The Question: Does a 24/7 inbound call center shut down it’s lines for a moment of silence?

A few days ago I was speaking to a woman in line while waiting my morning coffee, ( Sad to admit, we’re both caffeine dependent…we see each other often.) Small talk turned to our careers. Which in turn prompted her to ask a question.

Do you or even can you, close the lines for a moment of silence?

The Short Answer?

Yes.

The long answer?

There are a lot of things as a 24/7 call center that we cannot control. Sudden weather changes, who is going to call, and other external forces that prompt us to have to react.

But one thing we can control is how many calls come into our Virtual Receptionists and who they go to.  

We can also tell them to turn off for two minutes while we observe the moment of silence. 

Is it the right thing to do?

I know some of you may be wondering why we are telling the world that we literally ignore calls for 2 minutes. How can we promise such high service levels, and then talk about leaving calls in limbo?

But here’s the thing every November 11th, from about 10:55 until 11:05 AnswerPlus receives very few calls.

The world is silent and we remember.  

And if I’m being honest even if we were extremely busy. AnswerPlus will never keep it’s lines open during the moment of silence.