How a Virtual Assistant Can Help Your Company During Tax Season, Or Any Peak Season

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With tax season among us, an increase in call volume is expected to follow for businesses in the financial services industry. One way to combat these support call peak seasons without have to break the bank is by leveraging a Virtual Agent to handle some of those issues. 

Last year we wrote about a leading stock transfer company that saw the benefits of leveraging their Virtual Agent during tax season. This year, they are expecting to see the same results. 

During the months of March and April, there was a significant spike in the number of interactions with the Virtual Agent compared to previous months. More and more people are looking to self-service options before grabbing the phone. 

With the help of the Virtual Agent, this company, and companies alike, are able to 

• Handle an increase in volume without the addition of more agents. 
• Save money on support costs
• Increase customer satisfaction by providing their consumers with the answers they need, when they need them.

What are some ways your call center tries to manage spikes in support calls? Do you offer self-service options, and if so, are they easy to find on your website?  

www.nohold.com 

Virtual Agent Helps Handle Call Volume Peaks During Tax Season

As always, tax season is a stressful time, full of questions and concerns. It is also a time that tax accountants, stock managers, and the IRS get a high volume of calls flooding call centers about similar questions. Not only does this cost a pretty penny for the company answering the phones, but it also wastes the time of the consumer because they have to wait on hold until an agent is available to help them.

This season, Penny, a Virtual Agent from a leader in global stock transfers, helped to reduce the volume of phone calls/emails to their call center by answering questions regarding taxes. The top question asked this month was, “How do I get my tax statement/1099?” In addition to looking at the top trending questions, we compared this month’s number of interactions to a previous month’s and found a significant increase of over 20% more interactions.

Virtual Agents benefit the customer because they won’t have long hold times, and also benefit the company because the cost of support does not sky rocket during peak seasons. Virtual Agents like Penny also increase Customer Satisfaction and loyalty by providing quick, consistent, and compliant responses. 

Virtual Agents can help reduce traffic to the call center during tax season, and also during Christmas/holidays, health care reforms, company promotions, etc. When you need a quick response to a question, it is best to try self-service options first before waiting to get in contact with a live agent via phone or chat. 

How does your company handle spikes in volume at the call center? Do you promote self-service options first? 

www.nohold.com