Open Forum

Hi everyone,

We are wondering how others are handling the use of queued callbacks towards the end of business hours.  For example, We would like to prevent callbacks in the last few hours of the day so that there are not any remaining when the phones close. 

How do you combat having a bunch of callbacks at the end of the day?

Hi Drew,

It works ok if you set a separate schedule for the call-back queue but there are some considerations:

As call-backs are a "same day" type backlog because they expire, you need to decide how long your agents need to wrap up the call-back queue at the end of their shift, then you have some more choices to make depending on expected volume/agent availability.

If you prevent call-backs being offered 1 or more hrs before your regular closing time to give your agents time before the end of their regular shift to complete call-backs.

If you have too much volume in your call-back queue you may want to close your regular queue earlier to give your agents more time within their shift to complete call-backs before offering inbound calls.

Lastly, you could prioritise call-back queue calls, so they are offered to your agents ahead of inbound queue calls.

However, call-backs are a blessing and a curse, on one hand they help distribute agent to customer interactions across the day without the customer staying on hold, but depending on the logic you are using to offer call-back, the callers may choose call-back instead of holding, even if holding makes more sense.

A few words of warning on call-backs.

Depending on how you capture the caller number to call-back, you may have a high "miss" rate, where agents are not able to reach the person who requested the call back.

Customers may not be patient enough to wait on the call-back so may return to the inbound queue anyway, wasting agents time.

If you don't use an outcome code for call-backs, you may not truly know what your success rate is.

• e.g.
• CB- Successful
• CB- Reached voicemail - left message
• CB- Reached voicemail - no message left
• CB- Reached Switchboard/Wrong Person
• CB- Call didn't complete

If you integrate/screen-pop with an existing CRM, you may be able to do this natively in the CRM system.

We have a "no new calls" schedule imbedded in the script to allow agents to catch up on calls before closing.  We are open from 8:00 to 5:00 but we do not accept new calls at 4:45 (depending on the Q).  Callers after that time receive a message that all agents are busy and to try back later.  We allow our call center managers to change this schedule if needed so they can close down the Qs during the days if we get too many callers at once.  If staff catches up on the calls, they reopen for more calls.  

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Beth Steiger
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