Call Center Depot News & Information

Work at Home, a Call Center Option

Faced with falling customer satisfaction rates and rising costs, companies in recent years have been searching for solutions. For some years, companies experimented with off-shore outsourcing, building call center sites in locations such as India, the Philippines, and Malaysia, where cheap land and labor, along with a large English-speaking population were available. However, a new alternative is visible on the horizon, which may be even more promising than outsourcing. This is the home-based agent model.

The home-based agent model is one version of a virtual call center, in which agents take or place calls from their own homes. Equipped with a browser, a PC, and a telephone, agents are ready to work. While challenges with this model exist, benefits are attractive, and an increasing number of businesses are piloting programs that use home-based agents. This article considers the major advantages and challenges involved in shifting toward this model.

Home-based agents can represent great savings for a company, if proper planning precedes the shift. Traditionally, the single largest expense in any call-handling model is agent labor. A recent report from Forrester Research Inc. reports that home-based agents accept between 5-15% lower rates of pay in exchange for the convenience of working from their own home. This trade-off is advantageous for both parties, since agents save on costs related to commute, wardrobe, and other work-related expenses. In addition, it is easier for home-based agents to accommodate split shifts. In the traditional model, agents must be scheduled for 3-4 hours at a time. This isn’t the case with home-based agents. Companies can schedule home-based agents during peak hours only, saving the cost of operation during lower production periods of the day. Businesses using home-based agents also save on the costs of running a large facility full-time.

Even more promising are some early reports showing that high-quality agents perform even better when working from home! Businesses using home-based agents are not restricted by a geographical area, and can therefore recruit from a larger pool of candidates. This means they can be more selective when it comes to the quality of their workforce. This factor has no doubt contributed to the low employee turnover rate reported with home-based agents. By hiring carefully-screened, proven agents and monitoring regularly for quality and performance, businesses avoid the challenges that arise from the lack of regular meetings and physical presence.

Switching to a home-based agent model does involve some risk. Strong policies for the handling of information become necessary because of the increased exposure to external breeches. Another potential disadvantage for using home-based agents is that problems with products and services may take longer to identify, whereas a flood of incoming calls to one center can command instant attention.

Yet another difficulty encountered by companies adopting the home-based agent model is in technical support and training. If agents are dispersed over a wide area it becomes hard to provide training. More subtle tips, hints, and examples usually shared by employees in the break room are impossible for home-based agents to access. Therefore, employers should provide a way to exchange communication and provide training to their home-based employees.

Probably the factor holding back most companies from adopting a full-fledged home-based agent model is their investment in an existing traditional call center infrastructure. While new companies may consider this a viable alternative, traditional companies may do well to initiate smaller pilot programs, starting with five home-based agents and growing as their operations expand.

About the Author
ob Daniels comments on Call Centers at Call Center Depot http://www.call-center-depot.com and develops content for Call Center Tools http://www.call-center-tools.com