Talkdesk Launch a New Job Platform for Contact Centre Agents

Talkdesk have announced the release of Talkdesk CXTalent, a talent job platform for agents, supervisors and system administrators that connects skilled individuals seeking work-from-home jobs with innovative companies hiring contact centre workforce.

Talkdesk CXTalent, product #14 in the Talkdesk 20-in-20 program, helps companies in need of well-trained customer service staff to alleviate the additional inbound support pressure many industries are experiencing as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Simultaneously, Talkdesk CXTalent shows new employment opportunities for both customer service industry veterans and newcomers. With free training available through Talkdesk Academy, job-seekers can develop essential skills through four progressive levels of coursework and Talkdesk certifications.

The customer service industry has seen a unique, dual-front impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Many organizations are experiencing drastic losses in revenue and subsequent workforce reductions, while others find themselves short-handed.

Verizon and Halifax have closed call centres, leading to thousands of newly unemployed customer service agents. Other customer service providers, such as state unemployment agencies and remote-friendly companies, are seeing significant spikes in customer service traffic and face workforce shortages.

Some companies are turning to business process outsourcers (BPO) for additional customer service support to quickly meet this rise in demand, resulting in service level challenges. The combination of Talkdesk CXTalent and Talkdesk Academy offers a multi-layer solution to bring employers, BPOs and job-seekers together.

“Social distancing recommendations and shelter-in-place requirements are forcing some contact centres to shut down if they are unable, or unwilling, to move contact centres to the cloud and allow agents to work from home,” said Tiago Paiva, chief executive officer, Talkdesk.

“The combination of Talkdesk Academy and Talkdesk CXTalent offers solutions for both the people whose employment is a COVID-19 casualty and the businesses seeing a surge in support exceeding their workforce capacity.”

Talkdesk CXTalent is a gig-economy job platform fed by Talkdesk Academy and open to any Talkdesk customer looking to hire talent. Talkdesk customers and BPO partners can find qualified and certified candidates on the Talkdesk CXTalent marketplace and hire with ease to fill open roles, scale up business during busy times or augment current staff due to shortages.

Talkdesk CXTalent uses artificial intelligence (AI), powered by Talkdesk iQ, to pair job-seekers with organizations ready and willing to hire for remote contact centre roles.

The system utilizes Talkdesk iQ to group and pair potential candidates with open roles based on experience, skills and certifications.

Customer service providers can easily add and scale contact centre operations with available, certified professionals ranging from agent to advanced administration level.

“I believe Talkdesk CXTalent can transform contact centre staffing,” said Patrícia Loureiro, global director of customer service, Farfetch.

“The option to add trained and certified agents, who have been grouped in terms of performance, anywhere in the world, will help companies scale customer service teams faster and in places where currently they have no local offices or support.”

Talkdesk Academy offers no-cost training and certification on the Talkdesk platform for any person, regardless of contact centre experience. All job-seekers can bolster their candidate profile with training and certifications from Talkdesk Academy with AI-driven recommendations of additional skills to make candidates more successful in the market.

Talkdesk Academy follows a multi-tier process to prepare agents, supervisors and administrators with best practices, techniques and hands-on instruction in using, managing and administering Talkdesk for remote cloud contact centre service and support operations.

Talkdesk Academy graduates receive badges and credentials to confirm competencies and increase the graduate’s value to employers.

The value-add benefits of Talkdesk Academy certification extends beyond the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic impact and carries through to the larger contact centre market for future needs.

“The combination of Talkdesk Academy and Talkdesk CXTalent offers a single solution for a complicated problem: the rapid rise of unemployment which is contributing to a rapid rise in customer service needs without a deep enough talent pool to meet this need,” said Dr Shauna Geraghty, senior vice president, head of people and operations at Talkdesk.

“Talkdesk CXTalent offers an unlimited talent pool of skilled contact centre and customer service professionals, helps identify which candidates fit roles best and reduces traditional constraints on the hiring process for a shortened hiring timeline.”