How to Manage Calls More Efficiently During a Labor Shortage

Labor shortages are becoming the norm due to an aging workforce, an increase in flexible careers, a lack of access to child care and more. In 2024, the United States had 1.5 million fewer available workers than jobs. 

Among other challenges, keeping up with calls can seem overwhelming when you have fewer employees handling more responsibilities. However, missed calls are missed opportunities to start, deepen or retain customer relationships. This guide will provide actionable strategies to maintain efficient call management without overburdening staff.

The Effects of Labor Shortages on Satisfaction and Sales

Companies deal with labor shortages by narrowing their focus on core business functions. During a shortage, you probably won’t dedicate an entire team to answering phone calls — so how do you manage the increasing volume of calls without distracting employees from priorities? 

With the strategies in this guide, you can maintain productivity while capturing every call for improved customer acquisition, retention and satisfaction.

Key Metrics to Track for Efficient Call Management

Before implementing new call management strategies, set key performance indicators (KPIs) to help monitor and refine them. Here are six KPIs to track for a call management strategy that makes efficient use of scarce human resources:

1. First-call resolution rates (FCR): This is the percentage of calls that solve customer issues during the first interaction, with no need for follow-up calls. A high FCR indicates efficiency and is associated with better customer satisfaction.
2. Repeat call volume: This is the number or percentage of calls in which a customer calls back to resolve an issue not successfully addressed in a previous call. Efficient call management strategies should keep repeat call volume low. 
3. Call abandonment rate: This is the percentage of callers who hang up before having their need met, either while waiting to connect or while on hold. Abandonment leads to missed opportunities and reputational damage, so you want this as low as possible. 
4. Call volume peaks and valleys: These are your busiest and slowest times of the day and week for calls. Busy times are excellent opportunities to route calls to an outsourced live answering service. 
5. Average speed to answer (ASA): This is the average time it takes your staff or live agents to answer a call. Fast ASA times are associated with lower abandonment and increased satisfaction. 
6. Net Promoter Score (NPS): This measures how likely a customer is to recommend your business after interacting with you, based on post-call surveys or follow-up messages. Based on the customer’s self-reported likelihood of recommending your business out of 10, you classify them as a promoter (9-10), passive (7-8) or detractor (0-6). You then subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to find your net promoter score on a scale of -100 to +100.

5 Call Management Strategies for Lean Teams 

With the right strategies, achieving more with fewer people is possible. Here are our top five tips for effective call management with minimal staffing demands. 

1. Outsource to Live Answering 

This is the most effective way to maintain efficient call management and improve customer service when your workplace is navigating a labor shortage. Reputable live answering services operate 24/7/365 with a well-staffed team of dedicated agents, so you can capture every call while watching ASA improve and abandonments decrease. The best services follow your internal protocols to deliver a consistent brand experience and detailed product knowledge. Well-trained live answering agents ensure every call ends with:

• The agent meeting your customer’s needs based on brand-specific scripts. 
• Booking an appointment or taking a message if necessary to drive results.
• Direct routing to the right person at your office if necessary.

2. Optimize Routing

One major goal of call management is to connect each caller to the right person, right away. You can achieve this through call routing.

Call routing sends the caller to different lines depending on the day, time or need. For example, some small businesses prefer to handle calls in-house during business hours, then route them to a live answering service during evening and weekend hours. You could also use an interactive voice response menu to route calls to the person with the right knowledge, skills and language proficiency. This creates a more efficient workflow and a more positive customer experience.

3. Train Staff for First-Call Resolution

Whether your team answers calls directly or takes routed calls from a live answering service, once a call reaches you, apply the Only Handle It Once (OHIO) rule. Use scripts, checklists and resource folders to help your team address common needs. If repeat calls happen, ask why and look for ways to solve the same problem in fewer steps. This improves efficiency, reduces workloads and increases customer satisfaction. 

4. Schedule Outbound Calls During Low-Volume Periods

Once you’ve identified your peaks and valleys for inbound call volume, you can schedule outbound calls for quiet periods. This spreads your workload more evenly throughout the day and reduces the risk of an inbound call reaching a busy line. If you route inbound calls to a live answering service during peak hours, you have more flexibility in scheduling outbound calls for the most strategic times based on daily workflows and supplier schedules.

5. Track KPIs

Monitor your KPIs to increase FCR, ASA and NPS, and decrease abandonment and repeat call volume. Keep track of your call volume peaks and valleys for optimal scheduling and efficient call routing.

Optimize Call Management With AnswerHero™

Call management during a labor shortage can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can capture more leads and improve customer experiences even with a lean team. With AnswerHero™, you can streamline your call management strategy while driving KPI progress with 24/7/365 live answering and call routing solutions.

Our highly skilled live answering agents are 100% bilingual in English and Spanish, and we’ll work with you to create custom scripts based on your brand and offerings. We put quality first in all our services and charge no extra fees for after-hours answering. Our agents can answer questions, book meetings, route calls and even offer translation between English and Spanish at no extra cost. 

Explore our pricing plans today to find your ideal call management solution.