27% Call Centers to switch to Work-From-Home Permanently: Study

A study undertaken by Ozonetel has unveiled interesting insights pertaining to the call centre industry. The study reveals that 27% call Centres will switch to Work-from-Home permanently in the upcoming years post pandemic. This study is done by Ozonetel on 50 organizations to uncover the state of the call centre agents during COVID-19 lockdown.

“We have analysed various metrics to determine and understand trends in customer experience, as well as agent efficiency as call centres, switch to work from home,” said Chaitanya Chokkareddy, chief innovation officer, Ozonetel on contact centres moving to work from home.

Key findings of the report:

Drop in agent productivity: 53% businesses reported a drop in productivity of call center agents. Some of the challenges they listed were Internet connectivity issues, Telecom issues, practical constraints of work from home such as lack of privacy, space, noise cancellation, lack of desktops and laptops.

Barriers to agent productivity: 71% of call center agents mentioned internet connectivity as the biggest barriers to agent productivity followed by telecom issues by 42%. The study found that while 61% call center agents were happy with work from structure initially, gradually their motivation levels dropped.

Work From Home will continue in call centre industry: In spite of all challenges, most companies continue to realise the risk that commute and working from office pose. 55% call centres are letting agents opt for work from home, while 16% are not opening offices, and keeping work from home mandatory.

Some contact centres will permanently switch to Work-From-Home: 27% call centres see work from home or work from anywhere, as a viable long-term strategy and are planning to switch to work from home permanently. What is interesting is that an equal number want to return to office as soon as possible. They do not see 100% work from home as a viable long-term solution.

Create robust Work-From-Home processes: Many call centres have seen the value in creating a robust work from home process even if they do not switch to work from home permanently, or if they are still undecided. 38% call centres will create a robust work from home process.

Many of the productivity challenges that call center agents face, can be solved when provided with better hardware such as better handsets, better headsets, laptops or desktops, direct telecom DID numbers, reimbursement of Wi-Fi charges. When companies reimburse Wi-Fi, agents can opt for better plans and ensure better connectivity. These are some of the things that Contact Centres can provide the agents to make work from home viable.