Remote working remains hugely popular, particularly for office-based jobs, long after ‘stay at home’ orders were lifted. The option to work remotely, once positioned as a key benefit by companies wanting to demonstrate enlightened flexibility, has now become a standard that is expected by employees. Some job roles have moved to a hybrid model with employees going into the office a few times per week, meanwhile other roles are now completely remote. The data shows that office-only models are becoming less common, witha quarter of all professional jobs in North America predicted to be remote by the end of 2022, and the number of remote roles looks set to increase further in 2023.
Despite the widespread uptake of hybrid and remote working, businesses themselves are still adapting, and must put the correct technology in place to get the most from a dispersed workforce. Pandemic-era band-aids will not stick forever, and a more considered, long-term approach is now essential. Industries that did not typically support hybrid or remote models before 2020 will generally take the longest to adapt. The challenges are most apparent in sectors built around the presumption of in-office working. Contact centers, for example, have always been heavily office-based. Contact centers are the archetype of an industry that has found itself having to adapt quickly to new trends. They must evolve radically whilst supporting large legacy workforces of service agents, whose delivery of a first-class customer experience (CX) is more important than ever in an age of reduced face-to-face consumer interaction.
The unavoidable hybrid demand
Businesses and public sector organizations with hundreds, or even thousands, of service agents found themselves having to adapt almost overnight when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March 2020. Their model of having banks of agents working ‘mill-style’ in call centers was no longer safe, or even legal, due to government restrictions. With customers still needing to contact businesses and sectors such as healthcare having to provide virtual appointments, immediate solutions were required. Cloud contact centers, delivered as a service, provided the ability for agents to answer customer queries from anywhere, and this was vital to maintaining business-as-usual.
Although we hope the days of wide-scale enforced home working are behind us, the landscape has changed and the demand for hybrid and remote roles remains key to running a successful contact center. Agents expect flexibility from their employers and this can be a key differentiator for those deciding where to work, in a time of labor shortages. Flexibility will also help ensure agents are happy in the workplace, which is key because their satisfaction is passed directly onto customers in the service they provide.
Driving collaboration through integrated UC tools
To support the hybrid and remote reality, having the correct unified communications (UC) systems in place is vital. Despite the obvious benefits of adopting hybrid or remote models, there can also be pitfalls. Dispersed employees can suffer from lack of support due to inefficient remote communication channels, while supervisors without the right tech may become concerned about productivity levels and the inability to ensure agents are doing things properly.
Creating an environment where front-office contact center employees and their back-office counterparts are connected, and can work collaboratively, is crucial. Building a network that facilitates interactions between different groups of workers is key, and the emergence and continued success of contact center platforms that integrate with popular Unified Communications (UC) solutions, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, demonstrate the value connected workforces deliver.
UC applications, which tend to focus internally within an organization, shouldn’t just sit in a silo; to bring full value they need to be fully integrated into a contact center’s external communications solution. If implemented correctly, front-office users can transfer calls to back-office subject matter experts on Teams, who can provide information on more complex matters, for example. The process works equally effectively in the opposite direction for a seamless, unified environment. Users can also dial external numbers through Teams. Meanwhile live availability status viewing gives front-office employees full visibility while communicating, with real-time presence synchronization available across both front-office and back-office communication systems.
Effective UC means employees can communicate through channels that are familiar to them, and which therefore simplify collaboration. Businesses will also be able to empower supervisors to better support their team members, meaning the latter avoid feeling isolated or unsupported in their role. Taking steps to drive collaboration and support teams will improve the employee experience, reducing costly and disruptive churn and, inturn, ensuring that better CX is delivered.
Brands that want to provide a first-class CX need to continue to invest in cutting edge UC and omnichannel contact center technology to keep agents and business colleagues connected. The value of conceptually linking employee experience and great CX cannot be understated, and makes the true value of integrated UC obvious. The trend of remote and hybrid working is now irreversible across all industries where it is possible, but to feel the full benefit of this, implementing the correct technology is more important than ever before.
