In the last few years we have seen a rapid move globally towards remote working. An interesting report by Remoters published in January 2020 tracks remote worker evolution in recent years and projects its development in 2020 and beyond. The report talks about why remote working has been growing rapidly. It includes a study by Buffer.com which found that 99% of the interviewees reported that they would like, at least once in their career, to be able to work off-site
Today we have another compelling reason for remote working not only to continue its rapid growth but also to actually explode as a way of doing business. I am of course referring to the COVID-19 virus. The reality is that in the short term remote working will inevitably become a critical part of everyones’ contingency planning. This is very likely to lead to significant increases in the permanent use of home working.
My particular interest in Remote Working is in the Contact Centre industry which is known for housing high staff numbers in large open plan spaces often using hot desking to optimise the use of the real estate. A key constraint in relocating staff to offsite locations, such as their own home, is not having access to the software which enables them to continue to deliver the same high levels of customer experience people expect today.
This is where a comprehensive Cloud Contact Centre software becomes essential. Obviously, you need a reliable way to get the media to the agent, be it a phone call, email or social media channel which in many ways is the easy part of the puzzle these days. The challenge becomes more of whether the agent has access to the right systems, tools and resources, often in an environment that is not as optimal as an office desk with multiple screens and a team of people around to help.
Even if the at-home contact centre agent has a dedicated study or office and a desktop PC with multiple screens, (rather than the more commonplace laptop on a kitchen table!), managing access to multiple systems such as CRMs, ERPs, documents, intranet pages, etc typically requires a high level of IT involvement to make work, often with dedicated lines, routers and firewalls, and a heavy support burden. If the agent is using a single screen laptop then the burden increases.
Solving this challenge has been front of mind for Telnet and is why we built ContactSuite, which powers Telnet’s award winning contact centre and is also available as a stand-alone offering for other contact centres wanting to benefit from the efficiencies of the cloud. ContactSuite helps the frontline agent avoid switching to other systems and programs to get the job done. By allowing fully tailored data capture screens, which already incorporate knowledge searches, process automation, and API connectivity to other systems, agents can often stay within the same single “pane of glass” to manage their day and all the interactions with customers.
Being a pure web based solution and not relying on any installation, browser plugin, VPN or any IT hardware other than a PC or Mac means it’s easy and quick to get up and running in the remote location (even that laptop on the kitchen table if needs be) – something well suited to irregular use or contingency plans
For further information on ContactSuite, please feel free to send me an email at John.chetwynd@telnet.nz
