Wouldn’t you like to pay $0 for your contact center workspace? It’s possible by taking advantage of home based call center agents. Using a home based call center agent has many benefits for your business–lower costs, flexible scheduling, etc. However, until recently enabling your call center agents to operate from their homes was difficult and challenging. With the advent of Internet telephony and software-as-a-service call center solutions, a virtual call center supported completely by home based agents became a reality.

Hiring a call center agent for a virtual call center is different from hiring for your traditional physical call center. Let’s look at some of the challenges.

Virtual Call Center Hiring Challenges

There are many challenges in hiring a call center agent for home work. Here are some of the key ones:

1. Candidate volume – Because of the lack of geographic restrictions, job inquiries can come from a much wider area. In addition, people with conditions or inclinations that prevent them from working/commuting to a busy office building can apply. The candidate pool is immediately much larger.  FurstPerson, an employment solutions company, found that the candidate volume tends to be 5-10 times more than a traditional job. Alpine Access, a call center services provider that depends completely on home call center agents, hired only 2% of its applicants.
2. Training – Training can be a difficult issue for home based call center agents. Companies need to ensure candidates are competent enough to handle their jobs working alone, with only virtual monitoring and support from supervisors.
3. Screening candidates – Many people think home based call center agents can be hired with less stringent requirements. This is not true. Home workers need the same capabilities as traditional call center agents and the ability to work independently. CB Richard Ellis’ Labor Analytics Group found that selecting agents for home work requires a more robust screening process.

Dealing With Hiring Challenges

So how can you mitigate these hiring challenges?

Candidate volume is both a blessing and a curse. You get a much wider pool from which to hire from, but it also takes a greater time and effort investment to go through them all. To deal with this, it’s important to have a highly effective hiring assessment workflow process. There are also many software solutions that can help the hapless hiring manager to screen for the most qualified call center agent candidates.

Effective policies and good technology can also help you screen candidates. Some companies only hire candidates with a certain reasonable driving distance of a physical call center. Clear expectations need to be communicated and adhered to. For example, some parents might think they can perform call center work while caring for children. The employer should clearly tell the parents that they need child care during working hours. A wider candidate pool should allow you to focus on hiring from the top–make sure you screening process supports makes it easy to find the best call center agent.

Finally, there are multiple approaches towards training. Some companies use a tenure program, where agents are only allowed to work from home after working in the company’s traditional call center for a certain time period. Others conduct training in a physical location, then send the agents back home for work. Obviously, screening candidates who live within a manageable driving distance makes these solutions work best. The other option is to conduct all training completely online. E-learning and training software is ubiquitous, conduct research to make a good choice.

While the benefits of a virtual call center are many, ensure you have planned for the challenges that come with it.

How many people dread the early morning commute? You have to wake up an hour early just to get ready and rush through breakfast. Then you have to account for the 45 minute commute through frustratingly clogged highways. By the time you walk into work, thoroughly frazzled from stress and lack of sleep, you need to gulp down a pot of coffee just to wake up.

Honestly, does this sound like the best way to foster employee productivity? Telecommuting may be the solution to increasing productivity while increasing satisfaction. If you already run a virtual call center, you might still be shocked by the statistics.

Telecommuting Saves Money

A recent report by Dice, a career website focused at technology professionals, found that over 33% of technology professionals said they would accept up to a 10% pay cut in exchange for full-time telecommuting benefits. What Dice find even more remarkable was that these workers are willing to sacrifice an average of $7,800, even after two years of nearly flat compensation growth. Clearly, telecommuting could translate to very real monetary benefits for a company.

Telecommuting can also reduce costs in other ways. Turnover costs can be reduced by increasing employee job satisfaction. A majority of hiring managers report the difficulty of retaining younger employees according to the 2008 Robert Half International Survey, yet 37% of employees say telecommuting would cause them to choose one job over another. Telecommuting and remote work benefits retention by giving employees reasons to stay. Telecommuting can also reduce absenteeism costs since employees do not need to leave their homes in order to complete work.

There are many other ways telecommuting and virtualization can save companies money. Infrastructure, utilities, ADA compliance, furniture, equipment, and office supplies are just some of the possible savings routes.

Consider the following examples:

• Cisco has saved an estimated $277 million in annual savings by allowing employees to telecommute and telework
• IBM has saved more than $100 million annually in its North American sales and distribution unit
• Sun Microsystems saves $70 million a year in real estate costs through its Open Work programs

Wayen Turmel, a management consultant, reported that:

The time saved in the commute almost always goes to productivity. Studies show that people who don’t spend lots of time getting to work actually spend most of that saved time working. If you can knock a half hour off your commute each day, that’s an hour we spend actually doing our jobs.

Call center research from a Booz Allen Hamilton study has found home based agents report higher overall job satisfaction rates, 25% higher productivity, and a 10% turnover rate vs 50% for in-house contact centers.

