Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Cloud-based Call Center Scheduling Improves the Home-based Agent Model
Call centers today are looking for ways to keep customer service high so they can compete better while also keeping costs under control. For many companies 10 or 20 years ago, this meant partnering with foreign outsourcing companies with low labor costs. While it worked for some, for many others, the experience simply wasn’t what they expected. Sure, the costs were low, but the blowback from customers who either couldn’t understand the agents or resented U.S. jobs shipped offshore, particularly during a recession, meant the practice did more harm than good.
The newest trend in the pursuit of call center quality at an affordable price is called “homeshoring.” The practice refers to either bringing call center jobs back to U.S. shores, or sometimes literally to homes in the form of home-based agents.
Using home-based agents saves companies a great deal of money. Without the need to expand physical facilities, companies can ensure quality coverage whenever call volume spikes, during holidays or special promotions, or even after-hours when the physical call center is closed. While the benefits are great, a minority of companies have yet to take advantage of the home-agent approach.
One of the reasons is technology. Companies using premise-based solutions simply don’t have the ability to extend the applications a call center agent requires to an individual working from his or her home. While cloud-based solutions and VoIP technologies have gone a long way toward eliminating this barrier, many companies are still hesitant. It’s about more than technology: it’s about control. Many companies fear they will lose track of home-based agents, paying for work that’s not being done or being unable to guarantee quality.
Thanks to the modern workforce management and call center scheduling solutions, these fears are unfounded. Cloud-based WFM solutions such as those from workforce optimization solutions provider Monet Software make it possible for call centers to extend their workforce and scheduling features needed to run a tight ship to home-based agents. The technology also allows them to improve forecast accuracy and track intra-day trends for immediate adjustments, create optimal schedule to consistently meet service levels and control costs, monitor agent adherence (regardless of where the agent is located) and other metrics in real-time to take immediate actions, and track and analyze key metrics to optimize service quality and center performance.
With the help of home agents working either full-time or part time, call centers are better positioned to stick to their call center scheduling best practices and ensure that schedules are adhered to at all times. Companies can bring home agents online temporarily to meet the needs of sudden call spikes or busy times of year. Thanks to the cloud-based nature of the call center scheduling solution, managers can ensure that home-based or other remote agents are actually working when they should be, which helps keeps adherence high.
For those companies struggling with their call center scheduling or their adherence, home-based agents might be the ideal way to both save money and keep quality where customers expect it to be, and where successful companies need to be: ahead of the competition.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi