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.
Key Takeaways
- At-home agent environments need ongoing attention to workspace compliance, home network and PC performance, and AI-assisted coverage for queue spikes.
- Workspace Monitoring and Response (WMR) adds computer activity monitoring, a live video feed, user action tracking, multi-webcam surveillance, and geolocation/Wi-Fi tracing.
- VDI/DaaS enforces endpoint compliance, restricts agents to company-approved apps, reduces bandwidth needs, and lets IT reconfigure virtual desktops in minutes.
- Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) run around the clock at lower cost, and most organizations that adopt them report quantifiable benefits.
- Research cited here found nearly four in five businesses save more than 20% in customer service costs and four staff hours a day after adding an IVA, with some reporting 33% savings per voice engagement.
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.
What Issues Need to Be Addressed?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.
What Are 3 Technology Solutions for Contact Centers with At-Home Agents?
What Is 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.
What Is 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.
What Are 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.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What issues come up with at-home contact center agents?
Leaders need to confirm agent workspaces are compliant and free of distractions or security risks, that home networks and PCs meet minimum requirements with QoS for voice traffic, and that AI is available to cover spikes when agents are short-staffed or still transitioning home.
What is Workspace Monitoring and Response (WMR)?
WMR combines computer activity monitoring, a live video feed, user action tracking, multi-webcam workspace surveillance, image capture and audio sampling, geolocation tagging, and Wi-Fi triangulation to give leaders the same oversight of at-home agents they’d have in a physical contact center.
What is VDI/DaaS and why does it matter for remote agents?
VDI/DaaS (Desktop as a Service) ensures compliance to the endpoint by bricking the agent’s home computer so it only runs company-approved apps, adding QoS to prioritize voice traffic, reducing bandwidth needs, and letting IT reconfigure a virtual desktop in minutes instead of handling repeat support calls.
What are Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) and what do they save?
IVAs are self-service applications that handle support similarly to a human agent, minus rest breaks or vacations, at a lower cost. Research cited shows nearly four in five businesses save more than 20% in customer service costs and four staff hours a day after adding one.
Why should contact centers care about WMR?
WMR limits the impact of cyber security breaches, ensures at-home agents have an appropriate work environment, lets leaders monitor agents the way they would on a contact center floor, supports compliance requirements around personal devices, and is ridiculously affordable.
