How the solar eclipse impacted call volume across the nation
Year over year, we’ve seen calls increase for businesses in the US, but what happens to those calls during a once in a lifetime solar event? Yesterday, millions of people stood still to watch the solar eclipse and based on the calls tracked during the moon phases, there was a direct correlation in call volumes and the path of the eclipse. Here’s what we found when we dug up call tracking data from the hours of 1 pm to 3 pm ET (the window of time that the solar eclipse took place) and measured call volume data for more than 250 area codes across the US. We compared those calls with a baseline of our call volume data and calculated the percentage of increase or decrease of calls.
Our infographic of call volume decreases (in blue) and call increases (in orange) shows that drops in call volume closely replicate the solar eclipse’s path across the US.
Here are some interesting things to note from the data:
- Massachusetts had the largest increase of calls at 180%.
- The biggest dip in calls came from New York, with 83.60% decrease in call volume and 61% decrease in minutes.
- Many areas of Texas showed the least amount of change during the eclipse with a 0% change in call volume.
The next solar eclipse will be on April 8, 2024, and with the rapidly growing landscape of machine learning and voice communication who knows what space data we’ll be able to connect back to our calls?