The headline reads "Sitel Migrates to Teleworking,Hiring 10,000 New Associates." Another headline read "Florida Spending $110 Million To Add 1,500 Unemployment Call Center Workers." While much of the economy is in a bit of a tailspin, it could be that because of the coronavirus pandemic the contact center space is experiencing a mini-boom. Call centers have been deemed essential by the Department of Homeland Security. Consumers, unable to shop in retail stores or visit service providers, such as banks, educational institutions, government, and utilities, need to communicate by phone and digital channels.
This sudden and unexpected surge in inbound traffic has left contact center managers scrambling to provide an acceptable level of service while at the same time adhering to federal and state mandates and recommendations. It is very hard to maintain social distancing when your agents are packed together in small cubicles. Nor is it easy to communicate with customers while wearing a face mask. The go-to alternative is to rapidly transition to the remote workforce model.
Leading workforce optimization vendors have been working overtime to develop services and solutions to help their contact center customers deal with the current surge and be positioned for a future where the contact center will take an increasingly significant role as the front door to the consumer and a prime influencer of customer loyalty. What follows is a list of what some of the top system vendors are doing with education and solutions to help contact centers now and in the future, when this pandemic is behind us.
Aspect Software
Aspect is helping its customers by sharing knowledge of how to successfully transition to the work-at-home model. The company is offering a series of six work-from-home webinars and developed three tiers of consulting, one of which is free.
Calabrio
Calabrio is helping its customers navigate this unprecedented customer service landscape through a combination of education and products. It is offering its Full Schedule Editor as a free workforce management add-on so customers can make large-scale schedule changes to match changing environments. Calabrio also offers a free agent service mobile app to enhance remote working and schedule flexibility. The robust educational outreach includes webinars, discussion boards, and direct conversations with customers. The product team posts weekly webinars on topics like rapidly transitioning to a remote agent workforce and how to use interaction analytics for crisis response and management.
Genesys
Genesys launched a Rapid Response offer that gives organizations free access to Genesys Cloud so they can provide mission-critical support to enable a remote team in just 48 hours. More than 700 organizations have already requested assistance from Genesis to support remote capabilities and shift geographic operations to manage surges in customer inquiries. The Rapid Response offer allows organizations to launch secure cloud contact centers with the fundamental capabilities needed to engage effectively with customers and colleagues from anywhere. This includes support for automation in self-service, voice, and email, routing, interaction recording, and employee collaboration tools.
NICE inContact
To facilitate implementation of a remote worker program, NICE inContact has enhanced its CXone@home turnkey suite of workforce engagement and optimization capabilities to ensure agents are productive while working from home The fully integrated, enterprise-grade cloud platform provides contact centers flexibility, speed, and the ability to manage costs. According to the company, CXone@home can be up and running in 48 hours and it is available with no commitment or contract and is free for 60 days.
Additionally, NICE inContact provides continuity resources, including a checklist for work-from-home agent readiness, a webinar on work-at-home agent best practices, and a white paper on disaster recovery and business continuity.
OnviSource
OnviSource is offering three months of multichannel analytics and automation cloud services at no cost or obligation to intelligently automate quality assurance and compliance of remote employees, safeguard customer experience, and automate processes remotely.
Verint Systems
Verint announced a program that gives organizations metrics and multichannel insights into the productivity of work-from-home agents and identifies connectivity and other engagement challenges. The program is available to new customers as well as existing customers of Verint's Desktop and Process Analytics (DPA) software. With a small services engagement, organizations can gain real-time insights to manage and support their work-from-home agents effectively.Verint is hosting a series of webinars addressing how customers can adapt faster and respond smarter to COVID-19-related business challenges.
The global impact of the coronavirus pandemic is profound. In April, the United States experienced its most rapid escalation of unemployment in history. Some experts have proclaimed that it could be years before the U.S. and global economies completely return to what used to be normal. The good news for contact centers is that the quality of the customer experience is now, for many industries, a critical determinant for businesses' ability to maintain loyal customers during these troubled times.
Dick Bucci is founder and chief analyst at Pelorus Associates. He can be reached at dbucci@pelorusassoc.com.