Call Center 2.0

Continued Q&A From Recent Call Center At-Home Agents Webinar

  

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Michele Rowan, CEO of Customer Contact Strategies, specializes in helping call centers move customer contacts home.  As former VP of Hilton Hotels Corporation, Michele led the expansion from 200 to over 1000 agents.  She has written a ‘Go Home' Tool Kit, and conducts workshops on the subject throughout the US.  See http://www.gohome.us.com/ for both.  Michele, a guest on our recent webinar, provided her answers to the following questions on the subject of call center at-home agent programs:

1.  What is the most appropriate supervisor-to-agent ratio for at-home agents?

Generally, at-home agents are of higher caliber than in-house agents as documented by Frost & Sullivan research.   The part-time at-home workforce demographics include: 

• average age of 38 (vs. in house of 23)
• 80% with some college (vs. 30% in-house)
• 40% with some management experience  

For organizations that hire to this demographic, a slightly higher supervisor-to-agent ratio could be warranted, in that this more experienced and mature workforce requires less instruction, coaching and touch.  My recommendation for a launch, however, would be to use identical ratios to in-house with adjustments later once processes and leadership are settled and comfortable in their role.

If an organization is considering varied processes or business practices for at-home agents vs. in-house, or is considering hiring at-home agents more closely aligned to the demographics of in-house agents, then the ratio will need to be carefully reviewed at start-up.

2.  What equipment does the at-home agent need and who provides it?

There are two approaches to at-home equipment:

• The company purchases and provides all or some and what is not provided, the company makes recommendations on purchases (i.e. desk phones and headsets).
• The employee owns all equipment, and the company makes recommendations on purchases and minimum requirements on the operating system and memory.

In both cases, at-home agents need an ISP connection and dedicated work space including desk and chair.   They need a computer (either company provided or employee owned) with recommended RAM of 512MB or higher; they need the required operating system dictated by the company, and they need a monitor and keyboard. 

 In addition, home agents need dedicated phone access (either provided through the internet or standard land line) and connectivity to the proprietary application they will be using on behalf of their employer.    At-home agents need a headset for audio interaction and, depending on the mode of audio interaction required by the employer, may need a business class phone (to accept incoming calls).  When calls are delivered on a standard land line, I recommend a Plantronics S11 or S12 headset that can be purchased at many office supply outlets.  Plantronics is the leading supplier of headsets and by far the best in terms of quality.

Hear a replay of the full webinar on call center at-home agent programs.