‘Beast from the East’. It sounds bad… It is expected to bring freezing temperatures and heavy snow to Ireland, UK and almost everywhere in Europe. Beast from the East is expected to hit Ireland on Tuesday and it could bring snowfall to the country not seen since January 1982.
Bad weather impacts on everyone’s routines and creates all kinds of problems. The worse the weather, more phone calls we receive in our call centre as we answer calls from county councils, property management companies, break-assistance and insurance companies. As example, before and during Ophelia storm the call volume in our contact centre increased by 37% in comparison with a ‘normal’ day.
But it is not only emergency related phone calls, the disruption that bad weather can cause in the country normal activity impacts also in other businesses. For example,
- Employees may face challenges going to work increasing the number of our clients who decide to redirect their phone lines to our office during ‘normal hours’.
- With schools closing and people staying at home, TV viewers may decide to order that amazing product that they saw in the commercial.
- Medical appointments will be cancelled, our team will have to reschedule. Furthermore, we will have to find suitable support for people with special needs when their carers cannot arrive at their jobs.
It is in moments like this, it is when our entire contact centre infrastructure is put to a test. As the call volume increases and all of them are important for us, we need to ensure that we have the technical and human resources to match the increase in demand. But it is not only answering the phones, expert advice needs to be provided while being professional and polite with stressed callers. We have also to be aware of our employees’ well-being while driving to and from work while having additional employees on call.
All these key aspects are taken into account while organizing our workforce to fight against the “Beast from the East”.