Flexible Work

A smart telecommuting plan is necessary to reap the benefits. Tailor your virtual call center to optimize employee productivity. Are they most productive at home? Do they want some place they can work with others remotely? Are they interested in using desks only on certain days or times? Likely more important than simply offering telework opportunities is being flexible with employees. Consider their needs and maximize the work arrangement so that they can be optimally effective.

Being open minded can be good for the employees–and the business too.

Busy. No answer. Disconnected. Your call center agents routinely reach these roadblocks hundreds of times a day. You know an automated dialing platform would increase productivity greatly, but you don’t want to pay thousands of dollars or wait for hardware installations. Looks like you’re stuck with dialing by hand.

Or not.

With the widespread adoption of cloud technology, powerful hosted automatic dialing solutions have become a reality. And they are more affordable then ever, with pay as you go models friendly to smaller businesses.

Defining Automatic Dialing

Automatic dialers automatically call a predefined list of leads, contacts, or customers and connect them to your agents. Automatic dialers can also play a prerecorded message or ask the customer to make a choice. When a dialer reaches a busy signal, answering machine, disconnected number, or an unanswered phone, it automatically disconnects and moves to the next person on the list.

One Dialer, Many Uses

Your contact center can use automatic dialers in many different ways. You can give customers status updates about service outages, keep them informed of relevant new deals, announce upgrades, apologize for service interruptions, installation progress, support resolution updates, reminders, etc.

Outbound dialing also benefits from automatic dialer technology. Your sales team can connect to more leads, your marketing team can automatically call people to conduct surveys, or you can deliver marketing messages. Your business can also benefit by giving time sensitive calls en masse, such as birthday congratulations or wedding anniversaries.

Predictive Algorithms, Advanced Analytics, and List Management–Oh My!

Today’s automatic dialers contain many powerful features. Here are some you want to look out for:

• Campaign/list management – The automatic dialer software should include tools to manage multiple calling campaigns, filter contact lists, and customize dialing parameters. This makes it easy to create and maintain effective purpose-based calling campaigns.
• Reports and analytics – You need advanced reporting and analytical capabilities in order to judge your return on investment and dialing campaign effectiveness. Are callers listening to your message or are they hanging up? Can you break down and segment call connection rates by customer types?
• Intelligent call pacing – Ensure the software contains an intelligent algorithm to predict when to call in order to maximize agent connection rates. If your automatic dialers reach more live leads than agents to handle them, the calls will be dropped. Predictive algorithms prevent dropped calls by optimizing the live calls to match the number of agents available.

Be aware that the FCC mandates less than 3% of total calls connected may be dropped. Also ensure compliance with federal do-not-call lists.

Modern virtual call center software usually includes automatic dialer software. Many companies also distribute their automatic dialers as a separate module. Conduct vendor research to find the best solution for you. Automatic dialing has the potential to increase your agent productivity greatly. Solutions are more accessible than ever with hosted technology.

Angel, a provider of virtual call center software and other cloud solutions, announced the debut of a “multimodal” app for iPhone. This app will allow the user to conduct customer service interactions through multiple channels, such as text, voice, and visually through smartphone screens.

What Can Angel Multimodal Do?

The Angel Multimodal app enables users to enter and receive information automatically through different methods. For example, a user can call the automated IVR helpdesk and will be prompted to enter their information. They can choose to launch the Multimodal app and type in their information. The IVR system searched for a solution, then displays animated help instructions on the phone while giving audio instructions to resolve the customer problem.

This technology helps integrate automated customer service onto the smartphone platform, delivering a richer experience. The customer is able to choose the easiest method of input for themselves, upping satisfaction. The customer can also customize their preferred support output channel for ease of understanding. These capabilities could increase customer acceptance and satisfaction with IVR technology, leading to reduced live agent utilization and lower costs.

Don Keane, VP of Marketing at Angel, explained the firm’s move:

“At Angel, our focus is on helping our enterprise customers always put their callers first and maximizing the value of their customer relationships. Angel Multimodal app is another example of our strategy to help enterprises solve the fundamental problem of user frustration with traditional automated call centers and transform the self-service experience with intelligent interactions to help drive down operating costs, increase revenue opportunities, and maximize customer satisfaction and loyalty,”

Angel’s Multimodal app is part of the Angel Customer Experience Platform. Angel’s virtual call center software is notable for its use of mobile technology. Users are able to manage their Angel services and view analytics through mobile devices.

The Rise of IVR and Self Service

IVR technology has seen increasing deployment with the advent of virtual call center solutions. With hosted solutions, IVR can be deployed without the need for additional infrastructure investment. The customer-side benefits of self service are numerous–extended service hours, service without the need to wait for a live agent, privacy, etc. Self service solutions like IVR also help companies reduce costs by automating simple tasks that don’t require human interaction, reducing the need for live agents.

