Blog
Working from Home without the Pitfalls?
Published: 28/01/2020
Updated: 28/01/2020
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In our recent blog, ‘Remote working: For Better or for Worse?’ we spoke to Scott Fulton, Technical Training Manager at Content Guru, about the possible pitfalls of working from home. But are there ways around these challenges and drawbacks? In this blog, Derek Townsend, Solutions Consultant Director at Content Guru, talks about how working from home could boost organizational efficiency, improve agent engagement, and maintain excellent standards of customer experience.
Paving the way with screen recording
One of the potential pitfalls of remote working is related to trust – how can managers be sure that the quality and efficiency of work will stay the same if agents are at home, possibly working in their pajamas?
Technology holds a possible solution. Imagine if a supervisor could support agents from afar: structuring work and teams, answering queries and empowering agents to do their best work. Screen recording capabilities provide the same insights to supervisors as when agents are in the contact center itself. This ensures that supervisors know that the same excellent standards of customer experience are being delivered, even when they are not in the same location as agents.
This is great news for anyone worried about quality assurance and trust. Screen recording frees homeworking agents from the suspicion that they are not working as effectively at home as they are in the contact center, which can be an undermining experience. The chance to demonstrate your own skill and efficiency accurately can be great for morale and engagement, reducing rates of employee churn in the process.
More flexibility
It’s not just screen recording and desktop analytics that are paving the way for the remote working revolution. Cloud contact centers are browser-based, meaning agents can access the system wherever they are, whenever they want and on any device that has an internet connection. Flexibility and control over work-hours makes it easier to fit a job around busy schedules in a way that benefits both the agent and the organization.
Introducing intelligent automation and smart scheduling makes flexibility profitable by ensuring that resources are optimized. Artificially intelligent Workforce Optimization (WFO) systems runs automatic checks to ensure that schedules are always kept at peak efficiency, whilst also giving agents maximum control over the hours they want to work.
What’s more, Quality Assurance capabilities mean that agents and employers alike can benefit from increased flexibility without losing any of the quality of work or impacting the customer experience. Analyzing recording of key interactions also allows trainers to identify best practice and gaps in knowledge.
Don’t let it destroy your culture
This technology is not without caveats. Introducing remote working in the wrong way can negatively impact team spirit and company culture, and even with screen recording capabilities, a greater emphasis on training and team building is needed. This is because agents working from home don’t have the same instant access to colleagues for quick questions and feedback.
Remote working is not without its drawbacks and challenges, but if implemented at the right pace and with the right technology, it could unlock fantastic benefits for businesses.
[1] Remote.Co, 17 Stats About Remote Work in 2019, 2019.