A SYKES E-BOOK
The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
1The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
Contents
Chapter One: A Crisis Unlike Any Other.....................................................................................................3
Chapter Two: The Better Normal Call Center Roadmap ...................................................................... 5
Overview............................................................................................................................................................... 6
Current State of Call Centers .......................................................................................................................... 6
Triage vs. Strategic WAH ..................................................................................................................................7
The “Better Normal” .......................................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter Three: The Crisis Workstream & Immediate Next Steps .....................................................10
The Crisis Workstream ......................................................................................................................................11
Immediate Next Steps ......................................................................................................................................12
Hot Spots — People & Processes .................................................................................................................13
Hot Spots — Technology .................................................................................................................................15
Chapter Four: The Better Normal Workstream ......................................................................................16
The Better Normal Workstream ....................................................................................................................17
The Plan ...............................................................................................................................................................18
Immediate Next Steps ......................................................................................................................................19
Looking Ahead — People & Processes ......................................................................................................20
Looking Ahead — Technology ......................................................................................................................22
Chapter Five: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 27
2The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
A Crisis Unlike Any OtherChapter One:
3The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
While business continuity plans exist for nearly every
company, most were still caught by surprise by the onset
of COVID-19 and the myriad impacts that accompanied it.
Not only did those impacts affect day-to-day operations
in a general sense, they held enormous weight for local
organizations. Government ordinances required employees
to social distance, and in some cases, those edicts required
businesses to shut down entirely.
The ubiquity of the novel coronavirus has all but ensured
companies are forced to pivot in order to maintain their
business continuity. On a global scale, quickly shifting work
environments from one location to another is something few
operations were prepared for.
From a call center perspective, difficulties were compounded
by severe operational problems. To further complicate
matters, there has been little consensus around the world
for economic and health guidelines, creating widespread
confusion and questions with no real answers.
However, one thing is certain as organizations learn from
COVID-19 and prepare for other contingencies moving
forward: Many organizations will regain their footing and be
successful. Others can expect a more disappointing future.
The difference between the two will be determined by the
changes they make to their preparedness processes.
As many speak to the “new normal” and ramp up their
operations accordingly, prepared companies will heed
specific guidance for their brick-and-mortar call centers to
help them prepare for future challenges and opportunities.
Although the “new normal” has been a widely accepted
descriptor of our changing times, companies making
significant adjustments to their operations are preparing
themselves for another phase, or a “better normal,” which
will sustain their operations well beyond this initial crisis and
pave the way for organizational success.
Chapter One: A Crisis Unlike Any Other
4The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
The Better Normal Call Center Roadmap
Chapter Two:
5The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
OVERVIEW
The call center industry is currently living through an
extraordinary disruption of working environments, operating
models and associated technologies. This has put an enormous
focus on immediate solutions for operations crippled by stay-at-
home mandates and safe-distancing policies.
There are serious concerns about maintaining service levels
amid an uncertain future. However, while immediate solutions for
issues in the call center industry are crucial, the importance of
looking beyond those issues to emerging challenges is growing.
This roadmap has been designed to address both immediate
and developing call center challenges.
CURRENT STATE OF CALL CENTERS
It’s important to recognize that much of what’s going on right
now in the call center industry is not planned. Companies
are moving beyond their traditional business continuity and
disaster recovery plans to adapt for contingencies such as
stay-at-home ordinances.
Without a plan for such contingencies, it’s referred to as
triage: companies paying attention to, and acting upon, their
most critical and immediate priorities. And ensuring trained
employees can continue doing their jobs is precisely what this
triage is focused upon. It’s completely reactive and a rational
course of action. But it’s not a plan.
