Become an Expert on the Full Scope of the Home-Based Agent Model
1 Sep, 2007
By: Mary BartlettCompanies are constantly looking for ways to improve their operations by simultaneously enhancing service capabilities and cutting costs. Customers today expect real-time response, but many businesses are unable to provide such sophisticated service with existing operations in traditional bricks-and-mortar contact centers. ¡§Homeshoring,¡¨ or the concept of routing customer inquiries to agents based in home offices, provides an ideal solution to improving external service and internal operations.
Since its inception about a decade ago, this movement from bricks-and-mortar agents to home-based representatives has grown significantly, with more than 112,000 customer service representatives working from home-based offices, a figure which is expected to increase to 300,000 by 2010, according to a recent study by analyst firm IDC. There are some companies that rely upon home-based agents for their entire service force, such as JetBlue and Virgin America airlines, and others supplement their existing customer service operations with a pool of dedicated home-agents.
Why such different approaches to the same concept? As customer demands differ so greatly from the travel to retail or financial services industries, so do the options in providing personalized services to customers. While complete outsourcing to home-agents may be an ideal solution for some, a blended solution works best for others.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that homeshoring oftentimes can be the best solution for delivering quality customer care,¨ stated IDC analyst Stephen Loynd. ¡§This mode of delivery is being driven by highly productive CSRs, higher talent retention rates and greater flexibility in responding to peaks and valleys in voice traffic. At the same time, there is a larger backdrop of ever-evolving macro-economic trends - such as high gas prices across the United States - that are driving this delivery model as well.¨
And so, it is important for businesses to understand the ways in which home-based work models can positively impact their day-to-day operations, specifically in the areas of scalability, labor pool availability and workforce management capabilities.
Scalability
In the customer service industry, scalability, or the ability to meet customers¡¦ growing (or shrinking) demands in an efficient fashion, remains one of the most important aspects of determining how successful a call center can be.
An ideal scalability ratio is difficult to achieve in a bricks-and-mortar call center with a set number of full-time or hourly employees who are idle when demand is low and overloaded when there are spikes in customer inquiries. However, the home-based agent concept addresses this costly challenge by enabling companies to plan for these peaks and valleys with an appropriate number of agents. In many cases, scalability can be managed down to half-hour increments.
Agent Labor Pool
The availability of a seemingly limitless talent pool is by far one of the best advantages of the home-agent model. Issues regarding site planning and overhead costs for establishing bricks-and-mortar contact centers become irrelevant when there are literally hundreds of thousands of people currently working as home-based customer service agents.
Partnering with a home-agent provider allows access to agents with specialized skills, which can be ramped up in less time than traditional recruitment for a standalone call center in a specific geographic region. For example, there may not be 200 agents in Omaha, Nebraska with property and casualty insurance licenses, but with access to agents across the entire country, many home-agent providers are able to deliver or recruit this specially skilled group much more easily.
On the flip side of attracting hundreds or thousands of virtual workers, critics of the ¡§homeshoring¡¨ trend may call attention to the lack of culpability that exists within a telecommuting labor pool, stressing that workers are not effective unless there is a manager physically onsite to enforce and regulate productivity.
It is true that it is nearly impossible to police the actions of every home-based worker in a virtual environment with agents dispersed across the country. However, research has shown that absenteeism for teleworkers is 66 percent less than that of traditional workers and their productivity is 10 to 20 percent higher since they have flexible hours and no commute time. Agents working out of their homes are generally happier in their careers because they are able to establish a schedule that matches their personal and professional goals. Thus, these individuals are more productive at work and attain more results for companies.
In addition, virtual agents are generally older, more established professionally, are better educated and more experienced than a typical bricks-and-mortar agent, meaning they are easier to train, more dedicated and will most likely provide enhanced and targeted care to disgruntled consumers.
Another incentive to agents in working from home in this capacity is the opportunity of ownership by being an entrepreneur. Some companies offer agents the opportunity to work independently by incorporating as a business and partnering with clients, as opposed to working as a part-time employee. In addition, these types of independent agents invest in their own training and are therefore even more motivated to be productive and successful for both themselves and the clients they service.
And home-based workers generally have the freedom to select the clients they would like to represent, based on their interests, education and employment background. Research has indicated that by matching a customer service agent¡¦s specialized skills to clients¡¦ needs, home-based agents are empowered to want to work, which means agents are more efficient and provide more value to the provider with which they are associated. In many instances, agents can service multiple clients (at different times) to maintain a sense of variety and optimize their availability.
What does this mean for the operations of a business considering the expansion of a bricks-and-mortar call center or potentially outsourcing to home agents? If your representatives are happy, then they have better morale, are less inclined to leave their jobs and more apt to work harder, and this means more satisfied customers as an end result.
Workforce Management Capabilities
There is no doubt that technology has improved customer service operations for many companies across the board. There are specific capabilities for home-agents, however, that provide an opportunity to better manage a workforce of thousands spread across the entire country. Combining scalability with technology, today¡¦s workforce management systems enable companies to schedule home-based agents for specific blocks of time either weeks in advance or almost instantly.
For example, if a consumer electronics company is rolling out a new product and anticipates a flurry of inbound inquiries, managing this spike in demand is as easy as sending a service request to all available agents for whichever hours the coverage may be needed. Agents have access to applications that manage the schedule for a client and choose the hours they would like to work, so businesses need to only worry about determining when the demand will be high or low, not asking whether Mary or Joe will be able to come in for overtime.
Other technology developments such as 24X7 chat logs provide further access to home-based agents as managers are in constant contact with servicing agents. This type of virtual management has proven to be extremely effective in both aiding call resolution, informal training and coaching, and building relationships between service leads and agents.
Another important aspect of the workforce management benefit is the screening and training process. Partnering with a reputable home-agent provider enables a business to skip this step and rely upon the provider to recruit, screen and train capable agents for service. Many providers now use online testing, background checks and eLearning, which puts you a step ahead in engaging the right talent as the voice of your company to consumers.
So by taking advantage of the flexibility and talent of home-agents and the technology now available to connect them so easily, companies can drastically improve their customer service operations.
Other Advantages
There are other subtle (and not-so-subtle) benefits to home-agent programs you may not have considered:
« Environmental Impact - Utilizing telecommuters reduces transportation congestion and pollution, and helps companies make an effort to "go green.¨
« Enabling Access to Disabled Workers - The homeshoring concept was originally created to provide jobs to disabled workers, but the opposite benefit works just as well. There are many home-bound workers who have exceptional work skills, but are unable to travel to an office.
« Economic Impact - The virtual agent concept propagates job opportunities in areas where bricks-and-mortar call center jobs (or others) may not be available. In addition, the typical pay for a home-based agent is $10 to $14, which is much higher than the average pay in some economically depressed regions.
« Cost Savings - Home-based agents are typically paid only for the inquiries they take. One recent report suggests potential savings for companies is up to $10 per employee per hour, approximately a 32 percent savings on average.
In determining whether home-based agent may improve your customer service operations, keep these benefits in mind. Depending on your needs, there may be even more to discover in taking advantage of a virtual talent pool.
