Recent research coming out of the UK shows that contact centers believe home workers, or home agents, would, in fact, bring flexibility to business operations.
Why so?
Greater staffing flexibility, highly motivated and more productive agents that offer better customer acquisition and retention, to ongoing customer care, sales and service are the many reasons why home agents are a good option for contact centers. In fact, these points are the most talked in the industry.
Specific to the research from ContactBabel (News - Alert), 73 percent of contact centers which do not currently employ home agents believe that it would bring greater flexibility to add new agents and open for longer hours.
18 percent of this year's respondents use home workers, with 92 percent agreeing that the flexibility was an advantage.
“Remote home working is becoming a real option for an industry that faces difficulty with recruitment and the pressure of 24/7 opening hours,” said Iain McKenzie, president of Enghouse (News - Alert) Interactive EMEA. “Cloud-based solutions are perfect for supporting home workers, enabling organizations to benefit from a pool of agents that can be ramped up quickly in the event of one or more facilities going down, seasonal trends or extreme weather conditions.”
Home agents offer compelling financial advantages, which is why a number of call centers around the globe are interested in making that move. Businesses can extend their service hours, lower their employee turnover, and not be limited by geography.
Enterprises also no longer have to hire locally for specialized agents. They can find the best employees regardless of where the agent may live.
Businesses should justify the need of home agents based on quantifiable dollar savings. Benefits include cost avoidance due to reduction in facilities, utilities, salaries and benefits. Additional benefits include increased agent satisfaction, retention, improvements in attendance and punctuality and an improvement in the customer experience.
Michelle Amodio is a TMCnet contributor. She has helped promote companies and groups in all industries, from technology to banking to professional roller derby. She holds a bachelor's degree in Writing from Endicott College and currently works in marketing, journalism, and public relations as a freelancer.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