Chapter Two: The Better Normal Call Center Roadmap
Objective Goal
Create a complementary
framework
Prepare leadership to optimize business continuity planning, security
and operational decision-making for call centers in the better normal
Create a useful,
down-to-earth framework
Equip call center leaders to draw rapid-response contingency plans
for transitioning brick-and-mortar agents to at-home environments
6The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
TRIAGE VS. STRATEGIC WAH
SYKES was in the fortunate position of having three operational
models that prepared for an event like a pandemic. Those
models provided the expertise and experience to smoothly
transition people and equipment while maintaining operations
and customer service levels. That transition benefited from
precise knowledge of the new state: a strategic work-at-home
solution, distinct from reactively working from home as a triage
solution. The three models are:
• SYKESHome (work-at-home agents)
• Hub-and-spoke (combining on-site with remote agents)
• Brick-and-mortar (in small, rural towns as well as urban areas)
Having years of experience with work-at-home
agents was crucial in three ways:
Virtual training resources were immediately available
to support agents accustomed to on-site classrooms
and coaches being just down the hallway
Agents leaving brick-and-mortar had a seamless
transition to infrastructure that replicated on-site
capability and technology that provided the virtual
equivalent of on-site operational support
Everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the
newest agent, knew work-at-home is very different
from brick-and-mortar
While work-at-home and brick-and-mortar perform almost
identically, a virtual center's performance results come from
specifically designed governance, management, technology and
operational processes. There were no illusions it was just a case
of changing the location of the agent’s computer.
“While work-at-home and brick-and-mortar
perform almost identically, a virtual center’s
performance results come from specifically
designed governance, management,
technology and operational processes.”
SYKES’ hub-and-spoke model, on the other hand, gives brick-
and-mortar operations the option of allowing agents to work from
their homes for varying periods of time. It’s proven highly popular
with agents — and customers — because our brick-and-mortar
centers can react to greater demand without facility constraints.
Our hub-and-spoke experience brings value by teaching the
organization real-world lessons on the differences between work-
at-home (SYKESHome) and work-from-home (hub-and-spoke).
The biggest takeaway? Many on-site people don’t fit the profile
for a high-performing, happy-at-home agent. We’ll go into those
differences in greater detail later.
2.
3.
1.
7The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
THE “BETTER NORMAL”
While COVID-19 was the catalyst for
change into a “better normal,” it is
far from the only feasible future high-
impact event. The most prepared
companies are ready for any
contingency, whether it is due to a
local event such as a hurricane or a
global one such as a pandemic.
"While COVID-19 was the
catalyst for change into
a “better normal,” it is far
from the only feasible
future high-impact event."
For the latter contingency, the historical
timeline for vaccine research and
distribution is around 18 months, with
the virus projected to remain active in
cycles of diminishing severity over that
time. Meanwhile, call center operations
will adjust and optimize, customer
intents and behaviors will change, and
new technologies will emerge.
8The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
Ultimately, the work-at-home model has a unique ability to recruit specialized talent from a much broader geography than a brick-
and-mortar facility. This makes it possible to begin remote operations slowly and deliberately by listening to existing customers.
It’s not unusual for companies to have customer groups that need agents with vertical-specific credentials or training, such as
healthcare licensing or technical certifications — precisely the people work-at-home is good at finding, training and retaining.
Some thoughts on how the better normal is beginning to manifest:
Call center operations: Many are expected to
stay predominately in the work-at-home model.
The efficacy of brick-and-mortar centers will
depend largely upon location and will be
redesigned to accommodate safe distancing.
Retention: In SYKES' experience, is that there’s a
personal profile that fits remote work, and it stands
to reason many people sent to virtual offices don’t
match it. Call centers should expect higher-than-
normal attrition rates over the coming months.
Workforce management: Call volumes will remain
high and call center capacity will be challenged by
attrition, work environments and remote training.
Successfully handling call traffic with available
agents will require greater flexibility and adaptability.
Channel adoption: Challenges within the call center
workforce will make a return to normal wait times
unlikely. This will cause customers to reconsider chat and
messaging channels as alternatives to voice. Many will
find these options, particularly messaging, appealing.
