{"id":10944,"date":"2020-08-04T09:30:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T08:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=10944"},"modified":"2023-01-16T17:31:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T17:31:46","slug":"optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimise Contact Centre Agents Working from Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contact centres are now no strangers to remote work. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/nemertes.com\/the-global-workforce-forever-changed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study by Nemertes Research<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 59% of contact centres around the world enabled at least some of their staff to work from a home office pre-COVID-19. That figure now rose to 74.1% as pandemic measures forced companies to close offices and transition into virtual contact centres. Once authorities lift these restrictions, 70.7% of businesses are likely to continue allowing agents to work from home (WFH) in some capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As it transpires, empowering agents with the flexibility to influence their working hours and environment translates into lower agent turnover and greater employee loyalty. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ww2.frost.com\/files\/7314\/0985\/8803\/At-Home_Agents_A_Model_for_the_Future.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frost &amp; Sullivan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> says that the retention rate for at-home agents is 80% versus 25% for in-house.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A study presented in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2014\/01\/to-raise-productivity-let-more-employees-work-from-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harvard Business Review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, for example, showed that remote workers accomplished almost a full additional day\u2019s amount of work per week when compared to on-site employees. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/workplaceinsight.net\/workers-more-productive-at-home-according-to-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that 45% of remote employees can get more done in less time and 44% are less distracted and more productive than they would be at the office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Companies with a cloud-based solution are now able to move contact centre agents from the office to home working with ease if they so need or desire. However, some have considered never going back to the office, contact centre agents included.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Optimised flexibility and productivity<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contact centres that implement flexible working policies create greater scope for agents to work the hours that suit them. This helps them achieve a better work-life balance, which contributes to higher job satisfaction and feeds directly into employee retention. Every good manager knows happier employees provide better customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, as with any new way of working there are challenges. In the case of remote <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/definitions\/call-centre-agent\/\">contact centre agents<\/a>, the key areas to consider include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can agents keep up with changes in company policies and learning? <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can they stay engaged? <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do companies ensure remote agents are in the loop with what\u2019s going on across the company? <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can teams keep motivation high and avoid feelings of isolation and disconnection?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agents working from home can\u2019t walk the floor physically to their colleagues or supervisor to ask for help. Now that customers are more demanding, uncertainty is high and emotions are taut, working from home agents need support more than ever. With call volumes increasing, along with queries over multiple other channels from customers, companies start to shift interactions from voice to digital while keeping the costs low. Customer engagement now takes place in the digital space. How can contact centres and customer service agents keep up with new technology?<\/span><\/p>\n\t<div class=\"cta-banner  CID-2FdM5dTp IID-69d0c470c1c23\"\r\n\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"cta-banner-img-wrap\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"cta-banner-img\" style=\"background-image:url(\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/portrait-of-a-beautiful-and-cheerful-young-woman-telephone-operator-with-headset-working-on-desktop-computer-in-row-in-a-customer-service-call-support-helpline-business-center-with-teamworker-in-background.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"cta-body\" data-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t\t<span class=\"cta-sub-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\">cloud contact centre<\/a> technology<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"cta-heading\">Improve customer and employee experience together<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t<p>RingCentral's cloud contact centre can help you improve first contact resolution and make your customers happier.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\" class=\"btn btn-primary\"\r\n\t\t\t\ttarget=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Improve customer and employee experience together\"\r\n\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Improve customer and employee experience together | Find out how\">Find out how<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best practices for work-from-home agents\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organisations should enable remote agents through flexible scheduling and agents should proactively let their supervisor know if any issues arise that require changing the schedule.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contact centre managers can work together with agents on a pattern that is best for them and the company, a win-win situation to suit the business and individuals to achieve optimum cover that extends helpline support.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clear communication of company policies and procedures is a must. Keep communication open and follow guidelines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use an easy-to-use collaboration app like the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/desktop-app.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral app<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to keep teams together. Use this single interface to collaborate across the business via messaging, video and phone, along with file sharing and calendar integrations to make work go that much smoother.