Top Seven steps to success with Home Agents

Success with home-based contact center agents requires more than the delivery of customer calls to the agent. It also depends on the home agent’s ability to operate effectively with the contact center application and how agent metrics are provided.  Many remote or home-based contact center managers are looking for insights on how to improve their companies’ return on investment (ROI) for contact center solutions.  Understanding the best practices in purchasing and managing home-based worker solutions can eliminate management challenges and pave the road to faster and higher ROI.

What you need to know

Success in implementing home agents is a multifaceted issue that begins early in the application evaluation process.  The following evaluation criteria can help you deliver productivity and consistent results for home agents.  For this environment your application must addresses many issues, including:

1.    Simplicity. Simplicity in all its forms reduces training and support costs and helps support consistent productivity. Aim for simple integration, simple applications, and simple business processes. User interface design is particularly important. Research suggests that simple well-designed interfaces cost less to support because they are perceived by the users to work better.

2.    Concentrate on basics. Provide only functions that are necessary for the agent's job.  Less is more in the home office environment.  Eliminate complexity in application and consider the tradeoffs in productivity vs support and training time necessary for complex feature sets and implementations.

3.    Metrics and monitoring. Reporting, monitoring and agent metrics must be transparent for the company to measure application performance and validate the ROI.

4.    Design for typical home network capabilities. Ensure that applications run over all the expected home DSL and Cable network service offerings.   Where available, standardize on a particular home network service type and adapt agent behavior to network characteristics.

5.    Thin Client architectures are better suited for Home Environments. Web based dashboards and other thin-client architectures virtually eliminate software distribution, management, security and device configuration issues. Because there is no client-side application to install there is little effect on the home computer therefore much less can go wrong with the application particularly for non technical users.

6.    Training is essential. Devise a training plan that adapts well to the home agent availability. This is one reason why simplicity is so important - it is not always easy to get mobile workers back to base for training. You need to provide virtual group training on an ongoing basis that is effective and drastically reduces costs.

7.    Uncomplicated Telephony.  Maximize the quality of the customer interaction and employee effectiveness by drop dead simple integration with the home telephone.  If the contact center solution chosen integrates seamlessly with the home office telephone then that solution can provide the highest quality connection with a minimum requirement for complicated technology to deliver the calls to the home agent.

One final note involves matching application to user expectations and creating an environment where home agents are most productive. Use your successful agents as a support resource. The closest person (physically and professionally) to a home worker with a question is likely to be one of his or her peers. We have encountered several organizations that have opted to formalize peer support instead of discouraging it. One strategy is a relatively informal arrangement, such as identifying "key users" who are familiar with the applications and devices and who can be called as a first line of support.