9 Tips for Managing Remote Contact Center Agents

Written by KOVA Corp

With a growing number of organizations taking advantage of the cost savings associated with at-home, or remote call center agents, managers are learning new ways of overseeing and guiding these employees.  Best practices associated with managing remote agents are similar to what works well in leading traditional contact centers: hiring the right people, who are not only qualified, but motivated, as well as, providing the right work environment and technology needed to do the work. However, at-home agents also need to be skilled enough to be able to figure out minor issues on their own. Additionally, if you're not careful, the old adage "Out of sight, out of mind", will hold true for your remote agents. Contact center managers must be careful to not forget about remote agents, keeping them looped in to any new changes, developments, procedures, etc. so that they can operate at the same level as in-house agents.

Here are a few other best practices to follow when leading a remote staff.

1. Include assessment tools in the hiring process to evaluate potential candidates making sure they not only have the necessary contact center skills, but that they are also self-starters and be able to work well independently.

2.  Consider establishing a trial period for a designated amount of time to make sure the agent can do the job well remotely.

3. Utilize eLearning/coaching software applications to offer training programs on the products, processes, company objectives, and so on. Provide remote workers with the same training opportunities they would get if they worked on site.

4. Clearly document and communicate company policies and procedures as well as job responsibilities and requirements, procedures and policies for remote workers.

5. Develop a formal communication program for supervisors and remote agents. There should also be a clearly defined process for escalating inquiries to supervisors.

6. Be sure to provide remote agents with access to all online or printed product and service information. This may require you to ship documents to remote agents when they come on board.

7. Set regular quality monitoring sessions for remote agent performance evaluations. As with all agents, be sure to provide regular, scheduled feedback and don't forget to involve remote agents in all department-wide quality monitoring and training activities.

8. Be sure to recognize remote agents for a job well done.

9. Always include remote agents in all team meetings and training activities. If your staff is 100% remote, conduct team meetings at least once a week to ensure that your team is connected and interacting well with one another. Try to be creative in identifying ways to create a sense of connectedness and team work.

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