What's Next For Contact Centers?

The work from home culture is changing how businesses look at their Contact Centers. During this pandemic, many businesses made the decision to have agents work from home. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies replaced on-premise agents with remote workers. This approach can have advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

Better 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.

Less Turnover and decreased 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 are able to 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.

Being prepared for the future
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. Contact centers can hire part-time workers, which can help to meet the demands of high call volume. These agents can be paid on the basis of the number of minutes or number of calls attended. This also ensures that agents are not sitting idle when call volumes are low. This can also reduce or eliminate the need for a third-party call center to manage rollover calls.

Disadvantages

An on-site contact center generally allows for better controls and training.

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.

CARES work from home solutions overcomes work from home issues and ensures that agents and their respective team leaders are always connected with each other and with customers. Contact center data is still gathered on each individual agent and the team as a whole. CARES also has the highest PCI certification possible for contact center solutions. Customer transactions are safe and secure.

Many companies are planning for business continuity. Some have realized benefits to having agents work from home and are looking for efficient solutions for the long term. Either way, CARES has the experience and solutions to help you plan for what’s next.