What is the Meaning of EOS?

We uncover the meaning of EOS and why the term is often used within the contact centre.

What is the Meaning of EOS?

EOS stands for End of Service. The term is used to signify the official time that contact centres stop answering new contacts for the day.

However, EOS doesn’t mean that the contact centre shuts down for the day immediately. What about those customer queries that came through before EOS but are still yet to be answered?

For these queries, contact centre agents will continue to answer until every customer has had their problem resolved.

This means that while a contact centre may set an EOS of 5pm, for example, an agent will not necessarily finish working at 5pm.

3 Quick Tips to Setting the Right EOS

Not sure whether your contact centre has set the right EOS?

Here are three quick tips to make sure that your EOS is right for your operation.

1. Check the Public Transport Schedule

A key question to consider is: Are your shifts allowing people to comfortably finish working for the day, walk to the station and catch the bus?

If this is not the case, you should be wary that your EOS may be shrinking your recruitment pool, as people that cannot drive may not be able to work for you.

2. Learn From Your Contact Volumes

Take a look at what happens when your contact centre is closed. Are many people still contacting you or using self-service?

A key mistake that planners often make is to just analyse contact volumes once the contact centre is open. But you can draw many insights from assessing customer activity after EOS too.

3. Gather Customer Feedback

The most obvious way to judge if you have set the right EOS is simply to ask your customers for their feedback on closing times.

Just remember to be open to considering change – even if it is just for a trial period. These trials can be really effective in helping you to understand your demand for a later EOS.

Make Sure You Signpost Your EOS

One final piece of advice for handling EOS is to make sure you are clear about when it is.

An unclear EOS time can really frustrate customers, so clearly signpost it on your website.

Also, make sure you clear the queue properly after EOS and lines close.

Otherwise customers who called just before your signposted EOS and who were waiting in queue, only to have their call unanswered, will likely call you back the next morning, angry.