This is the busiest time of year (up to April 15 and beyond) for VPS Live Agent customer support.
And that’s a dead-accurate summary of the numbers, not an estimate, based on the company’s extensive experience in processing tax payments.
“We’ve charted several years of call volume by day, and sometimes by hour during the busiest times of the year,” says Account Manager, Cristina Medina. “The numbers allow us to accurately predict call volumes and schedule staff volume accordingly to peak times.”
Predictive modeling makes it possible for VPS customer service representatives (CSRs) to handle hundreds of calls per day, with almost no hold time even during the busiest times. Call volume increases by a factor of 4 during tax time, and live agent staff triples to handle the load. Bilingual agents available on request (from the call-in menu).
Most of VPS’ CSRs have been with the company more than 3 years. “Our staff goes through significant training to ensure that they follow all procedures outlined in the VPS customer service manual.” says Medina. Training is both informational and hands-on. “We use the ‘buddy system’ to bring new hires up to speed quickly. Each CSR is paired with a ‘veteran’ employee who mentors the new CSR through the first few weeks on the job.”
CSRs are educated throughout the year on new payment types, new clients, and new tools that help them do their job. They can assist with making payments, looking up prior payment records, and they can answer questions about how and when a payment will settle with the bank and at the entity being paid.
Because all CSRs work onsite at the VPS corporate office, they have access to other operations and development employees. When there’s a problem, they can go straight to the fix.
