What Is Hybrid Work in the Contact Center?

We are practically knocking on the doors of “year 2” since the start of the pandemic. And it is now when it seems that certain routines and habits that we adopt (in many cases, forced by the situation) have come to stay. At least to a large extent. One of them is teleworking or remote work. A way of working that moved our company office space to the homes of employees.

Two years later, the classic model of office hours has disappeared in the vast majority of cases. The pandemic, the digital transformation and the demand of workers to reconcile work and personal life has led to more flexible hours and a hybrid work model in the contact center.

What Is Hybrid Work in the Contact Center?

The American consultancy Gartner defines hybrid work as that strategic work model in which employees and managers can “flow through” locations (the office, home or any other place), thus boosting employee productivity and commitment and reducing the usual burnout syndrome.

A hybrid job that does not affect the call center service at all, quite the opposite: digitization in what is known as the ‘Phygital Era’ (combination of the physical or offline world and the digital or online environment) and, above all, good contact center software allows agents to offer excellent customer service without affecting CX.

We must not confuse hybrid work with flexible hours. “Flexible hours” is more about allowing employees to tailor their work schedule to their personal needs.

What Are the Benefits?

Implementing hybrid work in a contact center has many benefits for both customers and the company:

• Customer experience: motivated and happy agents do their job better, having a positive impact on the customer experience (CX) and on the purchase of the products or services offered.
• Greater availability: when human resources managers allow an employee to work in a hybrid way, they are favoring a greater availability of agents, so that it is much easier to cover possible absenteeism, employ them in a more specialized way and satisfy the different needs that they can arise unexpectedly.
• Reduce sick leave due to stress: burnout syndrome.
• Commitment to the environment: at a time clearly marked by a commitment to sustainability, a call center that helps reduce pollution (when it comes to travel) will always be well received by potential customers.

Challenges of Hybrid Work in the Contact Center

While it is true that hybrid work has many benefits when it comes to managing customer service, there are also different challenges when it comes to working so that the level of service is not affected. In this post we have analyzed some of the keys to managing agents remotely:

• Relations between workers: Hybrid work means that contact between workers is not as regular, direct and personal as it used to be.
• Team management: very much in line with the previous point and quite a challenge for contact centers (especially at a time when the call center is multigenerational, that is, different generations coexist with their concerns, personalities and concerns).
• Technology: provide agents with the necessary tools so that they can handle incoming calls, social networks, live chat, email and other channels with guarantees. With good organization and good call center software, it can be resolved quickly.