9The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
The Crisis Workstream & Immediate Next Steps
Chapter Three:
10The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
THE CRISIS WORKSTREAM
As noted earlier, call centers spent the first few
months of the COVID-19 pandemic performing
triage — not unlike what takes place in a hospital
emergency room — which is focused on the most
important and urgent operational threats.
When triage takes place, it’s equally important for call
center leadership to create a crisis workstream —
owned by a team that’s a cross-section of the people,
processes and technology organizations. The crisis
workstream has objectives similar to triage — protection
of core operations. The difference is this workstream is
focused on imminent, but not immediate threats.
Chapter Three: The Crisis Workstream
& Immediate Next Steps
11The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS
At-home eligibility: For fast, effective, work-at-home
deployments, assess the suitability of each on-site worker for
virtual offices. Will they need a personal computer? Do they
live alone, with family members, roommates? Have they been
trained for work beyond their current job?
Regional regulations: Accurate by-country regulatory
information, along with compliance procedures and reporting
requirements, will expedite work distribution across geographies.
Contractual compliance: Is any on-site work restricted
from home environments? If so, determine if revisions are
necessary and feasible.
Security: Enable secure computing, access and phone calls
to ensure multi-factor authentication, VDI or VPN compliance,
and softphone compliance (such as by using models with the
latest WebRTC codecs, encryption and decryption).
Workforce collaboration: Compensate for the fact that agents
and their coaches aren’t co-located in the same building
anymore. Can agents “virtually” raise their hand for a quick
chat while the customer is on hold? Are coaches able to listen
to agent conversations and whisper guidance in their ear?
Workforce management: Use technology to your advantage.
Flexible scheduling, effective communication and real-time
dashboards help usher in the better normal without wondering
“who’s doing what?”
Training: Is there a concise, digestible, work-at-home
curriculum available for experienced brick-and-mortar agents?
Voice deflection: Are callers informed of and encouraged
to use your self-service tools and alternative methods
of communication (e.g., mobile apps or website)?
Background checks: Background information from
governmental agencies may be very slow or unavailable. If so,
what alternatives does HR recommend for new hires?
HR accuracy: Make certain HR has accurate, updated, verified
agent contact information, then distribute both soft and hard
copies to all managers and supervisors.
Stay in contact: Regular communication is a best practice, but
frequency needs to be elevated for work-at-home operations.
12The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
HOT SPOTS — PEOPLE & PROCESSES
Transition attrition: Unlike agents specifically recruited for
work-at-home, the first-year attrition rate for on-site workers
shifting to work-at-home is around 50%.
In the current climate, everyone with a job is happy to have
one. As that changes, expect significant turnover if transfers
back to brick-and-mortar aren’t available. It may be possible
to mitigate turnover by creatively and interactively addressing
questions like, “How do I reach this supervisor? ”or “How do
I get my training off-site?” For people accustomed to working
in brick-and-mortar, these queries could be answered through
conversations with colleagues.
"Working from home during the coronavirus
pandemic — and generally hunkering down
amid stay-at-home orders — mixes multiple
aspects of life. That can be a recipe for stress.
For those accustomed to large offices and
co-worker interactions, it’s a drastic change."
- “Stopping the stress of working from home,” American Heart Association News, March 26, 2020.
Productivity and efficiency slumps: To avoid negative impacts
to the health and well-being of agents new to their work-at-
home roles, implement a plan that encourages them to:
• Follow familiar routines, not only for themselves but also for
their families.
• Maintain balance to avoid burnout and guard against “job
creep.” Don’t allow agents to work more hours without approval.
They need to take breaks as they did in brick-and-mortar.
• Exercise regularly.
• Know their benefits and use them, particularly for assistance
or counseling programs.
• Use interactive voice response (IVR) scripts to share
information with customers. This will help customers
understand long wait times or background noise.
Also, encourage managers and supervisors to:
• Be adaptive with scheduling — for example, experiment with
shorter shifts without breaks.
• Consider doubling coaching time to strengthen engagement.
• Temporarily relax goals and metrics.
• Temporarily increase resolution authority.
