What's Next?

What’s Next for Contact Centers?

With the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak and continuing today, many businesses have made the decision to have staff work from home. This shift in culture is changing how many organizations think about their contact center operations. In fact, even prior to the pandemic, many companies began replacing on-premises agents with remote workers. It’s an approach that does have its advantages, and some disadvantages as well.

Advantages

Higher customer satisfaction
This is the primary benefit linked to the adoption of having agents work from home. In every contact center, the level of customer satisfaction is directly proportional to the performance level of agents. Research shows, the performance of the agents is boosted through flexibility and a comfortable environment. Happy agents generally help to produce happy customers, which creates better customer satisfaction ratings.

Lower turnover and absenteeism
Other benefits of increased agent satisfaction are less employee turnover and absenteeism is decreased. Working from home allows many agents to balance their personal and professional life by giving them more time for family. This is also an effective way of working for people with some physical disabilities as they don’t have to face difficulties while commuting on a daily basis.

Hard and soft savings for company and agent
Space is always an issue for most companies. The cost associated with proper work areas for contact center workers can be daunting. These costs can be reduced and provide better options for long term growth by having agents work from home. With the option of work from home, the agents can save a lot of money which is often spent during office routine. Some major expenses include transportation, office clothes, and spending related to outside food.

Business Continuity
Events like a global pandemic can disrupt continuity. Natural disasters, civil unrest, structure damage from flood or fire, and other unforeseen events can make it necessary to have agents work away from the office. The ability to seamlessly implement work from home for agents has proven to be vital to ensure businesses have an effective means of continuing to serve customers.

Call volume management
High call volumes can be easier to manage in remote environments. Contact centers can hire part-time workers to help to meet the demands of high call volume. Temporary agents, paid on the number of minutes or number of calls attended, are much less costly than retaining a third-party call center to manage rollover calls. This also ensures that agents are not sitting idle when call volumes are low.

Disadvantages

No “Hands On” control

An on-site contact center generally allows for greater quality control through essential agent training, whether that is onboarding, skills training, or updates on system features and functionality.

Technology
Work from home agents need a separate workspace and internet service capable of efficiently connecting to a secured network and capable of handling voice data.

Lack of teamwork
Sharing of best practices among agents and casual brainstorming sessions are easier when agents are in a centralized location. Unity is key to creating a successful culture for any organization. When a contact center uses work from home agents, it can create challenges for creating a positive team spirit.

Security
With agents using off-site technology and less secured connections, organizations have less control protecting sensitive information.

So, what’s next for you?

While there is merit to both sides of the discussion, CARES Remote Agent solutions can overcome work from home issues and ensure that agents and team leaders are always connected, with each other and with customers. Expansive contact center data is still gathered on each individual agent and the team as a whole to support your important strategic decisions. CARES also has the highest PCI certification possible for contact center solutions, ensuring your remote customer transactions are safe and secure.

As companies make their business continuity plans, many are realizing that a remote workforce can be an effective option that provides great benefits. CenturionCARES has the experience and solutions to help you plan for what’s next for your organization.