As the IVR industry continues to develop, more technologies like the Angel Multimodal app will come to market. With smartphone penetration continuing to rise, more applications that utilize smartphone capabilities will be release.

Consider whether these technological advances can help you boost your call center productivity.

Zendesk, a provider of cloud based customer support software, recently announced an upgrade to its software to allow integration with SugarCRM. This upgrade will allow Zendesk users to access SugarCRM customer information and vice versa, enhancing employee decision making capabilities.

Enhanced Support, Enhanced Sales

Support agents will be able to view detailed and customizable information from SugarCRM directly in the Zendesk interface. By integrating this information, agents will now have a more complete picture of the customer’s support history, their terms of service, pricing levels, customer class, etc and the most appropriate way to complete their requests. This also helps reduce redundant information requests.

For SugarCRM users, they will be able to view Zendesk support tickets directly from the SugarCRM interface and filter it according to various criteria. Tickets can even be updated or created from the SugarCRM interface. In real world usage, sales reps will be able to do things like direct creation of support tickets without the intervention of support agents and they can understand the customer service history of clients.

Both companies are excited about the new cross-functionality provided by the service integration. Zack Urlocker, COO of Zendesk, explained the benefits of the partnership with SugarCRM to provide an integrated product:

“In order to provide the best possible service, companies need a holistic understanding of each customer relationship. Zendesk for SugarCRM ensures important details don’t get lost between sales and support, so every customer interaction can build on and strengthen the existing relationship.”

Clint Oram, CTO of SugarCRM, also revealed his enthusiasm for the partnership:

“Nothing is more valuable to a company than its customers. With Zendesk for SugarCRM, users are able to see the whole customer picture, from sales to support, including up-to-the-minute customer support information straight from the help desk. All customer interactions are tracked, meaning a quicker resolution time and happier customers.

Passing the Message Around

The SugarCRM and Zendesk integration highlights the importance of a complete customer contact solution. Customer service is not an isolated department–service crosses functions and needs to be approached holistically. Silos are out. A company that is able to utilize all of its information will be able to strategize and plan most effectively. Your support agents need the necessary tools and power to best solve customer problems. Don’t limit your call center performance by creating walls around information. As shown by the SugarCRM/Zendesk integration, information sharing creates synergies, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction.

Differentiate yourself with a 360 degree view towards customer care. Does your call center use information effectively?

Alpine Access recently announced it has completed an independent, third party audit for compliance with HIPAA and HITECH Act data security requirements.

Alpine is a provider of virtual contact center solutions and services. Alpine commissioned this independent review of its policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the administrative, physical, and technical requirements of HIPAA’s rules.

As a result of the review, the company’s independent data security auditor has determined the existing data security program includes all the necessary controls to validate compliance with the new rules.

President and CEO of Alpine Access, Christopher M. Carrington, says that information security and privacy is something Alpine Access has always taken very seriously.

Carrington adds that they were the first virtual call center to achieve PCI DSS Service Level 1 compliance and they are now taking another leadership role by meeting the rigorous standards for securing Protected Health Information, known as PHI.

It took a serious commitment from the entire Alpine Access organization, deploying program controls in compliance with the HIPAA and HITECH Acts, to give their healthcare clients peace of mind knowing they are getting the best and most secure service possible, says Carrington.

Alpine launched this in-depth review of its policies and procedures, not only to ensure their compliance with the administrative, physical and technical requirements of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules, but also those mandated by Subtitle D of the HITECH Act.

The company also used an independent IT audit firm named Coalfire Systems to complete the program review.

President and co-founder of Coalfire Systems, Rich Dakin, said Alpine has not only demonstrated a seasoned security program with controls designed to achieve full compliance with HIPAA and HITECH, but has also audited them as being PCI DSS Level 1 certified for three years in a row.

Office Depot is currently working with RightNow to optimize its contact center operation and improve the customer experience through all contact channels.

The partnership with RightNow is part of a project Office Depot is creating in order to provide a European-wide virtual contact center that serves Benelux DACH, Spain, Italy, the UK, and Ireland.

It is designed to drive efficiencies and improve response time to its customers. Office Depot will use RightNow CX to manage interactions across its customer phone calls, emails and faxes and will give contact center agents a single view of customer history.

Office Depot further plans to introduce RightNow Chat which will offer customers real-time access to service agents on every checkout page. It will assist them with any final questions prior to completion of their purchases, reducing abandonment rates. And, the management of contacts through the RightNow solution will be a huge improvement over their existing process.

Alexander Jaross, Senior Manager of Telesales and Contact Center in Europe for Office Depot, says previously the company used Outlook to handle emails and a number of disparate systems to handle other customer contacts.

