Three Ways To Embrace The New Dynamics Of Remote Work

COVID-19 has been a global catalyst for change, particularly around the debate about telecommuting or working from home. A survey of more than 300 professionals in the customer service sector to understand the impact of the pandemic on call centers concluded that there is no going back to normality.

Before the coronavirus, 1 in 3 call centers had at least 50% of their agents working remotely. Today, in 9 out of 10 contact centers most agents work remotely, a trend that is unlikely to be reversed. In fact, 85% of managers plan to continue flexible hours as they reap the benefits of higher employee satisfaction along with increased productivity, service flexibility, more available agents, and cost savings.

Statistics Reveal Regional Differences In Call Center Dynamics

According to the survey, for example, there are substantial differences between the United Kingdom (Europe) and the United States. Despite a global increase in remote working, 73% of UK call centers have moved three-quarters of their agents to work remotely, compared to just 59% of US contact centers, that they have only done it with just over half of their agents. At the same time, managers in the UK report fewer significant changes and challenges than their US peers. In addition, managers in the United States express their concerns about the lower happiness of agents with teleworking.

Companies Must Be Ready To Go To The Cloud

So why have UK call centers responded faster and more effectively to remote work? The biggest clue to preparation is in the cloud. While the percentage of contact centers that are already fully cloud-based is similar in the United Kingdom and the US, UK customer service centers are deploying additional cloud-based software more quickly, giving them a clear advantage from the start.

According to the 2020 report on ‘Cloud-based Contact Center Solutions’, the cloud drives a sharp increase in the number of agents working from home in the UK. On the contrary, despite a marked increase in telecommuting in the United States, the situation is predicted to be short-term with a return to a centralized environment.

Three Ways To Embrace The New Dynamics Of Remote Work

Call centers are implementing a definitive change to offer agents the right tools and technology to carry out their work from home, as they are forced to deepen their capacity for self-management, problem solving, independent technology configuration and greater awareness of security; all of these are essential skills to thrive in a remote environment. In this sense, 95% of contact centers continue to invest or increase their investment in remote work solutions and this is where the cloud comes in, especially when it is integrated with the latest Workforce Engagement Management (WEM), comes into play to:

1) Enable Workforce Flexibility

Implementing a cloud-based platform enables call centers to maximize their full capabilities while offering agents and supervisors the same seamless user experience, wherever they are. Agents get the shifts they need to blend work and personal life, and they can even learn new skills instead of wasting hours going to and from the workplace. Meanwhile, supervisors have the opportunity to get creative with scheduling, introducing new types of shifts, such as micro-shifts, to respond quickly and efficiently to growing or fluctuating customer demand.

2) Offer Relevant Information About The Contact Center And The Business

The unique architecture of modern cloud-based call center solutions combines comprehensive, omnichannel capture of Voice of the Customer (VOC) with the ability to integrate virtually any data flow across the organization. Additionally, the unlimited computing power of cloud-based solutions powers analytics engines that turn contact center data into great business intelligence. This helps call centers improve the customer experience by highlighting and addressing critical pain points and anticipating their future needs.

3) Improve Agent Engagement And Performance

The same analytics capabilities enable cloud-based solutions to offer machine learning or predictive assessments powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence) for 100% of interactions. This creates a broad foundation for the most accurate and comprehensive Quality Management metrics that provide near real-time feedback to agents while strengthening their ability to improve the customer experience.