Small Business landscape – COVID-19
For small business, the ability to act (and react) quickly has always been important. Agility has long been an advantage that small businesses has over their larger organizational competitors. This year, agility isn’t just an advantage, it’s going to determine who keeps their lights on and who doesn’t.
Businesses are being forced to downsize or right-size with almost no notice, physical space occupancy is being redesigned, and working from home is a trend that we are all getting used to. On top of all that, we know that volatility is to be expected. One week you could be busy as a bee, and the next dead silent. How are you supposed to plan staffing for that?
Call Centre flexibility
With fewer employees available, you might want to consider outsourcing some of your essential, but not core business processes; things that you can’t go without, but do not directly tie in with your service or product. Having the ability to scale up and down is going to be important for your business moving forward. A running agreement with your call centre can be the difference between capitalizing on a months' worth of pent up demand or missing that chance. The bottom line is this: a 24/7 call centre is going to be cheaper than employing a full time receptionist, plus you get added benefits like insightful reports that your call centre can arm you with to make better decisions in the future. Think of your call centre as your temp team.
You can see a full list of call centre services here.
Safer options
Having a building full of people is now a liability, so any time you can make a move that allows for fewer people in a confined space, it’s winning move. A call centre allows you to maintain that consistent, professional voice at the “front desk” that you need but removes the risk of having personnel on site.
Where to start
Find a call centre that caters to your industry, your receptionist likely had years of industry knowledge that greatly benefited your organization – don't sacrifice that, find it with your new partner. Many call centres specialize in particular verticals and have amassed truly insightful experience.
There are several considerations you should evaluate while selecting a call centre, including customer satisfaction, references, and employee turnover.
Key services to outsource
As a starter, get your call centre to take care of your business hours answering and message taking. This much will keep the status quo. If you notice call patterns are such that evenings and weekends are receiving a lot of calls you can have your call centre cover that too.
If appointments are important to your business, you may want to explore having your call centre take care of that for you.
What happens to my service package if calls 10x in one week
First of all, we hope they do. Our goal as a call centre service partner is to help your business thrive. The beauty of partnering with a call centre truly is the flexibility it provides your business. If your service package is for a low expected volume of about 70 minutes a month, but your business hits a busy spurt and you have a sudden increase, you’re only ever one phone call away from adjusting on the fly and increasing your package to include a higher number of minutes. No need to write a job ad to hire an additional person, no need to interview, and no need to worry about meeting increased demand.
For more info on how a call centre can give your business the flexibility it needs to thrive this year, check out our website www.answering.telelink.ca/site/home