Workforce Management Featured Article
Cloud-based Workforce Management Expands Call Center Labor Options and Reduces Costs
Though some old-style call center managers may lament it, the world inside the call center is changing for a number of reasons, not in the least the deployment of cloud computing strategies. For traditionalists, it may not seem like a good thing. For contact center workers and customers, however, the benefits are likely to be enormous.
Customer support is no longer a 9:00 to 5:00 job: customers expect to be able to reach service personnel almost round-the-clock, and certainly from early morning until evening. This has raised the stakes for many contact centers, forcing some to build multiple shifts into their long business days. Multiple shifts and overtime cost companies more in overhead, and these costs often aren’t recouped in extra revenue.
Thanks to cloud-based contact center solutions – particularly workforce management and optimization solutions – companies can extend service hours without adding second shifts. They can do this by transferring calls to another facility with longer hours, or making use of home-based agents who work from their home computers. The benefits of these arrangements are many, and include opening up labor pools in more distant areas, according to a recent blog post by Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo.
“You can now hire qualified agents even if they live 100 miles or more away, since they don’t have to drive to work,” he wrote. “Parents with small children might also enjoy the convenience of a home-based office, as long as it does not interfere with their professional obligations.”
Companies can turn to more mature, more experienced professionals who may have mobility problems, such as the disabled or older workers who can’t or don’t wish to drive. Thanks to cloud-based solutions, all remote workers can be pulled into the larger contact center superstructure as if they were under the same roof. Workers can also benefit from more flexible schedules, according to Ciarlo, since a cloud-based workforce management solution makes it far easier to make small changes on-the-fly.
“These agents will also appreciate the flexibility in scheduling that is possible when contact centers employ workforce management software,” he wrote. “Now, medical appointments or family obligations can be accommodated, and the agent does not have to worry about changing a shift when necessary.”
Once the initial “future shock” of the idea has worn off, companies may find that building a partly “virtual” contact center offers a host of benefits to employees, customers and the organization as a whole. More experienced and skilled employees lead to better quality customer support, better customer relationships and increased revenue. Happier employees – those whose needs can be better accommodate by a call center schedule – stay employed longer, leading to better retention and reduced labor and hiring costs.