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Q: Remote “at-home” agents are getting a lot of attention as being assets to a contact center, so a two-part question: What are the best technologies to make remote agents possible, and what are the benefits of such a workforce strategy?

A: Remote agents are indeed making an impact on the contact center industry, and the “work-at-home” crowd is no longer viewed as just some phenomenon as it was early on. There are a couple of reasons why. First, our industry has realized enough experience with remote agents to be able to define best practices and quantify the benefits. And second, with the flexibility and reliability of voice over IP having taken several steps forward, the technology is now more trusted to support successful remote agent deployments.

 

Let’s start by looking at how remote agents prove their worth:

Competitive differentiation. Employing remote agents is one of the most significant differentiators a contact center can leverage toward gaining a competitive advantage. For a contact center manager, you’re protected against the ebb and flow of a costly labor market, you have a hedge against seasonal variations, and remote agent resources give you a viable alternative for geographic challenges.

Business continuity. The reality of most any contact center is that outages happen, and planning for them is wise management. Remote agents give a contact center the ability to get back up and running quickly.

Improved scheduling. Contact centers can dramatically increase scheduling flexibility by incorporating remote agents, mostly because many at-home agents find off-hours to be a preferable work time. Geographically, remote agent networks in various regions and time zones also better accommodate global business and customer schedules.

Cost savings. Consider the savings remote agents provide in facility costs, lower turnover rates and training expenses alone, and your center is already ahead.
As for technology, VoIP and networked application suites are driving many successful remote agent deployments. This wasn’t necessarily the case a few years ago before VoIP and applications began overtaking traditional hardware systems, but now that networked IP telephony has shown increased levels of reliability, quality and security, contact centers are increasingly realizing its value. Here’s the low-down for remote agent hookups, how simple they can actually be, and the key results.

No specialty hardware required. VoIP allows remote agents to use a SIP headset or remote connectivity to a home phone, mobile phone, etc. With the right communications platform, such as one of the application-based all-in-one solutions now on the market for networked IP communications, there’s also no need to worry about ISDN lines or ACD routing limitations.
The ability to handle all media types. Remote doesn’t have to mean limited. Remote agents can still handle calls, e-mails, chats and generic object routing with no reduction in service levels.

No loss of features or functionality. A Windows PC and any telephone device delivers much of the same functionality agents get when working inside a physical contact center operation. In other words, remote agents can handle and record interactions, access customer databases, view the presence of other agents and even receive coaching online from a supervisor.

Complete quality monitoring. Again, with the right communications solution (one of the all-in-one solutions now available), contact center supervisors retain the ability to monitor remote agents regardless of their location, including on-hook/off-hook status. All reporting capabilities still apply, as well.

According to Datamonitor, remote agents will grow to constitute 7.5 percent of the total contact center agent workforce by 2009. That sounds about right. The technology is available to do it successfully, the benefits are clearly recognizable and, if your contact center isn’t at least considering a remote agent strategy, it’s already behind.

Tim Passios is Director of Product Marketing for Interactive Intelligence Inc. and has more than 16 years experience in the contact center industry. Interactive Intelligence is a leading provider of IP business communications software and services for the contact center and the enterprise, with more than 2,500 installations in nearly 70 countries. For more information, contact Interactive Intelligence at [email protected] or (317) 872-3000.

 

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