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The spread of Coronavirus COVID-19 At the global level it has imposed the Teleworking as a preventive measure in many industries. In Spain and France, for example, the authorities defend that companies facilitate working from home in the face of the exceptional situation that the region is experiencing.
The advantage of the contact center industry is that many of the tasks can be performed remotely. For this it is essential have the right technology (at the software and hardware level) and establish a clear work process that guarantees efficiency, productivity, continuity and safety in the deployment of the operation.
At InConcert we have been working since 2008 with extensive teleworking operations. Based on this experience, we leave you with some recommendations that will help minimize the impact in exceptional situations such as the one imposed today by the epidemic.
Everyone's gone home, now what?
The company cannot expect that the day after sending him home the employee will wake up becoming an expert teleworker. A lot of them surely have no previous experience working remotely, nor are the optimal conditions for carrying out their tasks from their place of residence. Therefore, implementing a remote operation requires an adaptation process, accompanied by adequate training.
The first thing you need is reveal the availability of your team to work from home. Do you have a computer? Do they have a quiet space where they can perform their tasks in comfort? What facilities can the company provide so that the employee can fulfill their tasks?
Once the initial scenario has been contemplated, before starting provide your team with all the necessary information. It explains in a clear and simple way how they should use technology; and the work and communication processes to maintain the level of performance as if they were in the office.
Technological Considerations
The fact that workers use their own computers and residential (or public Wi-Fi) connections leads to two concerns. The first, that the equipment used has sufficient power to operate in a continuous and agile manner. The second, and more critical, that security and cybersecurity conditions are guaranteed. In other words, that the system is not breached and the protection of company and customer data is guaranteed.
In order to guarantee the technical conditions, it is important that ask your technology provider if they have a contingency plan and what alternatives it offers for connecting remote users. Request the support of your provider to hire, configure and activate the solutions you need to deploy your teleworking operation. The key is Be as abstract as possible from the conditions of the computer used by the teleworker; and reduce risks by using connections with protected access.
Remote communication
In addition to having all the functional guarantees in terms of technology, it is essential that Keep the flow of communication as if you were in the office.
Trust here is basic. We assume that all employees will carry out their daily tasks in the same way. But other tools can also be used to simplify communication and work organization in all roles.
The first thing, is establish a clear communication channel for the company. It is more advisable to use a specialized app for companies for personal contact channels such as WhatsApp, where work communications are intermixed with personal ones. In general, contact center platforms have internal messaging for team members; the ideal is to centralize communication in the contact tool itself. A response deadline can be established outside of which the use of personal channels is enabled.
Task Management
On the other hand, it is important to accept remote task management. Again, contact center platforms often offer management, monitoring and coaching tools in real time or in deferred form.
For those who work in marketing and sales, it is important that all processes are within the CRM or from your platform of marketing automation. This facilitates teamwork and even the self-management of tasks for each employee.
Aside from our own contact center solutions, there are others task management and time counting tools, widely used by freelance workers. If the company deems it necessary (and covers needs that are not within its contact center technology), it can implement the use of these tools to better organize remote tasks. In this case, it is important to train workers in the correct use of each platform and establish uniform procedures so that their adoption does not end up complicating the dynamic more than it helps.
Virtual assistants
It is possible that in the process of implementing the new contingency plan, the productivity and service capacity of the contact center will decrease. To counter this, The Bots they are a great help when covering interactions that are not being able to be serviced as efficiently as ever.
There is no need to develop a bot with advanced artificial intelligence (for which a longer time is required). You can opt for a ITR bot, with pre-configured options, to provide first assistance before an agent is available to serve the customer. In this way, the impatience of waiting in line is alleviated and agents receive the interaction that has already begun, with basic data on what the customer needs.
From InConcert we are working with many of our clients according to a contingency plan that we specially designed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. If you have any questions or concerns, you can consult our team.
