The pandemic came and your organization, undoubtedly had to quickly adapt and move agents to an At-Home environment. With duct tape, home PC's, agent's home networks, agent's home computers, maybe a VPN, etc., you may have managed to get your at-home agent contact center up and running, but there’s still more work to do to keep it sustainable and compliant.

Since the pandemic isn't going anywhere anytime soon, now is the time to leverage technologies that can enable you to have a successful, virtual contact center with at-home agents long term.

 Issues That Need to Be Addressed

1. Agent Workspace - How do you know your agent's home workspaces are up to par and compliant? Are there dogs barking, babies crying, people walking around behind them that can see their screen? How do you know the agent is working from home and not at a coffee shop where sensitive data can be seen and there are cyber security risks? Can you see the agent and their workspace while they are working? Can you monitor their screen? Is modern technology alerting you when an agent is doing something inappropriate or that puts you at risk?
2. Home Network and PC - Are agents working from multiple types of computers?      How do you ensure these P's meet the minimum requirements needed? Is QOS in place to prioritize voice over data to ensure no latency or jitter? Are your agents compliant to the endpoint? Are you able to brick their computers so they can only access the applications you want them to access? And What about low bandwidth?
3. Using AI - Are you using AI to address spikes and to complement your "live agent" customer care? Do you have queue times over 30 minutes? With some of the new realities at home (homeschooling, additional family members working from home, etc.) you may have times when you're short agents or haven't transitioned all your agents home yet.

3 Technology Solutions For Contact Centers with At Home Agents

Workspace Monitoring and Response (WMR)

• Computer activity monitor & live video feed
• User action tracking (e.g., apps opened, URL visited)
• Multi-webcam workspace surveillance
• Image capture and audio sampling
• Computer geolocation tagging and IP tracing
• Wi-Fi triangulation and Proxy detection

Why Should You Care About WMR?

• Limits the possibility and potential impact of cyber security breaches and threats.
• Ensures your at-home agents have a proper and appropriate work environment.
• Gives you the opportunity to monitor agents in the same way you could if they      were working from a cubicle in your contact center.
• Depending on the compliances required, it ensures a clean desktop and that the      agents do not have a cell phone, pen, paper, or applications open that are a potential breach of compliance. Many BPOs in their brick and mortar locations have lockers outside the contact centers where agents are required to leave their cell phones, pens, paper and anything else that might threaten compliance.
• Ridiculously affordable.

VDI/DaaS (Desktop as a Service)

Use VDI/DaaS to ensure compliance to the endpoint.

• Added security.
• Bricks the agent’s home computer, forcing them to use the virtual desktop with only the apps your company wants them to access.
• Identifies and solves for network connectivity and VoiP issues.
• Adds QOS to prioritize voice traffic
• Reduces necessary bandwidth requirements for at-home agents.
• Eliminate IT calls because virtual desktop can be reconfigured in minutes.
• Virtually any CRM, Microsoft 365, Google apps and most CCaaS solutions can all run through a VDI.

*Critical technology in a remote environment and when combined with WMR, they create the perfect at-home agent environment.

Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA)

Self-service applications that service providers license to better serve their customers

• Virtual Agents offer capabilities that are similar to human service and support agents -- they just never rest or take a vacation -- and they’re substantially cheaper.
• Research shows that a vast majority of organizations using Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs), have realized quantifiable benefits.
• Nearly four out of five businesses are saving more than 20% in customer service costs and four staff hours a day as a result of adding an IVA to interact with customers.
• Research has also found that organizations that implement virtual agents “report an increase in customer satisfaction and save 33% per voice engagement.”