• Be transparent with team and individual metrics.
• Have frequent, individual contact using video
whenever possible.
13The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
Be aware that this health and well-being coin has two sides: The agents are
working in an unfamiliar environment and call volume is not only exploding,
customer intents are also more urgent and complex.
Training gaps: A changed work environment typically causes unanticipated
changes to formerly familiar policies and procedures. Evaluate and determine if
it makes sense to create a series of targeted training on common but important
items like how to communicate from home or how to do payroll remotely.
Limited training time: Companies are discovering that lower on-site seating
capacities, combined with work-at-home difficulties, require hiring new employees
who must be trained in very short time periods. One approach is to deliver an intent-
based training, with targeted learning limited to only the highest volume intents. This
tactic can be supplemented by proactive channel strategies and self-service.
Does targeted training and learning come across as complicated initiatives that
can’t fit into your “immediate” bucket? That’s not the case, as these two examples
of quick learning and training from www.athome.sykes.com make clear.
Work at Home Teach at HomeAdjusting to Your New Environment
Tips for Teaching & Facilitating Online
14The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
HOT SPOTS — TECHNOLOGY
Virtual training: The move to remote work has undermined
a foundational training asset — the classroom. In order to
compensate, call center operators need VILT (Virtual, Instructor-Led
Training) technology and the infrastructure to support it at scale.
VILT enables groups of people — in different locations — to learn
together in real time so the learning can emulate the interaction found
in a physical classroom. Common features on vendor platforms are:
VOIP, audio/video conferencing, recording, screen-sharing, chat,
reporting and polling.
Top vendors include:
Cisco WebEx Training Center: Features a
common whiteboard that each student can
see and write, draw and brainstorm upon.
Adobe Connect: Enables students to form
small groups for learning activities — where
they share documents and a whiteboard. The
instructor can move from one group to another.
Jigsaw Meeting: Features dynamic
polling, enabling the instructor to increase
interaction through gamification like
knowledge checks and contests.
Microsoft Teams: Features video
conferencing and instant messaging
capabilities for ongoing communication.
Audio quality: With large numbers of
remote agents, utilizing a wide ISP range,
monitoring technology that measures audio
for quality and background noise is required
to maintain consistent quality standards.
15The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
The Better Normal Workstream
Chapter Four:
16The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
THE BETTER NORMAL WORKSTREAM
Ultimately, to emerge from crisis in a strong competitive
position, brick-and-mortar centers must focus on creating
and implementing an agile and robust solution framework.
We recommend building two complementary teams:
• A Crisis team that addresses immediate threats to core
operational areas
• A Better Normal team with two responsibilities:
• In collaboration with the Crisis team, build concise action
plans for emerging, longer-term operational threats
• Support rapid and informed senior management
decisions by iterating better normal scenarios along with
associated recommendations
These teams will work in tandem to ensure greater
preparedness for future contingencies as well as to help
people adjust and maintain operational excellence.
This plan is one step ahead of triage activities but still focused
on imminent threats — the here and now. In contrast, the
point of the Better Normal team is to maintain an outlook of
months and quarters to give senior leadership an evolving,
strategic plan that guides decision-making in a consistent and
responsive way.
The Better Normal team should work collaboratively with
the Crisis team, operational groups and industry analysts
to gather the data and intelligence needed to create those
scenarios and associated collateral.
While the Crisis team is comprised of key individuals who
have likely been actively involved in ongoing triage activities,
the Better Normal team should consist of well-regarded
directors from key operational and financial groups, headed
by an executive with open-door CEO availability and deep
Chapter Four: The Better Normal Workstream
17The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
familiarity with senior leaders.
THE PLAN
Start out with the three-year (or your company’s timeline)
strategic plan, which will provide planning assumptions, along
with details of decisions and dependencies within financial
projections and upcoming initiatives.
Next, develop a range of scenarios across upcoming months
and the next several quarters. Look at the financial assumptions
and the decision-making criteria around major initiatives, then
critique both in light of the current environment.
