Diary and column Workplace Building the remote contact centre


At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lock- down has caused large-scale disruption to businesses world- wide, remote working has been a shining example of how to en- sure ‘business as usual’, particu- larly in areas such as customer service. If Gartner predictions are correct that over 40% of all employees will continue remote working post-COVID, businesses must redefine remote working by ensuring customer service staff – contact centre agents and supervisors – are equipped with fit-for-purpose technology to ensure they deliver a truly first-class service to the custom- er. Anne-Meine Gramsma, Chief Commercial Officer at Contact- Center4ALL, explains.


Although working from home was originally intended to be a stop-gap for many businesses while the pandemic paused normal office operations, em- ployers and employees alike are seeing the benefits and many businesses are serious- ly


considering shifting suit-


able operations to 24 / 7 re- mote working, ushering in a new long-term way of working that surpasses ‘traditional’ of- fice-based work and what we traditionally refer to as home working.


Remote working used to mean staff worked from home using


standard office appli-


cations – often on personal devices and leaving employ- ees lacking dedicated remote working solutions that ensure staff and customer commu- nication and collaboration re- main unaffected.


Home working redefined


During lockdown, business- es became more aware of the need for Unified Communi- cations platforms to form a backbone for advanced remote working and provide the en- hanced technology that could offer these dedicated remote collaboration and communi- cation


features. Witness the


boom in popularity for Mic- rosoft Teams – there were an


At the customer-facing level, this solution must be able to


cantly reduced, and yes there is pre-pandemic research that indicates employees who work from home are significantly more productive than their of- fice-based counterparts, but businesses must ensure they put in place effective, long- term remote working strategies that ensure customer service levels are not affected or inter- rupted but rather enhanced. In the contact centre space, all that is typically required for agents to work effectively from home is access to modern con- tact centre software, a headset and a pair of monitors. But it takes more than this to deliver uninterrupted services to cus- tomers at the speed and level expected by today’s consumers. I’ve already mentioned the dramatic growth in usage of Mi- crosoft Teams during this lock- down period. When a proven collaboration platform such as Teams is integrated with dedi- cated contact centre software, then businesses can stay fully accessible to customers, inte- grating collaborative platforms and capabilities for all remote agents to maintain the same high level of agility and flexi- bility.


Remote workers


can pose challenges in deliv- ering a consistent customer experience. Customer calls are often at threat of being rout- ed to the first available agent instead of the most suitable agent for a specific query. This threatens to increase resolu- tion times and customer frus- tration as a result of unneces- sary transfers between agents. Features such as intelligent, skill-based routing help tack- le this by ensuring custom- ers receive first-time problem solving from the best available expert, without compromising on answer times. All incoming customer calls, regardless of channel, can be routed through the same engine and assigned based on query type.


Skill-based routing offers an excellent opportunity to boost both employee and customer satisfaction – agents are hap- py they can apply their specific skillsets and interests to solve customer problems, while cus- tomers enjoy a swift, knowl- edgeable resolution to their is- sue on the first time of asking.


Accountability


Another challenge to over- come with remote teams is ensuring employees are fully accountable and operating as effectively as their office-based counterparts – a challenge that


and weekly basis, and can track average call-back times and queue times to


ed identify


and address potential bottle- necks where more agents are required. The time is ripe to embrace the remote contact centre. Remote operations based on a platform such as Microsoft Teams and deployed in part- nership with a company that can effectively demonstrate, tailor and roll out a solution with low Total Cost of Owner- ship will ensure contact centre agents can effectively collabo- rate to provide the right service and skillset to the customer’s channel of choice.


Businesses without dedicat- Working from home is here to stay


Rene Buhay, VP Sales & Marketing of AVer Europe gives some ad- vice for upgrading your home working video conferencing experi- ence.


When the pandemic hit Europe earlier this year and people were forced to abandon offices and work from home many were forced to compromise, using sub-standard tech, in the belief that “it will only be for a few weeks and then we’ll be back in the office.” That was six months ago and for the majority working from home will continue for the foreseeable future. As remote working is the new normal and permanent for some, people are looking to maximise the use of technology and make their home work en- vironment as slick as possible. Many firms are giving employees allowances to equip their home offices to a high specification.


remote working solutions


can today make the transition to large-scale remote working within weeks – this is no longer a challenging, long-term digital transformation project spanning months. Shifting to a fully re- mote contact centre offers ben- efits for businesses, employees and importantly customers alike – if a remote strategy is thoroughly evaluated, tailored to requirements and deployed effectively to ensure customer service levels remain high.


Customer calls are often at threat of being routed to the first available agent instead of the most suitable agent for a specific query.


estimated 20 million daily us- ers of in late 2019, which has skyrocketed to 75-plus million users per day since lockdowns were established worldwide. This upward trend is not set to disappear post-pandemic.


Remote working – the new norm


The new norm post-COVID is likely to encourage employees to work from a remote loca- tion, when and where is con- venient to them and to their employers. The objective is to embrace a strategy that is more efficient and effective for everybody – and that includes the customer. Yes, commute times and expenses are signifi-


P10 AV News November P16 AV News August 2020 P12 AV News June 2020 2019


handle omnichannel commu- nications, in which remote workers can communicate with and provide support on the customer’s channel of choice – whether this is phone, email or alternative channels such as WhatsApp and Facebook de- pending on regional popularity. Integrating these communi- cation channels into a single client unlocks further powerful features to help deliver an ex- cellent customer experience, such as warm transfers, en- hanced call routing and col- league availability alerts.


Intelligent call routing


Disparate customer service teams due to remote working


scales based on the number of agents working from home at any given time. This is where businesses should look to con- tact centre solutions that can incorporate extra functional- ities for real-time reporting, to ensure agents are operational and delivering a consistently high level of customer service. For supervisors this means access to granular reporting dashboards, with performance metrics and data visualised through tools such as Power BI. This level of reporting goes far beyond capturing standard details such as customer solve rates. Supervisors are provid- ed with heats maps of activi- ty to identify particularly busy periods of demand on a daily


Home-workers should have a comfortable and professional en- vironment. One potential pitfall of working from home can be the video conference. Dress as if you were in a meeting; it might be alright to wear your pyjamas for a phone call but it creates quite a stir if you wear it on a video call. Don’t be caught out by thinking “It’s only a voice call” as you may be called onto visual at any time. If what you expected to be a voice call turns visual you don’t want to be caught with your pants down, or your pyjamas on. Use a good quality video camera, don’t struggle with your low-quality laptop camera and muffled sound quality. An af- fordable, professional-looking video camera such as the AVer CAM340+ is perfect for a home working environment, create your professional feel with an ultra-wide field of vision and supe- rior sound quality.


Pay attention to the background for your video conferencing. Have the room behind you clean and tidy, notice what pictures may be on the wall and if you have a bookcase on show make sure that it’s not a distraction for the viewer. Ensure you have good lighting, that people can see you properly and hear you clearly. A small investment now in a good quality video confer- encing camera will pay great dividends in making you look and sound professional.


Make sure you leave your pyjamas in the bedroom where it be- longs and not hanging on the door behind you.


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