We love data. And we’re kind of obsessed with KPIs. We keep tabs on call volume, call times, and a range of other metrics so that we can plan for the best virtual receptionist staffing throughout the day, ensure that our clients’ calls are answered promptly (within 4 seconds, on average!) and keep our virtual receptionists happy and stress-free. If you’d like to geek out with us for a moment, we thought we’d share a little about the over-arching trends we’ve noticed.
Below are a few graphs of Ruby’s clients’ total call volume and what we’ve extrapolated from patterns over time.
(Large dips are major holidays when we’re closed like Thanksgiving and Christmas)
People work less (or at least call businesses less often) during December. People take more vacations towards the end of the year, so it makes sense that call volume would start to drop off after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Folks are back in action on the first business day after New Year’s. The skinny sliver at the end of the graph above is the week between Christmas and New Year’s, the lowest call volume of the year. Possibly a testament to strong resolutions, the first business day after January 1st marks the largest jump in call volume all year, and things steadily ramp up again until November.
People work much harder the week following a working holiday. The large dip on the graph above shows President’s Day last month; more people called the day after than on a typical Tuesday, and usually the call volume stays above normal for the rest of the week.
People work hardest on Monday and Tuesdays. Ruby clients tend to receive the most calls at the beginning of the week. Conversely, Friday is the least busy day — perhaps because folks are finishing projects and saving their phone calls for Monday.
We get a little giddy looking at all of our data and love thinking about the larger trends behind the peaks and valleys — we hope you had just as much fun taking a peek behind the Ruby curtain!
2012 is fast approaching, so I asked the 
