The Alaska Airlines contact centers manage reservations, flight information and notifications, baggage
claims and other passenger requests that come from both online and traditional phone interactions. As
its call volumes continued to increase and the calls themselves became more complex and lengthy, the
airline recognized that it needed to place an emphasis on retaining the contact center’s knowledgeable
and skilled agents in order to keep service levels high and improve the average speed of answer.

To address employee morale issues, reduce costs and better retain its highly skilled agents, the airline
explored the possibility of allowing agents to work from home, an option that had been specifically
requested by the agents. It was expected that an at-home agent set-up would help improve
absenteeism and attrition, improve productivity, performance and work/life balance. To test this, the
airline needed to do a pilot program first.

As a result of the at-home agent initiative and Aspect eWorkforce Management implementation, Alaska
Airlines is seeing increased productivity and revenue, improved customer service, reduced staffing and
operations costs, as well as a rapid return on investment. Aspect eWorkforce Management and Aspect
Spectrum ACD are enabling the company to maximize profits, reduce staffing costs and turnover, deliver
superior customer service and improve the contact center’s overall performance to better meet the
company’s business goals. As a result, they made the decision to permanently implement the at-home
agent program at Alaska Airlines.