With organizations increasingly abandoning their on-premises call center systems on favor of cloud-based solutions, the home-based agent model is poised for rapid growth in 2010.
The home-based agent model brings numerous benefits to organizations, including improved agent satisfaction and retention; better business continuity and redundancy; lower operating costs stemming from reduced facilities usage; a vastly expanded pool of candidates from which to hire; and a significantly reduced carbon footprint. Research firm Datamonitor has predicted that the number of home-based agents in the U.S. will grow at an annual rate of 36.4 percent between now and 2012. While there is no official count, the overall number of home-based agents in the U.S. has been estimated at 400,000.
Helping to facilitate growth of the home-based agent model are today’s software-as-a-service or “cloud”-based call center solutions. These Web-based systems enable the “virtual call center,” which means an agent can work from any computer with a Web browser and a high speed connection, without having to download any software.
With a virtual call center, home-based agents can have access to all the same applications as they do in the main center – plus multimedia contacts including phone calls, emails, Web chats and SMS messages can be routed to them just as if they were in the main center as well. Web-based administration means call center managers can monitor and record home-based agents’ phone calls – plus they can capture metrics and KPIs in real-time, regardless of the agent’s location, using a single Web-based console. What’s more, most of today’s virtual call centers allow managers to coach and train home-based agents using custom, in-house content by way of e-learning software.
The home-based agent model brings several key advantages – perhaps the most important being that the entire nation, if not the entire world, becomes an organization’s hiring ground. Without geographic limitations, organizations can raise the bar on the criteria used to recruit and hire new agents. In fact, it can be argued that because home-based agents work independently, organizations should be using a different set of criteria for evaluating and assessing agent skills, with an eye toward the higher end of the skill curve.
In addition, research shows that the quality of the candidates tends to be better: Many applicants to home-based agent positions are retirees, home-makers or former call center agents with established skills who are still interested in doing the job, but no longer have the desire (or perhaps the ability) to work in a brick-and-mortar facility.
There is a growing body of research demonstrating that the home-based agent model helps organizations reduce operating costs – as well as their carbon footprint. Having agents work from home reduces the strain on company facilities, and allows organizations the shrink the physical size of their call centers.
In addition, because most home-based agents work part-time – and also because they work off-site under what many states define as a “subcontractor” basis – most companies aren’t legally obligated to provide these workers with benefits. What’s more, because these employees don’t have to commute to work, there is a corresponding reduction in carbon emissions from the vehicles they drive.
Contactual’s virtual call center software is ideal for facilitating the home-based agent model. The company’s OnDemand Contact Center platform is fast and easy to deploy – which means a company can establish a home-based agents program in a manner of days.
With Contactual’s (News - Alert) virtual call center solution, businesses can take advantage a highly-skilled and fast-growing labor pool. Skill and expertise levels can finally trump geographic location in securing the best qualified agents.
To learn more about how Contactual OnDemand Contact Center’s flexible architecture can help you cost-effectively launch a home-based agent program, click here.
Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Patrick Barnard