The Future of Contact Centres After COVID-19

Dorottya Márton of VCC Live investigates how the contact centre industry may change in a post-COVID world.

While some contact centres faced serious issues when suddenly having to go remote during the global trend of mobility restrictions, others were quick to adapt by using cloud-based, omnichannel services, such as VCC Live.

As we have written in a recent case study, even companies that previously used on-premise systems were able to quickly shift their operations onto VCC Live’s cloud software in a matter of a few days.

By using cloud-based software, contact centres were able to grapple with the challenges of a global lockdown and build a steady base of remote agents.

With contact centres investing in a remote workforce due to mobility restrictions, it is relevant to start thinking about what this means for the future of contact centres.

Now that most contact centres shifted have their operations, how will they continue to function in a post-pandemic world?

The Current State of Affairs

Based on a recent study, remote contact centres might actually be here to stay. Most employers plan to allow their employees to continue working remotely after the pandemic. This includes 68% of employers in retail-related contact centres and 70% of employers running a healthcare contact centre.

While this change has come out of crisis management considerations for most, there is a strong case for leaders deciding to stay remote even after the end of the pandemic, changing the future of contact centres as we know it.

The reasons that leaders choose to stay remote include cost and time efficiency, employee well-being, and safety. 57% of companies surveyed believe that remote work will improve employee well-being, which leads to more productivity, as we have previously written.

Additionally, not having to maintain an office proves to be more cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable.

According to the same study, the cost of office space per agent is around $8300 per year, meaning that a 50-agent contact centre saves more than $200,000 per year by allowing part-time remote work.

Safety also seems to be a significant concern when thinking about the future of contact centres. 46% of the surveyed companies state that relying on a remote workforce will help keep their operations afloat in future unforeseen circumstances.

Finally, most companies feel that the remote technologies that they use work better than they expected.

What This Means for You

If you are running a contact centre, you are likely facing one of the following scenarios: you either have implemented remote technologies or do not have them yet.

In the case that you are already running a cloud-based contact centre, start thinking about shifting more of your contact centre operation to work remotely and make sure that you are running your remote operations on safe and reliable systems.

If you are still running on-premise systems, start thinking about investing in cloud-based technologies that support remote work.

In either case, remember to choose software that is easy to set up, does not require sophisticated technical requirements on the agent side and provides maximum data security.

Recent global mobility restrictions have fundamentally changed the way that businesses operate, and contact centres are no exception.

While changing modes of operation have been challenging to most, changes have also brought along with them the realization that remote-working agents can be just as or even more effective in terms of productivity and cost-efficiency.

If you haven’t reconsidered your operations it might be time to do so.

This news story has been re-published by kind permission of VCC Live – View the original post

For more information about VCC Live, visit www.vcc.live