In the past few months I have been asked by several groups to talk about the potential for call centre employees being part of a teleworking program. In many cases these employees have been forgotten in the implementation of telework. They are, of course, ideal candidates for teleworking.
Let me start by defining a call centre. A call centre is a function which either receives calls in from customers (inbound call centre) or makes calls out to potential customers (outbound call centre).
First let's deal with the inbound call centre. Such centres usually have employees with access to customer-service oriented applications; they are connected to an automated call distribution (ACD) computer. Customer calls come in to a common number; the ACD computer sends the call to the next available agent; the employee then deals with the customer query. A few examples of this type of function include: credit card queries; catalogue shopping; banking transactions; information dissemination; insurance claim registration; renewal of subscription services; etc. In fact, there is a significant move by many organizations to this type of external customer service.
Inbound call centres are ideal candidates for teleworking because the load of incoming calls is usually not directly aligned with the optimal job shifting strategies organizations want to use. For example: a company whose peak call periods are 6:00 - 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. will find great difficulty in accommodating the call volume. Their options are to split shift employees or have two overlapping shifts. This, of course, creates a surplus of agents during non-peak periods. Most employees do not want to split shift. They double their travel time and reduce their personal family time. However ... agents working from home will usually be more than pleased to split shift as the impact of the commute has been eliminated.
Another major benefit of using remote agents in a call center operation involves customers who are in different time zones. If your company is on the west coast and you service customers across three or four time zones you will need to have a shift of people starting extremely early to support the early morning calls. In many cases this means having employees in the office by 5:00 a.m. -- an option which may not be appealing to employees who would have to get up at 3:30 to make it to the office for 5:00 a.m. Again, these employees will have less of a problem starting at 5:00 a.m. when they are able to telework. These employees have no commute and are probably getting up around this around time in order to arrive at the traditional office for 8:00 a.m.
To be successful the inbound call centre with remote agents (teleworkers) must have the right technology in place. This will include providing the teleworker with access to the applications they have in the office. The applications and the data communications strategy need to be established such that the response time at home is not significantly worse than the response time in the traditional office. Remember, the agent is having to deal with your customers -- if the agent has to wait 3 times as long for each response from the computer application it will certainly have an impact on the level of customer satisfaction.
The teleworker will also need to be equipped with the same telephone features at home that they have in the traditional office. This will require the acquisition of tools to allow the centralized ACD to distribute calls to the teleworker (remote agent). Typically this involves an upgrade at the central site and the use of a remote agent device in the teleworker's home.
The outbound call centre initiates calls to customers and potential customers. The outbound calls typically involve some type of telemarketing or customer follow-up service. These call centres are challenged with the time of operation. If the outbound call centre is interacting with corporate customers then staffing during normal business hours is fine. If the outbound call centre is interacting with the general public then calls to their homes during normal business hours will be inadequate.
Telework is an appropriate solution to outbound call centres as these employees typically work during non-traditional hours. Many employees do not like having to commute into the central facilities to make their evening calls. They prefer the opportunity to perform their job function from home. The key is, like their inbound counterparts, they must have timely access to the appropriate technology. If they do not, they will be ineffective in fulfilling the objectives of their calls.
Functions performed at both inbound and outbound call centres are clearly ideal candidates for teleworking. The job is performed via the telephone with access to appropriate computerized applications. If your call centre provides appropriate levels of response, support and technology to your teleworkers, you will find the quality of work performed will increase dramatically.
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