The Rise of Remote Contact Center Agents
March 17, 2020
With the rise of technology companies, the adoption of working from home or remote workers has increased. Employers are offering their employees the option to work from home on a part-time or full-time basis to combat the heavy competition in the job market – especially here in the Bay Area.
According to a recent study, almost 5 million people work-at-home at least half of the time with a growth of 175% since 2005. While this continues to grow, it makes sense for companies to implement a remote contact center as life is full of surprises. Whether it's a fire, flood, snowstorm, or any other situation out of your control – having the flexibility of remote agents allows business to continue on as usual. In fact, our customer base has some programs that allow a portion of agents to work from home.
Remote work has certainly become popular and is hard to argue against the logistical benefits of working from home - for example, cutting out commute time and costs. There are three primary benefits specific to contact centers and their agents:
- Cost: The real-estate cost for an on-site contact center, office furniture, overhead costs, and all other factors that it takes to run a business can become quite expensive. Allowing agents to work remotely helps contact centers save on those costs and direct the money towards improving business. Agents also experience lower costs as they no longer have to commute into an office, whether that is driving their own car or taking public transportation.
- Scale: Along those same lines, when a contact center must scale for peak season or business expansion, they can hire agents without being concerned over restrictions of office space. There are ups and downs with any business and having flexibility with agent staffing allows for a scalable business.
- Talent: With the ability to hire remote agents, contact centers open the talent pool to all geographic regions. Whether your company is based in the United States or Canada, eliminating physical barriers opens up opportunities for finding the right talent for your contact center.
The technology behind each agent is equally important. Whether managers provide agents with company equipment or elect a "bring your own device" (BYOD) policy, Five9 Intelligent Cloud Contact Center keeps agents connected at all times and provides notifications and real-time updates through the agent dashboard. With just a headset and a reliable internet connection, agents are empowered to maintain a better work-life balance, stay connected, and get the job done.
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