Every industry has certain high-volume, busy periods. For Medicare, this is the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP), during which policyholders actively switch their plans or enroll in a new plan. In these high-volume periods, efficiently routing calls to available agents and ensuring optimum call center metrics is crucial. PX offers a powerful tool to address this challenge: the Agent Availability API setting in your campaign configurations.
Read about other strategies you can implement for a successful AEP here
The Agent Availability API is a feature within PX's campaign settings that allows call centers to dynamically manage incoming calls based on real-time agent availability. It only routes calls to your agents if they are available. This setting enables a direct, lightweight API connection between PX's platform and the call center's software, ensuring that marketing efforts align perfectly with operational capacity.
1. Reduced Dropped Calls: Publishers in our industry say that 20-30% of their leads and calls get dropped on average (PX State of the Industry Survey 2024). This means that 20 - 30 % of prospects never end up being connected to a brand, leading to a big, missed potential in the industry. Only routing calls when agents are available decreases the likelihood of dropped calls significantly.
2. Increase agent response rate and other call center metrics: Most agencies have an answer rate of 60% because calls are constantly dropped. This means they don't optimize for agent response rate, agent idle time, and other critical call center metrics. An agent availability API ensures your agents are always on the phone. One of our clients increased their agent answer rate from 50% to 90% and optimized their call center capacity by keeping 97%+ agents busy during AEP 2023!
3. Improved Customer Experience: A lot of times, when agents are busy on the other end, callers end up waiting in line for a long time just listening to music. This leads to a bad customer experience with your brand and frustrates the callers. With agent availability API on your campaigns, callers are more likely to be connected promptly to an available agent, thus reducing waiting time and enhancing their overall experience.
4. Dynamic Pricing based on agent availability: A good practice could be adjusting the bidding strategy for calls according to the agents’ availability. This approach involves adjusting bid amounts in real-time based on agent availability and calls wait times. Essentially, if there are agents available and not calling for too long, the bids are raised, so the call flow volume goes up.
5. Enhanced Agent Productivity: Agents receive a steady stream of calls when they're available, improving their productivity and job satisfaction.
API Integration: Users provide an endpoint to their call center software within the PX campaign settings.
Real-Time Checks: Each time your publishers on the PX platform need to present a call to the campaign and the call passes initial filters, it checks with the provided endpoint to determine how many agents are currently available.
Smart Routing: If agents are available, the PX platform routes the call to the campaign. If no agents are available, PX will not post the call, preventing potential dropped calls or long wait times.
Marketing Spend Optimization: By only routing calls when agents are ready to receive them, companies ensure that their marketing dollars are spent effectively, minimizing media spend wastage on calls that can't be immediately handled.
To make the most of the Agent Availability API setting-
1. Ensure your call center software can provide real-time agent availability data through an API endpoint.
2. Regularly test and verify the API connection to ensure accurate data flow.
3. Monitor performance metrics closely to fine-tune your campaign settings and maximize efficiency.
4. Consider using this feature in conjunction with other PX tools, such as dynamic bidding, to create a fully optimized customer acquisition strategy.
In the regulated Insurance and Medicare industry, state-level licensing of agents adds another layer of complexity. We can also attach state information to incoming calls, ensuring they are routed only to agents licensed in the relevant state.
We consolidated various proven strategies for boosting agent performance and important call center metrics, as observed among our top clients. Read them here>>
Call centers can now confidently scale up their marketing efforts during peak hours, knowing that the system will automatically adjust to their current capacity. During slower periods or when agent availability is low, the system naturally throttles incoming calls, preventing overwhelming situations and ensuring quality customer interactions.
During busy sales periods, the Agent Availability API setting can be a game-changer. Companies using this feature report more efficient use of their marketing budgets, higher conversion rates, and improved customer satisfaction scores.
Get started with agent availability API on your call campaigns today!