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expand your knowledge and be ready to train in skills so you\u2019re prepared to step in and fill the gap if needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conduct regular updates through meetings such as 1-2-1s with your manager, and be available to attend team meetings and share best practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be a part of a supportive remote working culture and remote working community.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What does a successful work-from-home agent model look like?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Contact centre as a service<\/a> (CCaaS)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">solutions and agent consoles are now so advanced that a device and internet connection are all that are needed to effectively carry out most call centre customer operations. Basic equipment needed: computer &amp; headset.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Team meetings: video, daily check-in, pre-shift meetings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Access to experts and documentation to help via <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/teams\/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a team collaboration application<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, via message, video and phone, along with file sharing and key integrations. Agents can conference in or transfer calls to experts to help with specific customer situations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Technology that enables an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/digital-customer-engagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">omni-channel customer experience<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-ultimate-guide-to-online-learning-courses-for-customer-service\/\">Regular training sessions<\/a> and sharing of best practices.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A reliable knowledge base \u2013 learn how new digital interaction channels improve <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/definitive-guide-customer-experience\/\">customer experience<\/a> and increase agent productivity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Power of the cloud \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/products\/workforce-optimisation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dashboards for managers and agents<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much of this setup does your remote contact centre already have in place?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you for getting this far. In my next post I\u2019ll talk more about how to manage a remote team, which challenges to expect and what tools are out there to keep remote teams organised. I\u2019ll also look at what contact centre managers can do to keep their agents engaged and productive.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t<div class=\"uc-expo-cta-2 style-4  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"inner-container\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Invest in your employees to improve your customer experience<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"button\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-additional-info=\"Invest in your employees to improve your customer experience\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Invest in your employees to improve your customer experience | Learn more\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener\" title=\"go to CC LP\">Learn more<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking to enable and encourage your contact centre agents? We\u2019ve put together our top tips on how to optimise productivity, effectively delegate call centre work from home and manage your remote team. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":11042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-content-hub.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,163,178,39,126],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Optimise Contact Centre Agents Working from Home | RingCentral UK Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Contact centres are now no strangers to remote work. Here&#039;s how to get the best from remote working contact centre agents.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RingCentral Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Optimise Contact Centre Agents Working from Home | RingCentral UK Blog","description":"Contact centres are now no strangers to remote work. Here's how to get the best from remote working contact centre agents.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"RingCentral Team","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/"},"author":{"name":"RingCentral Team","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cc4f043d2b478862a8622c28b0ebd08c"},"headline":"Optimise Contact Centre Agents Working from Home","datePublished":"2020-08-04T08:30:51+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-16T17:31:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/"},"wordCount":924,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["contact centre","contact centre remote working","employee experience","remote working","working from home"],"articleSection":["Contact Centre"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":[":\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/","url":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/","name":"Optimise Contact Centre Agents Working from Home | RingCentral UK Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-08-04T08:30:51+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-16T17:31:46+00:00","description":"Contact centres are now no strangers to remote work. Here's how to get the best from remote working contact centre agents.","breadcrumb":{"@id":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":[":\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/optimise-remote-contact-centre-agents-working-from-home\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"RingCentral Blog","item":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Contact Centre"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#website","url":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/","name":"RingCentral UK Blog","description":"RingCentral News and Tips","publisher":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#organization","name":"RingCentral UK","url":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ringcentral-logo.png","contentUrl":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ringcentral-logo.png","width":1921,"height":416,"caption":"RingCentral UK"},"image":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cc4f043d2b478862a8622c28b0ebd08c","name":"RingCentral Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/rcbloguk.wpengine.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/rc-profile-photo\/images\/default-avatar.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/rcbloguk.wpengine.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/rc-profile-photo\/images\/default-avatar.png","caption":"RingCentral Team"},"url":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/author\/ringcentral-team\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}