Rearview shot of a young woman working in a call centre

In 2020 when people were in lockdown, businesses were required to adopt a ‘Work from Anywhere’ model to ensure continuity and productivity. The underlying expectations were that agents – regardless of their location – must maintain the same level of service as they would from a physical contact centre set-up. While this may sound obvious and simple, agents deal with real-time interactions while simultaneously managing operations and transactions at the back-end – which means that remote working can be more complex for contact centre agents than other office employees. But if last year taught us anything, we know the ‘Work from Anywhere’ model can be seamless with the right infrastructure in place. In 2021 this model will remain a reality for agents with contact centres choosing to continue the momentum by leveraging technology to boost employee productivity and engagement.

Proof that the ‘Work from Anywhere’ model is here to stay:

1. Security

Agents handle a significant amount of confidential and sensitive data and security remains a key concern for contact centres in Australia. Improper data use and breaching of confidentiality by agents are some of the biggest security challenges for contact centres.

In 2021, contact centres are still working to find the best security measures when managing customer data, especially in the work-from-anywhere environment. It is vital to ensure that all forms of security measures are in place across networks, applications, and devices. Best practice on working from home is no longer sufficient when it comes to keeping your customer data safe which is why outsourcing security to a managed service provider can help enhance security levels.

2. Collaboration

Without the ability to talk over a desk in the office, communication for remote working is reliant on secure and well-structured channels. The marker of a great work-from-anywhere environment is the ability to facilitate collaboration seamlessly through workplace technologies.

Think about how you can leverage workplace collaboration tools in scenarios when agents need to consult with a subject matter expert outside of the contact centre. They should be able to search for experts and collaborate with them in real time during a call – workplace technologies should be able to route these calls seamlessly.

3. Prioritisation

As the frontline staff for handling complaints, chasing sales targets and deadlines, contact centre agents often work in high-stress environments. Remote working has further complicated this environment with agents no longer being located on the same contact centre floor and no longer having access to their usual way of work and face-to-face support mechanisms.

Look for a contact centre solution which allows you to create channels by topic and urgency within the collaboration environments to help agents interact and help each other in real-time, replicating the proximity of agents in a physical set-up.

Remember, your agents are your biggest assets. Leverage workplace collaboration tools, AI and workforce experience technologies to manage their experience.

Partnering with an experienced managed service provider (MSP) can help ensure the ‘Work from Anywhere’ model is a success in your contact centre. Provisioning, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Security, Integration and Change Management and Training are the five key elements to discuss when choosing your managed service provider (MSP). Does your MSP make it simple to establish a contact centre and transition to the cloud from legacy architecture? How efficient in your MSP’s backup and redundancy capabilities in supporting your Business Continuity Planning? Is your MSP able to simplify the integration process and ensure there is no data loss during this process? Does your provider enable a seamless transition for the team?

Work with an MSP that can support a holistic Customer Experience (CX) vision and can help take your business operations to the next level. Their expertise should not be limited to contact centres but should be across managed and hosted services, digital services, security, cloud, and data centre services.

For more information on how these recommendations will inform your contact centre in 2021, download Nexon’s latest eBook here.