Tools and Techniques for Managing Remote Call Center Agents

The call center workforce has become increasingly remote in recent years, and the pandemic has only increased the number of remote workers. The huge rise in agents working from home has necessitated new management strategies for call center supervisors, geared toward technology and collaboration.

Managers and supervisors are facing new challenges as workers have transitioned from traditional office environments to working from home. Evaluating agents in person has become in some cases impossible due to pandemic restrictions. Collaboration can also be a challenge without the benefit of in-person meetings and discussions. This includes everything from tracking communications to reviewing and tracking documents with other team members.

Scheduling remote workers presents its own set of challenges as well. Many businesses previously posted physical schedules in an office that could be viewed and amended in one central location. And problem resolution is much more difficult when there is physical distance among supervisors and their agents.

Tools like workforce management software (WFM), video conferencing and team collaboration are now playing an increasingly important role as organizations look for new ways to meet the challenges of managing remote agents. Video conferencing can be extremely useful for engaging workers through one-on-one calls or for team meetings. Video may also be used for agent training and coaching.

Agent analytics programs are helpful for providing information and data on agents' performances. Supervisors may no longer have the ability to observe their agents in action on the job, but can use data from this type of software to evaluate and coach their workers.

Workforce management applications enable managers to post schedules and manage remote workers' time in a central location. All workers have access to schedules from wherever they are located, whenever they are needed and can easily trade shifts or request time off. Along the same lines, cloud software and cloud-based applications provide remote workers with the tools they need to perform their jobs from home, or anywhere for that matter. These types of tools may be easily scaled and augmented to grow along with a growing remote workforce as well.

Finally, team collaboration tools create virtual workspaces where remote managers and agents may meet up to chat, have coaching sessions and interact outside the call center.

Edited by Luke Bellos