Contact Centers & COVID-19: Moving to WFH and Cloud-based Solutions

In these times of COVID-19, the ways of contact center operations have been fully shaken up. The new normal is vastly different than the traditional contact center management experience to which most had grown accustomed.

So how can contact centers and their employees adapt? How can success be maintained in such a different environment?

The simple answer is moving to cloud-based contact center software and a work-from-home employee model.

In a recent Forbes article Contact Center Customer Service Best Practices In The Face of COVID-19: Customer Experience Consultants Share Call Center Customer Experience Trends And Advice experts weigh in on these topics and more.

In order to stay functional during the COVID-19 pandemic, in most cases, the only choice was to move to a work-from-home contact center model.

“It wasn’t a question of should we move our staff to work-from-home, or could we handle the security or management implications of working from home. It became an existential requirement if we were interested in staying operational. And, yes, now that that has become a norm, I’m not sure that many people are itching to get back to the office,” stated Colin Taylor, an expert on contact centers and part of the firm The Taylor Reach Group Inc in Toronto.

“A lot changes when we work from home, and it’s best not to be improvisational about this. The way we supervise, coach, train are all different; the processes we’ve relied on for quality management and workforce management aren’t effective in the new normal,” said Taylor.

Now that most contact center agents are remote, the need for effective communication by management is more important than ever. How to lead and drive results has changed. For some guidance on how to adapt your leadership style, check out Qubicles’ blog post 5 Tips for Communication with New WFH Contact Center Agents.

Moving to a cloud-based contact center software allows employees to function off of a single system providing simple management of all daily tasks and operations, raising efficiency. This solution allows the true focus to remain on the customer experience regardless of the fact the contact center agents are now working from home. It also allows for an improved integrated customer experience, often with 24/7 service.

“I am first and foremost about maintaining and improving this essential connection with customers. I’ve therefore been promoting cost reduction opportunities only where I see them as a win-win.

For instance, the move to messaging is so strongly embraced by customers, and it is lower cost compared to voice calls (because an agent can multi-task). It’s looking like Work From Home may be a long-term cost reduction opportunity as well that is also a win for the quality of customer service, because of the improvement in employee morale and (it seems to date), agent retention,” stated Taylor.

To learn more, check out: Contact Center Customer Service Best Practices In The Face Of COVID-19: Customer Experience Consultants Share Call Center Customer Experience Beast Trends And Advice.

Want to know more about the advantages of having a cloud contact center strategy? Be on the lookup for our upcoming blog post, 8 Benefits of a Cloud-Based Contact Center!