CEO James Meyer said the company experienced a substantial disruption of its call center staffing due to the coronavirus crisis. Staffing levels fell 50% to 60%, lengthening hold times, increasing abandoned rates and reducing the company’s ability to handle customer needs and support sales campaigns.
As a result the SiriusXM IT, marketing and call center operations teams took a variety of actions, including enabling more than 2,500 call center agents to work-at-home, increasing online chat capability and enhancing self-care tools online.
Meyer said, “We have made significant improvement here, but I don’t expect us to get back to our normal levels until stay-at-home orders are lifted, perhaps in June or July.
On the cost cutting side, Meyer said the company is taking a fresh look at everything. “Like many other companies, we have paused nearly all hiring, and we are putting a tight squeeze on spending where possible, while still investing where we see opportunity.”
