No public health issue has garnered as much attention in recent history as the scare related to the spread of the H1N1 virus. On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared H1N1 a pandemic with reported cases in more than 70 countries worldwide. This is just one example of a “natural disaster” that can affect staffing and schedules in a contact center, especially when organizations rely on their agent base to manage high volume shifts. Whether it is illness-related or a severe weather emergency, these scenarios serve as a reminder to customer-facing organizations worldwide that updating business continuity and disaster recovery plans is critical. Having a “plan B” helps ensure that customer service and support remains up-and-running in the event of an at-facility workforce crisis.
Plan for the Worst
Business continuity planning impacts every arm of an organization from front line sales to back-office operations. Companies need to make sure the policies and procedures are put into place in advance of an event so that challenges—such as power outages, network disruptions, disturbed facilities and workforce issues—can be quickly addressed.
A workforce loss due to widespread pandemics can be detrimental when experienced within the customer service organization of a company. Contact center agents are the front-line of communications with the customer, and failing to quickly address customer issues can damage the reputation of a company often quicker than a defective product. Additionally, creative at-facility scheduling strategies alone may not be enough to fill in the workforce gaps during an event.
Home Agent Model to the Rescue
The use of home agents is not a new concept. In fact, IDC analysts have estimated that there are about 150,000 work-at-home agents in the U.S. today and projected figures will reach over 300,000 by 2010.
Having a home agent model provides staffing options for an organization. Companies can leverage at home agents for times when seasonal illness spread across the broader team, or perhaps when severe weather prevents staff from driving into a physical location. There are also operational cost advantages, on top of business continuity needs, associated with home agents that make it an appealing option for many organizations. For example, the use of home agents can reduce costly overhead associated with running a physical contact center. Assuming an average annual cost of $30 per square foot (factoring in space, security, etc.), contact centers can face operational expenses of between $1,000 and $3,000 per agent station. For a 200-seat center, this equates to annual costs of $200,000 to $600,000 for the building alone.
Before implementing home agents, however, contact centers need to consider the special needs associated with an at-home workforce before going full-throttle. First, management needs to assess and adapt their management techniques to make sure they can motivate, coach and train home-based staff. Second, agents will need the proper hardware, software, a suitable work environment and other necessities to be effective. And last, but not least, organizations need to know when an agent is simply not suited for a home-based environment and plan accordingly for those individuals.
Overcoming the Management & Performance Fear
Many organizations are still hesitant to cut their agents “loose” to work from home even when the necessity is clear. Luckily, solutions, such as workforce optimization (WFO) software, can be implemented to help deliver a sense of security to managers working with home agents and continuity to the customer experience. By bringing together quality monitoring, TDM and IP recording, workforce management, speech and data analytics, customer feedback surveys, performance management, eLearning, and coaching into a unified solution, organizations can analyze customer interactions, improve workforce performance, and optimize service processes without the need to look over shoulders. Some of the integrated WFO capabilities of particular relevance to the at-home environment include:
Quality Monitoring – A strong TDM and/or IP recording platform with automated assessment forms and scoring facilitates quality monitoring feedback, which helps ensure agents are delivering consistent, accurate information.
Workforce Management – The task of forecasting and scheduling at-home agents can become difficult to manage. With browser-based functionality right at the desktop, however, agents and supervisors have the ability to manage shift preferences and view published schedules; conduct rule-based partial day shift swaps; request to get on wait lists, and view status of time off requests down to the 15-minute increment; and conduct performance-enabled shift bidding.
eLearning and Coaching – Many times supervisors are unaware of the techniques they can use to keep home agents focused and motivated, thus continuing the cycle of frustration and turnover, reduced service levels, and missed opportunities to enhance revenue. An integrated eLearning and coaching solution provides home agents, coaches and managers with an effective way to set up, schedule, conduct, track and follow up on coaching sessions.
Turning to at-home agents can deliver a range of financial and work/life balance benefits to organizations, as well as the individuals on the front line with your customers. Although there are many considerations when preparing for this workforce model change, including equipment, environment, agent suitability and management, technology can enable contact centers to proactively prepare for issues such as H1N1 and others that could otherwise cripple an organization and harm the corporate brand.
About Verint Witness Actionable Solutions
Verint® Witness Actionable Solutions® is the leader in analytics-driven workforce optimization software and services. Its solutions are designed to help organizations capture customer intelligence, uncover business trends, discover the root cause of employee and customer behavior, and optimize the customer experience across contact center, branch, and back-office operations.