Prevention

Prevention is key for minimizing the impact on your staff.

  • Keep disinfectant wipes and sanitizer everywhere
  • Have the reps wipe down their whole workstation at the beginning and end of their shift
  • Do not let supervisors take over the rep’s headset when they need to take a call, have them use their own
  • Clean bathrooms multiple times throughout the day and keep sanitizer spray in the bathroom
  • Clean breakrooms multiple times throughout the day, and keep sanitizing wipes around and encourage reps to wipe down tables before and after they eat
  • Encourage reps to go outside for fresh air during lunch and breaks
  • Educate the reps on how to stay well. They should eat healthy, get exercise, get plenty of sleep, take their vitamins, wash their hands frequently.
  • And most important, tell your reps to STAY HOME if they are sick!!!

Staffing

Having a back up plan for a virtual work environment and overflow staffing may be critical.

  • Ask your reps to get set up to work from home.
  • Make sure they have computer equipment, a headset, enough internet bandwidth, a quiet work environment.
  • If they have children, ask them how they are going to handle childcare if schools are cancelled.
  • If a lot of your staff gets sick at once, have a back up pool of staff you can call on to help.
  • Designate a back up outsourcing vendor that can take overflow.

Call Volume

Your call volume could go up because of the Coronavirus.  Ask yourself these questions.

  • Does the fact that more people are staying home help or hurt your business?
  • Will your advertising be more effective if more people are at home watching TV?
  • Are your customers looking to stock up on supplies of your product in case they get quarantined?
  • Will more of your insurance customers have questions because of the virus?
  • Will some of your competitors have shortages because of where they are located or where they are getting their supplies that may increase your orders?

Summary

Prevention is only going to last you so long, so you need to make sure you are ready for a more significant impact to your staffing and possibly your call volume.  You need to have plans to allow your reps to work virtually if that becomes necessary.  And you need to have plans that allow you to handle the calls if your staffing is hit or your call volume goes up.  Getting these back up plans in place can take time, so you should be preparing and testing now.

Contact us if we can help!  CallShaper is a virtual call center platform that can be used from anywhere in the world.  You can use it as your primary system or as an overflow system.  We can get you up and running in a matter of hours, and the system is self-managing, so you don’t need a programmer or a lot of training to use it.  Also, we have strong connections in the call center industry and can help connect you with companies who can support your contingency plan if you need it.  We are here to support you, please reach out if you need us!

Find out more at www.callshaper.com or contact us at info@callshaper.com.