Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Virginian 211 Operators Experiencing Spike in Call Volume
The pandemic and subsequent great resignation dealt call centers a bad hand. This situation is forcing agents to take on significantly more work than before 2020.
According to a recent article from the Roanoke Times, Virginia’s 211 call operators are taking roughly twice as many calls on average compared to pre-pandemic levels, from 300-400 calls to 700-900 per day. 211 is a 24-hour public call service (similar to 911) offering citizens information related to everyday matters, including legal support, healthcare, job training support, homeless care, and food bank information. The pandemic and related conditions have caused a massive surge in calls from citizens across the state requesting information related to these areas.
“We’re seeing people that have never called us before,” said Margaret Telsch-Williams, Director of the 211 Virginia call center told the Roanoke Time.“We have the same number of staff working twice as hard as they’re handling twice as many calls as they used to.”
Currently, the 211 call center has 20 full time agents managing calls between 9am-6pm. Administrators are hoping to recruit four new call center agents, and gain additional support from volunteers. However, the task is becoming difficult due to inadequate training time, as well as budget cuts making it tough to offer appropriate levels of pay.
Though human support is preferable, Virginia’s 211 call center may benefit from automated call center software and self service features to offer agents support before burning out. The pandemic seems to be finally fading away for good, so if tech support can be introduced quickly, agents may be able to handle higher call volumes while administrators recruit new staff.
Edited by Maurice Nagle