The home-based agent model is continuing to develop as an established trend in the contact center market. According to a poll conducted in 2007, 46 percent of respondents said they were already using at-home agents. Of those that weren't, over half said they planned to implement a home-based agent model within one year.
The reasons for home-based agents are many, here are a few:
1. Improved retention. Many companies have reported a sharp increase in retention rates, above 80 percent or more with their at-home agents.
2. More mature, better educated workforce. Frost & Sullivan reports the typical median age of an at-home worker is 38, while the average on-premises contact center agent is 23. Additionally, more than 80 percent of home agents have some college-level education; while this is only true of 35 percent of brick-and-mortar agents.
3. Scalability. Home-based agents can respond faster to unexpected fluctuations in contact volume. A flexible at-home workforce can get online faster and work short 30-minute periods or even multiple periods in one day. Being available as needed to assure just the right number of agents is required to provide a consistent level of service to customers.
4. Disaster Recovery. The flexibility of the home-based model allows agents to work from anywhere in the event of a disaster. "There was a terrible snow blizzard at the point and just passing was impossible," said Dustin Tuft, CRM administrator, PGP Corporation. "Within minutes we created new station IDs and we just had some of those agents work from home. Instead of a tragic outage … it was nice to be able to say, 'go ahead and work from home.'"
5. Expanded reach into every labor market. The at-home workforce has no geographic boundaries, which means a highly skilled agent can be recruited from anywhere. A dispersed workforce is also key in disaster recovery. "A whole new labor pool becomes possible through virtualizing your workforce," said Krystal Sautter, Moving Beyond the Bricks. "You have the opportunity to hire very competent agents, who may be on some type of disability or who may not have the ability to travel to and from an office."
6. Improved productivity. Without the distractions in a physical contact center, the home-based agent has greater adherence and productivity.
7. Going green. Decrease your environmental impact. Without a brick-and-mortar building and agents commuting to and from work, the work-at-home model leaves a much smaller carbon footprint.
8. Lower operational costs. According to consulting firm IDC, the typical cost for an agent in a contact center is $31 per hour, including overhead and training, while a home-based agent costs $21 per hour on average.
9. Increased agent satisfaction and retention. "A nine-to-five job in the office is out of the question. I don't think I could put a price tag on being available for my kids – working from home is a godsend," said Amy R., a Frontline Call Center agent. "I save over $300 per month not having to buy gas, eat out, purchase work clothes or pay for dry cleaning. Being an at-home agent is like getting a raise and adding hours to my day. It simply makes my life easier."
10. Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Improved agent satisfaction leads to increased customer satisfaction, which results in improved customer loyalty. "In a way, customer care has been the laboratory from which the backbone for the remote workforce has emerged," said Ken Landoline, Yankee Group senior analyst.
By Drew Judkins, vice president, Market Strategy at inContact. Drew has worked in the contact center industry for the past 20 years, focusing on new technologies to improve the customer and agent experiences. Visit www.inContact.com to learn more about the inContact solutions and to read Drew's blog focusing on contact center trends.
February 10, 1:00 Eastern: Turning Lemons into Lemonade: How to make the most of your contact center investment during an economic crisis. Presented by Intervoice/Convergys and ClickFox. You are sitting on an untapped goldmine of customer data. How can you put it to work for you? Find out how Multichannel Analytics enables you to leverage the significant amount you've already invested in data collection, using data from any and all systems.
February 13, 1:00 Eastern: Roundtable Debate - Analytics 2009: Improving Profitability, Process and Agent Effectiveness. Analytical applications have the ability to provide critical insights into customer needs, behavior, and contact center and enterprise delivery. They provide a bridge between the contact center and enterprise departments, such as sales, marketing, product development and the executive suite. This debate will reveal the key ways in which various types of analytical applications are contributing to increased customer centricity, a better customer experience, improved loyalty and retention.
February 17, 1:00 Eastern: Creating Highly Satisfied Customers and Process Efficiency though Proactive Outreach with Pre-emptive Call Resolution. Presented by Avaya. Proactively reaching out to customers is one of your most powerful tools in business. Your clients appreciate if you can present up-to-date, personalized information and give them the ability to immediately react and respond to that information. Attend this session to find out how to employ Proactive Outreach strategies to make your customers happy - and improve your bottom line. Hear about best practices, success factors, business benefits, and the right implementation approaches.
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