Jaross added that the use of multiple systems that were disconnected was frustrating for both customer and agent and he expects RightNow to drive efficiency and improve the service they deliver to their customers.

The new deployment will support the virtualization of the regional and European contact center. The routing of these interactions will be handled by Transera and management of customer interaction history will be provided by RightNow.

Jaross says the project will allow them to route and record any customer request, phone, email, fax, etc. based on the needs of the customers, which will improve service levels.

Virtual Call Center Five9 joined the ranks of Salesforce.com and VMware being ranked 22nd by revenue on the San Francisco Business Times list of target software companies in the Bay Area.

Through its Virtual Call Center Suite, Five9 helps call centers around the world to reduce operational costs, drive additional revenue, and improve the satisfaction of all customers through innovative customer care solutions delivered in the cloud.

Five 9 is delivered as a cloud-based solution and provides enterprise-class functionality to businesses big or small, while giving them the flexibility and ease of use expected from cloud solutions. The company has gained a significant following by providing solutions that allow even small companies to compete as large enterprises.

Five 9 has recently surpassed a major milestone of 1,000 customers and now processes over 1 billion telephone calls per year in the cloud. The company pioneered its on-demand call center software in the market in 2001 and continues to grow and enhance their product.

Chief Executive Officer of Five9, Mike Burkland, says they’re proud to be recognized with so many tremendous technology companies in the Bay Area. Burkland added that the demonstrated success of cloud computing vendors on this list is evidence of the accelerated market adoption of SaaS solutions that deliver real business value.

Burkland says the company owes its success to a dedicated customer base benefiting from the significant value as well as cost savings their solutions deliver to call centers of all sizes.

Five9 is a global provider of on-demand call center software for Sales, Marketing and Support. They are an award-winning Virtual Call Center and Predictive Dialer that serves customers of all sizes on five different continents.

With the advent of cloud computing, putting your operations online is becoming easier and more cost effective every year. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an in-house call center when you can get the same results with virtual call centers for less? If cost saving isn’t enough of a reason for you, here are five more reasons to switch to virtual call centers.

1) Virtual call centers help you save money on overhead.

With a virtual call center, you can cut down on the costs of equipment, salaries, rent, and technology. Rather than support dozens or hundreds of agents on-site, you can hire people from across the globe who will work from their own offices and with their own equipment. Additionally, if you focus on hiring from areas with a lower cost of living, you also cut down on payroll costs.

2) Virtual call centers expand your potential employee pool.

When you don’t have to restrict your hiring pool to your general geographical area, it opens up your options as far as the quality of potential hires is concerned. Having a larger group of people to choose from enables you to find the best possible agents for your call center.

3) Virtual call centers produce a higher agent retention rate.

Recent studies show that a more flexible work environment not only increases efficient and productivity, but it also decreases the turnover rate. With call centers in particular, virtual call centers retain their agents at a much higher rate than the traditional model. With higher retention, you not only save money on training costs, but also the time it takes to find and train those new people.

4) Virtual call centers make WFM easier.

With the increasing availability of call center software, managing your workforce is easier than ever. By switching over to virtual call centers, you streamline that process even further. WFM software for virtual call centers allows you to keep tabs on quality assurance from the comfort of your office.

5) Virtual call centers allow you to expand without a ton of capital.

Since your overhead costs are lower with a virtual call center, you don’t need as much capital as you used to in order to get your call center off the ground. Also, since virtual call center software is available as a web-based service, you no longer have to worry about aspect of IT services; your software vendor provides it for you.

Call centers are vital to your business, and though you’re starting to hear about the increasing potential of virtual call centers, you don’t see the difference between call centers and virtual call centers. Aside from the location of agents, what are the differences?

Call Centers vs. Virtual Call Centers

While having all of your agents in once place can help in workforce management, virtual call centers allow you to expand your employee pool beyond your geographical location. By having the entire country, or even the world, at your disposal, finding the best and most efficient call center agents becomes easier.  Additionally, you remove barriers such as time zone, language, and culture when you can route clients and customers to agents in their region.

Whereas on-site call centers do make training and management easier since it is directly in your hands, virtual call centers allow you to streamline your business processes by reducing costs in space, equipment, and time. Virtual call center software is not so different from in-house call center software, so you can still implement IVR, CTI, and WFM software in addition to ACD and cloud based software.

If you would rather delegate the work, virtual call centers allow for hiring third party service providers. However, it doesn’t work as well for micromanaging; so if you prefer to keep tabs on your agents directly, an in-house call center would fit your needs better. Virtual call centers do enable you to expand your call centers without the usual amount of capital needed to accomplish it, and the increase in the number of agents you can hire also enables you to create teams who specialize in certain means of communications, whether it be phone, email, or chat.

Whichever one works best for your operations, call centers and virtual call centers are equally capable of improving customer engagement—it’s just a matter of identifying your company’s needs.