Now, put those financial assumptions and decision rationale
into one of three buckets: the good, the bad and the ugly.
Which bucket holds the most significant financial assumptions,
and which holds initiatives with the highest capital expenditures?
Which bucket holds the least and the lowest? Finally, run this past
the Crisis team — is there anything on their radar to consider?
This exercise provides the Better Normal team with a good
sense of any urgent, critical strategic issues and a starting
point for iterating scenarios for the next months and quarters.
From there, the team can try to predict how governments and
18The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
central banks, for example, will react to those scenarios.
IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS
Analyze costs: Shifting from in-center to from-home support
services often leaves little time to determine how this business
model disruption affects call center profitability. Analyzing the
costs of these changes will help you prepare for the unexpected.
Refine activity analysis reporting: How quickly and accurately
is management able to identify dominant call actions and
trends? Reporting should be able to show what grouping
of agent activities take up 75% of their time and how that
grouping is — or isn’t — changing.
Scrutinize remote technical support: The sudden and massive
shift from on-site to at-home agents has also radically shifted
the nature of technical support from brick-and-mortar to home-
based environments. Any service-level shortfalls should be
March 27-29, 2020
Auto loan 13%
61%
23%
12%
11%
10%
3%
5%
Business loan
Credit card
Home equity line or loan
Mortgage
Personal loan
Student loan
None of the above
Very prepared
51%
14%
30%
4%
Somewhat prepared
Not prepared at all
Don’t know
quickly addressed and improvement opportunities seized.
Evaluate knowledge base effectiveness: While call center
operations typically have a knowledge base, many fall
short of being robust and easily searched by agents, which
undermines agent efficiency, training effectiveness and
information consistency.
Assess customer intent tracking: The graphs below tell a
compelling story of how the novel coronavirus has affected the
financial health of many customers. Is a similar story reflected
in customer intent shifts within your reporting and analytics? If
not, is the internal data consistent with anecdotal feedback from
agents and supervisors? Any discrepancies should be carefully
scrutinized for root causes and fixes applied.
Identify pilot opportunities: Triage and Crisis team activities in
areas such as agent engagement, voice deflection and training
may also be opportunities to gain insights into lessons learned
Consumers rate their financial readiness for coronavirus impact
SOURCE: J.D. Power Covid-19 Pulse Survey © April 2020 The Financial Brand SOURCE: J.D. Power Covid-19 Pulse Survey © April 2020 The Financial Brand
Loan types for which consumers couldn't make minimum payment
19The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
and how to react in future situations.
LOOKING AHEAD — PEOPLE & PROCESSES
Adaptive service models: Despite the present confusion,
there are some common-sense assumptions to be made
about what will and won’t happen in the next 12 months:
• The traditional brick-and-mortar operating model won’t
be resurrected.
• High call volumes will gradually return to an
approximation of what they were before. However,
difficult economic times will continue, so customer intent
will also continue to be challenging for agents to handle
and resolve.
• The productivity and efficiency of the current work-from-
home workforce, originally hired for brick-and-mortar, will
become increasingly difficult to maintain.
• Training without classroom sessions will make the
onboarding of new agents slower and less effective.
Although each of these assumptions may turn out to be
incorrect in one way or other, the picture that emerges shows
that the current work-from-home model isn’t the permanent
fix. It’s time for call center leadership to begin working on
adaptable service models that will provide sustainable,
scalable and profitable outcomes.
Let’s take the SYKES hub-and-spoke model as an example.
It’s a successful from-home/on-site hybrid solution that’s grown in
popularity over the past several years and is very different from a
true work-at-home model, where the people hired are onboarded,
trained and work in a completely virtual manner.
Instead, hub-and-spoke agents are hired, trained and put into
production in brick-and-mortar centers. If performance meets
expectations, they have the option of rotating between work-at-
home and brick-and-mortar.
The hub-and-spoke model is a global model with the potential to
deliver a scalable mix of virtual and physical characteristics — an
20The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
effective starting point for service-model innovation.
