The final steps to create a virtual contact center is actually sending the agents home or to a remote office to work. But even though you have explained your vision to executives and agents, created a cross-functional implementation team, tested the necessary technology, and reviewed your policies, just sending all your agents home to work is not a good idea. The quickest way to doom your vision of a virtual contact center is to have all your agents go off-line at once.
You should shake out potential policy and technological problems through a thorough pilot. The number of agents you select for the pilot is up to you, but the number should be at least 10% of the total agents involved (for very small contact centers, under 25 agent, skipping a pilot and moving to the gradual implementation may be more feasible). The agents and supervisors should be technically capable in case they encounter unexpected technical problems. Agents should also be taking calls when the IT department is avaialble.
The pilot team should also have a single point of contact. Some contact centers assign a manager or supervisor to be the contact point. This person arrange for assistance in case of technical issues and could also track open tickets with the IT department. Other contact centers employ the IT help desk as the pint of contact (You will need to work this out in prior steps so that there are no surprises and that the help desk can be properly trained and staffed). Policy issues are tracked separately sometimes through weekly management meetings.
You should keep a log of all issues, whether the issues are technical or procedural in nature, during the pilot. The log should include both the issues and their resolutions. Depending on the extent of the pilot, the log could be as straightforward as an Excel worksheet. You could also use your CRM solution or help desk tracking solution. No matter what you use to track the issues and resolutions, a daily report should be sent to all members of the pilot team and management listing all open issues and closed technical issues and each proposed policy change.
The log should also include agent metrics and will provide a measure of how other agents will perform in a virtual environment. But, as with all agent metrics, you should be looking for trends not comparing agents’ daily performance against a baseline. Trends will indicate if the remote agents are performing better at home than in the office. The trends will also indicate the opposite. In either case, a root cause analysis needs to be completed.
You should interview the agents periodically to determine if there are other issues they are not reporting. In addition, remote agents should be recorded more often using your quality assurance solution. The recorded calls and QA scores should be compared with previous scores and a trend line should be developed. Also, the calls should be monitored for any technical abnormalities not reported.
The pilot should run at least 30 days. At the end, the log should to be reviewed. Any open issues need to be evaluated to determine if they will delay the implementation. When all issues have been sufficiently addressed, the next step is to fully implement your virtual contact center.
Your evolution from a traditional premise-based contact center into virtual contact center should be gradual. Depending on the size of the contact center between 25% and 30% of the total staff should be phased into the virtual environment at one time. You should also stretch the implementation out over several weeks to minimize impact on service level and customer satisfaction. One migration option is to split the agents into groups and rotate the groups between working remote and in-house. When all groups have worked virtually at least once, start your virtual contact center fully. Another option is to build the contact center cumulatively. Again split the agents into groups and have one group start working remotely. After a week or two, start a second group. Repeat the process until all groups are working remotely within your definition of virtual contact center.
During the phase-in process, supervisors should be in constant contact with thier agents. In fact, the pilot and implementation phases are good times for supervisors to develop new ways of managing. Management by walking around takes on a whole different meaning in a virtual contact center (please see my article Managing in a virtual contact center: Part 1, reaching out for information on managing in a virtual environment.)
Once all the agents are working remotely and supervisors have gotten a grasp of management virtually, the process is still not complete. In fact, the process will never be totally complete. You need to periodically monitor and measure performance of your contact center. You also need to monitor and evaluate individual agent’s ability to work remotely. Quality assurance solutions and 1-on-1 meetings solutions are a great way to assess agent stress and aptitude to work remotely. Within six months agents will show if they can work in a virtual environment effectively.
In addition to reviewing the agents, the technology being used needs to be evaluated periodically. Upgrades to existing systems and new solutions will become available. These should be tested before being distributed throughout the contact center. Again, you should employ a pilot program before any upgrades or new solutions are installed.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum
Creating a virtual contact center is not a simple activity. You must have a vision, provide a cost/benefit analysis, and build an implementation team. Like all operational changes, going virtual requires support from all level of the staff and you should also gain support from groups outside the contact center, such as the IT and HR departments. You need to make sure your technology works remotely and that you have the proper policies in place. Finally, you should pilot the virtual contact center and then implement gradually.
The potential benefits of virtual contact centers are great. A contact center can see savings in real estate cost and possibly through lower salaries. However, the greatest benefits can be gained through improvements in the agent moral and agent performance. Like with all things new, there are risks, but the benefits can be significant.
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