of customers. However, the increased traffic can also lead to long lines and high call volumes. To manage the influx of callers, retailers need to unify their businesses.

This means creating a single point of contact that can route calls to the appropriate department, whether it’s customer service, sales, or something else. By unifying the call center, retailers can ensure that calls are answered quickly and efficiently.

In addition, this process can help to reduce hold times and improve customer satisfaction. Your customers will thank you for it.

Start Prepping for Black Friday Today

The Black Friday season is fast approaching, and that means it’s time to start this annual event. So, if you are looking for a call center solution that can help you deal with the holiday business, try our demo today!