Too think some companies get too big and dont take on enough staff.

[Sportslady44]

AIBU to think that companies should take on more staff.
Im sure we are all familiar with the not being able to get through on the phone and waiting endlessly in a queue listening to music and even giving up!!

Very frustrating. In the end your not getting any service as a customer?

How many agents are there actually taking phone calls?

I’m sure plenty should, it’s not as simple as that though is it, they also need to be able to pay those staff.

It's not always that simple though.

To be able to afford the staff they need the orders/business, but to take the orders they need the staff...

Businessess should never employ staff that they can't be sure of being able to pay. Especially if people are leaving other jobs to go there.

Where dh works there don’t have enough staff it’s bonkers rather than hiring more higher ups they have gone from like 8 managers down to 3 give. Everyone a pay rise of 1/2k but that’s now 8 staffs works split between 3 people for an extra k or 2.

Everyone’s home late every day and backlogs are building but they only take on temp agency staff. Cheaper.

It’s all about profits.

I agree I’m sick of the we are sorry we are currently experiencing a higher level
Of calls every single time I ring for years and years. Regardless of what time you ring I mean at what point does this become the norm and you need more staff.

Most times all comes down to money We want everything as cheap as possible and markings very tight .

I work for one of the major utilities and have worked in the call centre and can honestly say 50% if not more of the calls coming in were total unnecessary

As previous posters have stated it's not as simple as that. The company's won't hire more as it costs more money they'll put the onous on the customer and brand the company.self management so you should technically be able to sort it yourself using other methods. In reality it's a pain.as any two minute call can sort the problems but the company would prefer you to sort it yourself taking a lot longer

I hate the ones where you dont even get told where you are in a queue, you just hear music all the time.

How many people can afford time wise to hang on for hours too.

I work for a company that is desperate to take on more call centre staff. We've been heavily hit by the pandemic and servicing our product is now more complicated as a result as well as approx 5x as many calls as pre-pandemic. We've been recruiting for the past month for 100 positions (20% extra people) and have only successfully appointed 20 - people just don't want to work in a call centre.

We've been offering the current staff overtime for months and the uptake is tiny - the wait time for customers to get through is so long so they are grumpy when they do. Why would you want to work 10 hours a day handling that instead of 7?

I've just left a famous restaurant, known for its excellent treatment of its staff (haaaaa)! They don't have enough staff and they CRAM diners in and flip tables every couple of hours. The meals are around £300 for two people. There is absolutely no need for the short staffing, except to line the pockets of a privileged, rich man who doesn't do very much. That's probably what's going on

How many people can afford time wise to hang on for hours too

We throttled calls when the wait time would be over an hour - essentially a message saying we can't take your call now please try again later. Customers didn't like that any more than they liked holding. 😕

I feel for the call centre staff - they can usually see the numbers of calls waiting, the average wait time, the lost call rate ... they get told to wrap up calls quicker etc. It's incredibly demotivating.

Call centre where I previously worked had horrendous attrition rates. Staff would stay for the training and then leave a couple of weeks into the Job. Loads of pressure and targets. Not the best environment. It's easy to get the staff but making them stay is another challenge.

I work for a small business, we currently don't have enough staff to cover the work we're taking in. Boss is showing no inclination to take anyone else on, so we are just getting run ragged, and having to deal with dissapointed clients when there are delays.

I can assume its about profits. It seems to be the business model all companies adopt these days, it's depressing as fuck.

@Cakelover17

I’m sure plenty should, it’s not as simple as that though is it, they also need to be able to pay those staff.

They can afford to pay the staff, they just don't want to.

But then they lose customers. And they lose staff because they are overworked.

Which costs money.

A decent company owner looks after their employees and their customers.