The Best Way to Handle Multiple Incoming Calls

 

It would be nice if your business only received one call at a time, but that of course isn’t always the case. At times, you will inevitably get multiple calls coming in at the same time, meaning you’re going to need provisions in place to manage all of them so that no one hangs up before you can take care of them. The focus of this post is to give you a few ways to professionally handle all of those simultaneous calls.

 

Automated Reception

Especially when you are working with minimal phone support staff, it’s important to have an automated system set up to field simultaneous calls as they come in.

The best way to do this is to use a call menu, or auto attendant, that allows callers to press a number corresponding to the information they need, or to press a certain number to speak to a live person.

This obviously filters out those customers who only need some quick information such as hours of operation or pricing, for example. That way, live support personnel are freed up to assist callers who have more complex questions or issues with your service.

 

Keeping Them on the Line

When you can’t get to a caller right away, you need to make sure they don’t hang up while they’re waiting. That’s where on-hold music comes in, as well as reassuring messages to let them know you will answer their call as soon as possible.

Using a virtual phone system makes this easy because you can insert your own music that will play for them while they’re waiting on hold. In any case, you don’t want to make them wait for more than a couple of minutes so that they don’t get fatigued while waiting. Check out the following article to learn more about serving customers on hold:

https://talkroute.com/on-hold-music-and-the-psychology-of-waiting/

 

Use a Receptionist

One of the most popular ways that small businesses prefer to manage multiple incoming calls is to have one or two live people who serve as receptionists and answer calls as soon as they come in.

The receptionist can either greet them and immediately place them on hold, or they can transfer them to the correct department or someone’s voice mailbox.

 

Minimize Hold Time

You might think that if calls are properly managed, they will hold for an extended amount of time, as long as you get to them eventually. No matter how well you take care of on-hold callers, however, people are fairly impatient and won’t be willing to hang on for more than a few minutes.