Overflow Call Answering Service

Despite all the best intentions, there are often times when your business or call centre is unable to handle the call volumes required to service your customers effectively, and you may need to engage an overflow call answering service provider.

Whilst good forecasting practices can help to reduce the risk of having call volumes you can't handle, unexpected events can and do happen. 

And without having any strategies in place to handle unexpected surges in call volumes, it can't instantly result in longer wait times or engaged signals and, with it,  increasingly frustrated customers,  lost revenue,  and brand or reputation damage. 

Recent results from our Australian Call Centre Rankings reports revealed that some industry sectors are failing to answer over 40% of new business calls! That's just new revenue completely lost! 

This is just one of the many reasons why it pays to explore partnering with trusted suppliers who are experts in handling overflow calls for your business. 

For Australian businesses, Overflow Call Answering Services are typically provided by Call Centre Outsourcers (aka Business Process Outsourcers/BPOs) or small niche businesses. 

It's all about 'Overflow'

The overflow call answering service is typically used by companies with an existing call centre who need some additional support in place to handle excess call volumes along with some other reasons we've outlined below. 

If you run a small business and need a provider to answer your calls, please refer to:  Virtual Reception & Message Taking or Virtual Assistant services >

Reasons to Use an Overflow Call Answering Service

There are a host of benefits of engaging a specialist overflow call answering service provider either here in Australia or offshore for your business, including: 

1. Improved Scalability

One of the toughest things about running a contact centre is ensuring you have the right staff on the phones at the right time when customers call (known as Workforce Optimisation).

But like most businesses, call centres are prone to random events that can impact even the best-laid plans.

Wild weather, unexpected sick leave, etc., can quickly add unexpected call volumes to your business and dramatically increase wait times for customers.

In a service call centre where customers are calling for general enquiries a few extra minutes may not matter whereas for sales-based call centres, every lost call is lost revenue.

2. Scheduled Relief 

Needing a call centre overflow service is not always a result of unexpected events.

Many businesses rely on having a call centre outsourcing partner ready to handle excess call volumes at scheduled times (e.g., during peak periods, lunch breaks, scheduled training or meetings) or when there is simply no physical capacity left at your existing facility to add more resources. 

This can provide welcome relief for your internal employees and help to reduce sick leave and turnover, both very costly for your business. 

With call centre attrition often exceeding 40%, enabling more time for building employee engagement, coaching, etc., can reduce attrition and save considerable costs for your business. 

3. More Revenue

If you're handling sales calls via your call centre, longer wait times typically equate to lost revenue as customers lose their propensity to wait and will happily take their business elsewhere.

By using a call centre outsourcer to handle your overflow calls, it can keep wait times to a minimum and maximise your revenue-generating capability.

How to Find an Overflow Calls Service Provider

The good news is there are call centre outsourcers who specialise in providing overflow call answering service either at short notice or as part of a regular planning cycle. 

Like traditional call centre outsourcing, it's important to do your research when selecting the right partner.

One of the biggest influences on how much it costs to have your overflow calls answered in the location of the supplier. 

Overseas call centre providers are between 20% and 80% cheaper than using an Australian outsourcer to answer your overflow calls so on price alone, having your calls answered from an overseas call centre (i.e. Philippines, Fiji, etc.) is always going to be cheaper.

But, of course, there are other things to factor in such as communication/language issues, data security, etc. that must also be considered. 

Questions to ask include:

• Do they have experience running overflow campaigns for other clients?
• What is their current capacity? Do they need to hire additional resources?
• How many other campaigns will their employees also be handling?
• What type of commercial models do they offer (per call, per minute, per hour etc)
• Can they provide technology that helps automate some of the calls to reduce costs?
• Do they offer onshore and offshore solutions only or can they offer both?

Only have very small volumes?

If you only expect the odd call or two, the larger call centre outsourcers and BPOs may not be interested in providing a solution for you. 

In that instance, you might also want to search suppliers for Virtual Reception & Message Taking or Virtual Assistant services >

Select a Country for Overflow Call Answering Service Providers

To display call centre outsourcers who offer call overflow services, select a specific country below or use the filters to find suppliers of other outsourcing solutions.