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With technology from Database Systems Corp., the concept of a virtual call center is now a practical reality. Consider having your call center workforce accepting and making calls from remote offices or even from home. Also consider having monitoring and control technology in place to make this scenario possible. Perhaps even your supervisors are working from home as well. Also consider having a phone system that answers your customer inquiries on its own, but with agents available if ever needed. This phone system can even contact your customers or prospects with announcements and alerts.
Allowing your employees to work from home gives you a competitive edge over traditional call centers. Now you can hire highly qualified individuals who could not otherwise commute to your center. Handicapped individuals, single parents and the elderly can now become an integral part of your remote workforce.
The following is an article relating to telecommuting technology products and services.
Just Don't Ask If They're in PJs
Newsweek, Feb 2005
Feb. 21 issue - That operator taking your next order may not be in Mumbai; she might be sitting in her bedroom. A growing number of companies are hiring U.S. home-based call agents as an alternative to more expensive in-house operators or less-qualified offshore call centers.
OFFICE DEPOT HIRES WORK FROM HOME AGENTS
Office Depot saves 30 or 40 percent on the cost of each call because it's not providing work space or benefits for its home-based call-center workers, says Julian Carter, the company's director of operations. JetBlue's entire reservation system is handled by 900 home-based workers in Salt Lake City. The company claims it allows them high worker retention and more satisfied customers, along with blizzard-proof phone operations.
The home-based phone phenomenon has grown rapidly, and more than 100,000 workers are now answering calls from their homes, according to research firm IDC. That's largely because phone and broadband technology now makes it simple for companies to forward their calls to home-based workers and allow them access to internal corporate database systems, says Merle Sandler, an IDC analyst.
Some companies that outsourced their call centers to workers in other countries are finding themselves disappointed with the results. Some are hiring their own home-based phone workers; others are contracting out to companies like Willow CSN Inc. in Miramar, Fla., a firm that runs call centers for other companies.
JetBlue says customers think home-based workers are friendlier and happier, and home-based workers like the fact they can use their breaks to throw in a load of laundry or defrost dinner, says JetBlue's G. R. Badger. The commute's nice, too.
Virtual Call Center Phone System
The heart of a virtual call center is the phone system. Our PACER Predictive Dialer phone system supports call center remote agents that log in from remote offices or from home. PACER tracks each telecommuter agent separately and can route inbound calls to these agents as if they were working locally. Likewise, remote agents can initiate outbound calls and PACER can even route predictive dialer calls to these same telecommute agents. This telecommuter phone system has voice monitoring capability that lets your supervisors audit the quality of the remote agents, ensuring that the service and support provided by your remote agents are of the highest standards.
CRM Applications for Work At Home Agents
Remote agent work at home capability is a standard feature of our award winning CRM Software, TELEMATION.
Telephone functions and call recording are some of the many features available within this product. Complete contact management, call history, order entry, literature fulfillment are just a few of the applications that can be managed using this call center telecommuting software system. Telemation campaigns can be developed with telephony features defined on a campaign wide basis as well as per individual agent. Plus Telemation lets you provide your agents with selective telephone functions including a call record button.
Expand Your Employment Opportunities
Allowing your employees to work from home gives you a
competitive edge over traditional call centers. Now
you can hire highly qualified individuals who could
not otherwise commute to your center. Handicapped
individuals, single parents and the elderly can now
become an integral part of your remote workforce.
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