With more and more people communicating with businesses through email, live chat, or even text, the common understanding is that handling phone calls from customers is becoming far less important. The data, however, is showing something different. A study from CallRail found that customers are actually calling in more, and this is especially true on days when they are looking to make purchases. High purchase volume days such as black Friday, Cyber Monday, and others have seen dramatic YoY increases in call volume.
CallRail reported, “Our analysis reveals that call volume on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday has more than doubled year-over-year. Black Friday call volume increased by 107.32 percent, while Cyber Monday call volume increased by 110.75 percent from 2015 to 2016.”
The Marhcex Institute found similar results on their analysis, which included a comment saying, “Based on an analysis of more than half a million calls from consumers to businesses in November 2016, the Marchex Institute found that businesses experienced a 16 percent increase in inbound calls on Cyber Monday compared to average Mondays in the same month. The data also revealed that abandoned calls increased by 11 percent on average on Cyber Monday, suggesting that companies did not adequately staff call centers. As a result, they missed out on significant sales opportunities on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.”
