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What are the drawbacks to a virtual call center?
Many organizations push cost savings as being a key benefit of a virtual call centre. I'm curious to know what the drawbacks are to this model, if there are any. Are employees happier in a virtual setting? Aside from it being cheaper, why would you introduce a virtual call centre to your organization?
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3 Answers
We specialize in multi-site and at home virtual call centers. If done properly I can't think of any down side from my customer’s perspective.
However, here are some things to make sure of.
1. The system can operate in a virtual environment too, that is that the system will function even if you lose the main site where your hardware is. For example, some systems require you to mirror everything at a 2nd site, and then bring it up if needed, others are active/passive so the 2nd site comes right up, but then everything must go down to bring up the primary once restored. The better way is a system that simply spreads to multi-locations and is always active/active where your agents/customers don't even notice if a partial failure occurs.
2. If you mean "at home" agents, then there are several concerns. You must be able to monitor them just as if they were in the office. They must have a room with a closed door and your data connectivity for them must not be impacted by a teenager running internet games over the same DSL or cable modems. Just common sense things. Make sure your system supports at home without expensive upgrades, extra licenses and special hardware.
I'm sure there are more things to consider, but space and time limits here stop me. If you want to talk, just reach out!
Thanks
Rebecca Denniston wrote me forward my answer to you. Here it is.
In my past experience, I've worked with two types of virtual or remote workforce groups:
1. Non-call center people who multitask to arrive at a desired result;
2. Call center people who rarely multitasks.
For non-call center type of workforce, telecommuting works well. They are experienced or skilled people that are able to deliver one or several results from multitasking, including and especially field work. There is no repetitive scenario of escalating issues that need to be resolved at that very moment. There is no need for hourly or daily supervision - a weekly, face-to-face reporting structure is ample.
For the call center type of workforce, in most cases the people are green or lacks experience in the general areas time management and project management, not necessarily the specific studies of these two skills that you require a certificate of sorts. This means call center people need constant supervision, hourly or daily, and need you at their side because the type of work they do may need an immediate, on-the-spot solution. To have a virtual call center, meaning everyone is sitting at their dining table in shorts and their tees performing telephone sales, marketing, service and support work, is very difficult to supervise and manage and, in my two-cents opinion, is likely to fail if the project is long-term.
I've handled an American company who experimented in home-based agents and supervisors. We declared it a failure in three months because the company needed more people to manage the entire model: we had to hire more technical support people because the home-based workforce kept having issues with their PCs, internet, and a thousand and one reasons to blame technology, we had to hire transcription people as backup in cases where the end-of-day reports would be sent erroneously, and so much other problems the entire project spent more money than save on it. However, this was in 2005.
I've also handled a Philippine-based work-at-home call center model. Though labor is cheap in the Philippines, the issues were more cultural than technology-oriented. Filipinos are just way too comfortable when they are in their homes that many metrics were just too hard to attain. Also consider Third World living conditions where customers were complaining they were hearing chickens, dogs, cats, motorcycles, airplanes and whole kaboodle of background sounds while talking to the call center agent - that was the funniest yet disheartening part. This was in 2007.
Today, maybe technology has developed so much a home-based computer will never hang; broadband internet will never fail; DSP headsets are more superb and fixtures are available at Home Depot to remove all kinds of background noise; Third World workers can now work at home despite all the comforts; and so on. But I'm betting my bottom dollar we still have a few more years to wait for that.
My 2-cents :-)
Raffy Pekson II
http://www.pekson.com
The benefits of a remote employees are:
- low overhead
- flexibility for the employees
- covering additional hours using people in different time zones
- it is very difficult to bring down the entire call center
I find what is effected, even with a senior team, is a the teamwork. When employees see each other working, they understand better the benefits of the diversity each one brings to the the table. They build relationships where they are more likely to ask about something rather than assume. They have the ability to ask technical questions easier, offer solutions when they overhear conversations, and ask if they can help when they can see the body language of someone frustrated. They can better encourage each other to contribute to the the team. As a manager, it is also often much easier to see if someone is struggling if you see them in person rather than if you hear them on the phone or realize through the statistics.
It is a balance. There are good things about remote people and also good things about having people working in the same physical location.
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