Call centers operating in the northeastern US no doubt had a challenging day this past Wednesday, when a major snowstorm passed through the area, shutting down highways and making it nearly impossible for call center agents to make it into work.
As anyone in the call center industry knows, this can spell disaster in terms of meeting project goals and maintaining customer satisfaction. It can be particularly deadly for companies operating in ecommerce or retail because, very often, on a “snow day” you have a lot of people at home, with a day off from work -- and a surprisingly high number of them will make online purchases which may or may not require the assistance of a live agent. Very often a company’s planning and forecasting tools (workforce management, etc.) will tell the managers to bring on more agents, not less, in order to handle this potential spike in call volume. But what if the agents can’t even make it out of their driveways?
Companies that have deployed virtual call center solutions, however, have a distinct advantage over companies with on-premises systems because they can have their call center agents work from home in the event of a snow storm or other natural disaster. These systems, with their anywhere connectivity, are ideal for facilitating the home-based agent model, which is becoming increasingly popular among organizations because of the flexibility and cost savings it brings.
With a virtual call center solution, home-based agents have access to all the same applications – with the same features and functionality – as they do in the main brick-and-mortar center. With their multimedia routing capabilities, these systems can route emails, Web chats, faxes and SMS messages to home-based agents just the same as if they were in the main center as well.
In addition, these systems are capable of delivering training to agents via their e-learning capability: Agents can get supervisor-assisted coaching and training sessions using in-house training content (i.e. modules), during lulls in volume -- again, just the same as if they were in the main center.
Thanks to the power of IP-based technology, call recording and monitoring is also done with ease, as the system is centrally controlled and administered from the main office. That means call center managers can get the same metrics and KPIs, in real-time, as they do in the main center, thus enabling them to retain complete control over the customer experience – as well as to make fast decisions in response to rapidly changing market conditions or trends in call center performance.
While virtual call center solutions are ideal for companies with single centers that want to protect against the impact of a natural disaster, they are particularly ideal for companies that have multiple, geographically dispersed centers – including remote call centers and/or home-based agents that are spread throughout a region, country or even globally.
For example, should the power get knocked out at the main center, phone calls and other contacts, such as emails and web chats, can be automatically routed to the next closest (or most appropriate) regional or remote center – as well as home-based agents.
What’s more, agents from the main center can potentially be sent home (or be told to stay home) to work from their own computers, providing they have connectivity, thus allowing customer service operations to continue despite the outage. Or, should there be a storm, highway accident or some other event that prevents agents from getting into work in the first place, they can fire up connections from their home computers and have access to all the same applications they normally use.
Spirit Incentives is a good example of a company that has benefitted from the deployment of a virtual call center solution. The company, which specializes in consumer travel incentives -- cruise, airfare and hotel incentive packages -- and rebate programs, is based down in Florida, which as most people know is prone to tropical storms and hurricanes which can disrupt business operations. Companies based in the Sunshine State are therefore advised to have strong business continuity plans including full redundancy for their call center operations.
A few years ago the company deployed Contactual’s OnDemand Contact Center solution – a fully Web-based system facilitating remote back-up and anywhere connectivity for call center agents. As such the system has played a key role in the company’s disaster planning.
“Here in South Florida, our biggest threat is hurricanes,” said Clayton Gring, COO for Spirit Incentives, in a customer case study posted to Contactual’s (News - Alert) Web site. “Anything can happen to our facility. We don’t own the building, so we have been at the mercy of the building owners who have strict weather-related policies. We are close to the ocean, so whenever there are weather warnings, our building is immediately closed and that’s a serious disruption to our business model.”
Gring said when Hurricane Wilma hit Florida in 2005, the company’s facility in Fort Lauderdale wasn’t damaged, but it did lose power and was out of commission for about two weeks. In addition the company’s back up facility was also affected and wasn’t available either.
“To keep our business running, we had to move our entire operation, with a skeleton crew, to Orlando – 250 miles north – and work there for two weeks,” Gring said. “It was quite a shock -- but we serviced our customers and clients and maintained continuity.”
“It’s expensive when something like that happens,” he added. “Thankfully, our business associates in Orlando allowed us to use their facilities, but we still had staff travel and lodging expenses. Plus, we didn’t want to ever have to impose on our friends like that again.”
As a result of that incident, Spirit Incentives set out to find a virtual call center solution to augment its existing on-premises system and ensure business continuity.
The company ended up selecting Contactual’s virtual call center software because it was quick and easy to deploy; required minimal up-front investment; delivered the features and functionality it needed; and perhaps most importantly, allowed it to establish a fully-redundant, virtual call center environment.
As a result of the switch, Spirit Incentives ended up doing away with its back-up call center, which saved the company a bundle.
“Contactual replaced a fully-equipped, redundant call center that was costing us thousands of dollars per month as a back-up facility,” Gring said. “We estimate that Contactual will save us in excess of $100,000 for our first year of usage.”
“If we have any crisis that shuts down our call center in the building where we are, Contactual allows us to continue our operations seamlessly,” he added.
To learn more about how Contactual’s virtual call center solution can improve your business continuity planning, check out the company’s Website, or to download a free copy of the customer case study, click here.