When customers call after 6 p.m. to make a purchase they often get customer service from machinery -- an answering machine, telling them to call back during normal business hours.
No one likes treating customers this way. Not sales managers, not operations managers, not customer service managers. But none of them likes paying call center staff for after-hours idle time when call volume is light.
However, there’s a price to be paid for this practice. Bottom line: retailers and e-tailers may be losing significant revenue.
To measure lost after-hours sales, first calculate your after-hours call volume. Here’s a rule of thumb: for every eight inbound calls during an average day you get one after 6 p.m.
Then figure out how many inbound customer calls results in a sale during a typical day. Take that ratio and apply it to your average number of after-hours calls per week.
Lastly, multiply your after hours sales calls by your average sales order.
Let's assume you get 75 after-hours calls per week and your average order is $100. If one call in five calls results in a sale, then each week you get 15 after-hours sales calls that go to an answering machine. Multiplied by $100, that's $78,000 in annual lost revenue.
But that's not the entire cost. You also lose repeat customer sales, opportunities to build goodwill and referral business, to encourage customer loyalty and to demonstrate your commitment to excellent customer service.
What's the cost of live after-hours customer support?
For OnBrand24 outsourced call center services, we charge by the minute (no charge for idle time) and a typical inbound call costs about $3. Three dollars to capture $100 in revenue is ahealthy ROI.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Premier Call Center Services
Beverly, MA