[May 04, 2006] Overcoming The Apprehension Of Using Home Agents Tweet By Tracey E. Schelmetic Editorial Director, Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine   I have a favorite question I regularly ask companies with large customer service requirements: Have you ever considered using home agents? Many companies still recoil in horror at the thought. When I ask them what their objections are, most of the issues these companies perceive are phantoms. "How do I know the agent is working?" Because home agents log in to the same workforce management software, call recording processes and call queues that your premises-based agents do. If your home agent is out mowing the lawn, you'll know about it, I tell them. Not only that, you'll often find that home-based agents are more skilled and motivated than many in-house agents. It takes a special sort of person to become a home agent.   "But it will take a lot of effort to find, hire, train and maintain a home agent," they say. That's why you engage others to do it for you, I reply.   As the dust has settled a bit on the offshore outsourcing wars, many companies have realized that there's no single "right" way to do things. The best call center solutions are arrived upon by combining a number of elements to suit an organization's needs. If you would prefer to leave your live telephone calls and remote support to agents with American accents, do so…but perhaps consider sending your chat and e-mail to India, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, Northern Ireland or the Caribbean/Central America. If you're adamant about remaining in the U.S. but cannot see a way to do it competitively, then it's long past time to consider using home agents, or "home-sourcing" as some are calling it.   Today's contact center technologies are more than capable of tying disparate groups of domestic call center agents, offshore locations and isolated home agents into one unified virtual call center. Customers will not see a patchwork of agents — they will see a single customer service entity that is vastly more capable of solving their issues and answering their questions than it would have been even 10 years ago.   And if they talk to your best call center agent, they'll never know that she's working from her kitchen table in sweatpants.   The author may be contacted at [email protected].   [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]