SCALING CUSTOMER SERVICE: BUILDING A CALL CENTER FOR HIGH-VOLUME INQUIRIES

Sep 2022 - Oct 2022

THE CHALLENGE

Multi-location cannabis retailers face a fundamental customer service problem: peak call volume vastly outpaces staff capacity. Budtenders are tied to the sales floor. Front desk staff can't leave the register. Calls ring through, customers wait, and many hang up before anyone picks up—lost sales, lost customer trust, unanswered compliance questions.

During peak hours (evenings, weekends, promotional events), call volume can spike to thousands of inquiries per week across all locations. Customers are calling to check product availability, ask about promotions, verify inventory before coming in, request compliance information, and make purchase decisions. Every missed call is a customer going to a competitor.

But hiring enough in-store staff to handle both retail and a call center creates structural inefficiency: you're paying people to sit on phones during low-traffic times, and they still can't keep up during peak hours.

We needed a dedicated call center infrastructure that could:

• Handle peak call volume without burdening in-store staff

• Route calls to trained agents who could answer compliance-heavy questions, check inventory in real-time, and close sales

• Integrate with e-commerce and inventory systems so callers got accurate, current information

• Scale elastically—handling 3,000+ calls per week during peak times without maintaining that capacity year-round

OUR APPROACH

We built dedicated infrastructure instead of trying to solve this in-store.

Platform Selection: Chose enterprise VoIP call center software (MightyCall) with cloud-based architecture so agents could work from anywhere, call routing could be intelligent, and the system could scale up and down without hardware investment.

E-Commerce Integration: Connected the call center system to Dutchie e-commerce platform so agents could check real-time inventory, customer order history, and pricing during calls—turning customer inquiries into informed sales conversations.

Agent Training & Workflows: Developed training protocols for call center agents on product knowledge, compliance requirements, inventory navigation, and sales techniques specific to cannabis retail.

IVR Routing: Set up intelligent phone routing (IVR) so calls were directed to the right department—inventory checks to one team, compliance questions to another, sales to trained agents—reducing average handle time.

Call Analytics & Optimization: Implemented real-time monitoring and reporting to track call volume, wait times, and agent performance, enabling continuous optimization.

FINAL RESULTS

Handled Peak Volume Without In-Store Friction: During peak hours, the call center managed 3,000+ weekly calls while budtenders stayed focused on in-store customers. No missed calls meant no lost sales to competitors.

Real-Time Inventory Information: Agents had live access to Dutchie inventory data, so customers got accurate stock information and could make confident purchasing decisions—often leading to immediate in-store or online orders.

Improved Customer Satisfaction: Calls were answered quickly by trained agents instead of ringing to a busy store. Faster resolution time and knowledgeable responses built customer confidence and brand loyalty.

Sales Conversion During Information Calls: What started as a simple inventory check often converted to a sale. Agents could answer product questions, describe effects and usage, navigate compliance, and close orders during the call.

Scalable Infrastructure: The cloud-based VoIP system scaled to handle volume spikes during promotions, 4/20, holidays, or new product launches without hiring overhead.

Competitive Differentiation: Industry-first capability in the market. Competitors were still letting customers' calls ring through while this operation answered every call with a knowledgeable agent.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Call centers are revenue infrastructure, not just cost centers. Every missed call is a customer going elsewhere. A dedicated call center that integrates with inventory systems turns information inquiries into sales opportunities—customers calling to check availability often buy if they can get quick answers.

Real-time data access changes the dynamic. When call center agents have live inventory, customer history, and pricing information, they become sales extensions, not just information gatekeepers. The difference is measurable in conversion rates.

Peak elasticity matters more than average capacity. Most cannabis retailers think about customer service in terms of average traffic. But peak hours (evenings, weekends, promotions) create 3-5x volume spikes. Trying to staff for peaks creates waste during normal times. Cloud infrastructure lets you pay for scale when you need it.

Compliance questions benefit from dedicated expertise. Cannabis compliance is intricate—product recommendations can have legal implications. Trained call center agents who know the regulations reduce compliance risk and build customer trust better than overworked budtenders answering between register transactions.

First-mover advantage in service excellence is real. When competitors are still letting calls go unanswered and customers are reaching voicemail, being the operator that picks up immediately becomes a market differentiator. Customers remember who answered.

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