Home-Based Agents Don't Degrade Quality

Contact centers are not quite as "central" as they used to be. The old cliche of a big room full of representatives handling phone calls is starting to come apart, thanks to technological developments and to the critical need for new sources of labor. Remote agents and virtual centers are a small but growing component of the industry, especially in the more mature markets.

The fundamental platforms in contact centers have turned so quickly to IP that the availability of remote agents has grown faster than the actual adoption of that staffing model. One reason for the delay is the cultural hesitation among contact center managers about assuring the quality of customer interactions, and the ability to actively manage the staff from afar. In practice, it turns out that these fears are largely unfounded: managers see into each transaction and each agent's performance just as well as they could in a traditional brick-and-mortar center. There is not as much tension between adopting a remote staffing model and maintaining quality as many thought there would be.

To a large degree, remote agents depend on the presence of an IP-ACD infrastructure to connect them to the mother organization. A recent research study pegged the portion of IP-enabled seats in contact centers at just short of 50%, and expected to cross that important threshold in the next few years. The research has found at the same time, multi-sourcing, that is creating a mixed environment including multiple outsourcers or a mix of outsourced and in-house agents, will rise as IP adoption makes contact center virtualization easier to accomplish. Such virtualization will lead the growth of remote agents within enterprises, picking up significantly by the end of the year . The population of remote agents - agents who are part of a call center's infrastructure but don't work inside the walls of the center – is currently between 100 and 150 thousand people.

There are three compelling business cases for setting some part of the agent pool off-site, either in small virtual centers or fully remote.

First and foremost is cost control. Evidence shows that agents stay longer in their jobs, and have higher satisfaction levels, when there is flexibility in how they are deployed. In some very large companies, they have built their entire customer contact workforces out of remote agents because agents who work from home are clearly more vested in maintaining their jobs and their employment status. And as you reduce turnover, you can retain your most able and motivated staff and your costs for new-hire training and recruitment go down.

The second business case is continuity. Remote agents aren't affected when your physical center becomes unavailable; this is a benefit that's often discovered after the fact, rather than factored into the initial decision to decentralize the agent pool.

A third benefit, often neglected is the acquired quality improvement from using a single queue irrespective of the many separate call handling locations. Contact center managers can basically administer the setup from any location with a virtual model. Customers have a much more constant interaction than they do on centers are operating semi-independently under different metrics and management.

Multi-Channel Customer Service

Multi-channel customer service means service consistency across channels. A high-value customer with a high service-level effectiveness, who received top priority in the phone call center (for example, a hold time of less than one minute), would receive the same high priority in email processing (for example, a response within thirty minutes). Furthermore, service agents, regardless of channels and sourcing model (in-house or outsourced), would have access to the same customer profile, the same knowledge content, and the same, unified history of communications across those channels. This approach would guarantee that customers get the same answers to the same questions across channels, agents, and even service modes (self-service or assisted service), and get the right service levels across channels.

Are you finding that a multi-channel approach in the contact center industry is better meeting your customer's various needs? As technology progresses, will the phone be but one of many mediums used?

Yes, this is mandatory but the technology should be very easy to use and comparable with traditional e-mail accounts or have better features other than detailed statistics. A multi-tiered highly targeted approach allows for personalization that increases resolution rates, encourages loyalty and leads to additional up sells and cross sells. Most definitely as our customers and competitors alike are moving forward so quickly that we feel offering a multi channel approach gives us the edge. Our customers’ requests for handling multiple channels is growing every day and we feel that with our ever increasing pool of talented, specialized staff we are now able to utilise their skills to the optimum levels. Innovation is crucial in our business and we find that by providing this service offering that we are always striving to be the best.

It’s better for a small group of customers. However, the bulk of customers prefer the phone. To make this a full success the customer needs support, education and encouragement to use different channels of support. One sales example: there was a mix-up in customer communication when a sales agent tried responding to a call at the same time as a chat request. The phone call log was affected worse than the chat, though both issues were addressed.

Communications channels are changing people, which they are no longer using the phone to achieve resolution to customer service issues. We have seen a steep rise in other 'channel' communication and expect these to rise further. In today's fast paced society, individuals want access to information quickly and they want access to this information using the medium of their choice. The storm multi-channel contact center allows customers to do just that, providing a better customer experience. We have different folks from different demographics that include rural, urban, older and younger generations. They all tend to do things differently and we are here to meet them and their needs.

Philippines: The Best Place to Outsource Your Business

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) growth in the Philippines is extremely fast due to the demand of offshore call center in the country. Many companies are outsourcing to the Philippines because dealing with Filipinos are really great. With English as their second language, they have excellent speaking abilities and considered the best customer service representative, making it easier for Filipinos to compete with global standards.

High Literacy Rate

Filipino considered English as their secondary language, and even a widely spoken language in the country, especially to the people who live in the cities. Along with the help of mass media, English are becoming widely spoken by Filipinos.

Extremely Hardworking

Filipinos are known as a hardworking people in Asia, they like it more if you can offer them more jobs as long as you give them the benefits they deserve. Filipinos can work nightshifts and even extra hours. They don’t leave their tasks undone unlike other workers when they hear the bell rung they just leave the work immediately.

Multi-talented

Filipinos are used to work in different tasks, multi-tasking is nothing new to them, and in fact they are able to work in a fast changing environment even with less supervision – thus save a lot of man-power requirements, money and time. Filipinos are talented people, they are known for their talents even on other country.

Can easily adapt

Filipinos can easily adapt to the changes and making its name on the business industry especially in BPO. There is no doubt that they can extremely learn fast and can be easily trained. The country has a high level of education, which makes Filipinos capable on outsourcing jobs.

Up-to-date

Filipinos are up-to-date with the newest technology and to the latest BPO trends. Filipinos like the exposure they can get in outsourcing, and mostly like to have professional experience from multinational companies. This makes Filipinos challenged and able to compete with other professionals there is.

Educational System

Philippine education is based on American educational system, being under the American regime made it easy for Filipinos get used to American culture. Filipinos are introduced to western concepts making it easier for them to understand, this is essential characteristic can help your business work on the same track with success.

Outsourcing in the Philippines is a smart move for businesses looking for an advance improvement on their business. The Philippines consists of over 7,000 islands and the Filipinos’ Primary Language is quickly evolving from Filipino to English. Unlike other country India and China, the accents of Filipinos are much more rounded due to their previous Spanish occupation and can sometimes be mistaken for Latin-American.