There are many articles and focus points on how to increase inbound calls to your business, but how do you effectively manage a sudden surge in inbound calls with limited staff? There are various solutions that can help your business enhance call management, staff performance, and customer service.

Maintaining a professional image

Your business may be doing well, you are receiving a lot of inbound enquiries and gaining additional revenue. However, it may now be getting a little difficult to manage. Loyal customers are struggling to get through to your customer service teams and there may have been new business leads that have put the phone down after the line is busy or left unanswered. This is a big problem for any business, but there is a simple solution.
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As your business grows, your phone systems should grow with it, helping you manage the increased number of inbound calls received. To avoid missed business leads and irritated customers moving to a competitor, you need to establish how you can keep them on the line whilst your employees are busy with other telephone enquiries. There are 3 primary methods to stay connected and keep callers on the line:

Queue message

If all the lines are busy, having an instant queue message informing the caller that they have been placed in the queue can make all the difference in keeping the caller on the line. A friendly message creates a professional image and makes the caller feel valued and not forgotten.

“Hello, thank you for calling {Company Name}, all of our agents are busy at the moment, please hold, and we will connect your call as soon as possible.”

Queue music

Incorporating music is also an effective way of maintaining a connection with the caller as it creates the feeling that the call could be answered at any moment. Matching this with a queue message is the perfect solution for a professional image.

Marketing advertisements

It can be a great opportunity to insert marketing advertisements or exclusive offers into your call queuing as it can drive additional cross-sell opportunities all the while you know the caller is listening. This can also help pass the time for the caller before their call has been answered.
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Understanding your employees

Employees are often considered to be the most important aspect to your business. Your colleagues are the driving force in increasing sales, maintaining customer satisfaction, and developing business growth. Therefore, truly understanding how your team works is critical to maintaining positive relationships, internally and externally. The simple answer to enforcing this effectively is through staff training.

Group meetings, workshops, and online courses are all good examples of bringing your team together. However, these methods come with their own set of challenges, primarily relying on staff having the confidence to actively provide honest and open feedback on how they currently operate and what they could improve on. By recording and listening back through business calls, you can see exactly how your employees operate and respond to customers, allowing you to focus on the exact area of training required to improve your sales and customer service teams.

Case Study: Healthcare RM

Formed in 2000, Healthcare RM delivers successful occupational health and case management solutions to major employers and had experienced rapid growth from winning new business and acquiring helplines. Their call volume increased, and the business doubled in size. Healthcare RM had taken on numbers (and the business) from other major healthcare providers and required the increase in calls to be managed effectively.

Telecoms World and Healthcare RM worked closely together to actively meet all requirements, making changes to current procedures, and updating current systems into the cloud for online access. Call Queuing was implemented, allowing Healthcare RM to improve customer service and promote marketing messages whilst customers waited to be connected. The cloud-based products and services provided staff level access, giving autonomy in their daily roles. Call Queuing also provides in-depth statistics and the ability to change staff and queue levels for simple management.

Call Recording was also introduced due to the nature of HRM’s business. This provided a cost-effective and easy way to record, store and playback all inbound calls. Healthcare RM are now able to coach employees to improve their performance, implement stringent controls, improve quality of service, and stay legally protected. Telecoms World solutions for Healthcare RM are having an immense impact on the daily management of their staff, call centres and phone numbers without affecting any customers calling. Calls are now answered much quicker and more efficiently.

“After a big new business win, it was really important that the process was managed efficiently and effectively. Telecoms World saved us and their support and solutions worked a dream” - Chris Howell - Operations Director, Healthcare RM

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Enhance call handling and staff performance

At Telecoms World, we provide a range of professional call solutions that can support your growing business and help you manage an increased call volume. Our Call Queuing service includes a call queue manager dashboard, allowing you to monitor and control incoming calls and make changes instantly. Combining this with the ability to record each business call allows you to improve customer retention, assist staff with customer service training and enhance sales techniques. Use our secure and easy-to-use online management portal to search by a range of parameters including dialled number, callers' number, date and time.
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If you would like to learn more about our Call Recording solution or how to Queue Business Calls, please contact our team of experts on 0800 774 7772.

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