Skip to content

Question:

Our contact center agents are working from home due to COVID-19 and many want to make it a permanent move. What technology will help us manage this shift?

Answer:

Transitioning to contact center as a service (CCaaS) infrastructure solutions will help provide flexibility for “hybrid” in-office/at-home contact centers, which are expected to be part of the new normal. CCaaS solutions don’t care where interactions are delivered – home, office, etc. – and they come with layers of security. Additionally, two workforce optimization (WFO) applications to pay particular attention to are workforce management (WFM), and interaction analytics (IA).

New-gen WFM solutions, supported by artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time adaptive intraday management capabilities, balance the needs of contact center agents – whether in the office or at home – with customer expectations and enterprise goals. These solutions are flexible and adaptable, and are typically mobile-enabled so agents don’t need to be on-site to readily receive updates and alerts, or to self-manage their schedules. Interaction analytics, comprised of speech and text analytics, help supervisors and managers identify the reasons customers are contacting their agents, and also enable them to “hear” customer conversations even when their employees are working at home. In addition to WFM and IA applications, other WFO modules such as knowledge management solutions, analytics-enabled quality management, eLearning/coaching, gamification, and more can provide benefits for work-at-home scenarios.