Adaptive training models: With regard to the next 12 months, dropping distinctions between
training for work-at-home and brick-and-mortar is another common-sense position for call
centers to take. There are three reasons for this:
Effectiveness: There’s no question that training without classroom time is challenging.
However, there’s also no question that agent outcomes are unaffected. SYKESHome
and its brick-and-mortar agents are equally proficient after completing their virtual and
classroom training. We discovered the demands of virtual teaching drove investments
in technology, knowledge base and curriculum. And those investments produced
more efficacious processes and methodologies than in our classrooms.
Business continuity: It’s clear that, going forward, every call center agent must
be comfortable and successful with virtual training. Will classrooms be used when
available? Of course, but they cannot be an operational dependency again.
Talent recruitment: Working from home has become a mainstream activity that many
people prefer — if not permanently, then for some number of days of the month. Call
centers that train all employees to have that opportunity will have an advantage over
21The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
their competitors for the best talent.
LOOKING AHEAD — TECHNOLOGY
A secure endpoint is how agents access the applications
needed for work on the computers in their home. It’s important
for the Better Normal team to raise awareness that the security
of from-home endpoints also needs to be flexible.
Many companies supplied agents with PCs or workstations,
while some agents had their own personal computers. In the
great majority of these cases, companies used VDI to turn
those machines into secure endpoints in agent homes.
VDI is desktop virtualization: What the agent sees on their
computer screen is actually the projected image of an application
— delivered securely from a central server behind a firewall.
A familiar VDI example is Citrix. This software securely brings
Windows applications to local PCs (or Macs, mobile devices
or Chromebooks) by sending images of those applications
to the screens of logged-in computers. Citrix can also deliver
images of non-Windows applications to computers like
greenscreen emulators.
However, there are situations where VDI doesn’t meet the
agent’s or the company’s needs. Some support responsibilities
require high-performance components like a quad-core
processor or multimedia capabilities. Also, for an increasing
number of companies, VDI is old school.
The Better Normal team should work with IT to find a secure
endpoint solution that’s flexible enough for both scenarios.
SYKES uses container technology to create a completely
secure from-home endpoint by locking the PC down and
bringing it up in a clean state, with all ports, printing and screen
capture disabled. Agents can only store to the hard drive and, if
something is stored, it disappears when the agent reboots and
returns their PC to its normal, personal computer configuration.
Using container technology and an actual machine provides
great flexibility — if VDI is required, VDI can be used. If a
company wants the simplicity of locking down a PC and
securely running native software via the internet or a VPN,
they can do that as well.
Implementing contact center as a service (CCaaS) technology:
Legacy brick-and-mortar call center technology faces steep
challenges in adapting to at-home business models:
• Fast and seamless connectivity: On-premises systems
weren’t designed for inbound connections from working
environments with uneven ISP quality and performance.
• Specific from-home features: Remote agents need different
features than on-site agents. It’s why SYKESHome developed
22The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
a OneTEAM platform specifically for at-home agents.
OneTEAM: SYKES’ cloud-based workforce
management platform
• Shows supervisors when agents are idle or active
• Enables agents to virtually raise their hand for coaching
help during work
• Lets supervisors listen to calls and whisper advice
• Allows questions to be posted to the team for quick responses
• Measures agent metrics and displays them on a
real-time dashboard
Call centers facing remote agent support challenges will find
CCaaS a compelling possibility, particularly after taking these
four attributes into consideration.
• Speed of implementation
• Ease of connectivity to other cloud-based applications
• Highly capable portals and dashboards
• Consumption-based cost
Common CCaaS features include:
• Automatic call distribution (ACD) and interactive
voice response (IVR)
• Blended routing and queuing of voice and digital channels
such as email, web chat, SMS, social media and video
• A conversational assistant capability to support self-service
and assisted-service interactions and transactions
• Proactive contact, including outbound dialing, SMS and
push notifications
• Support of virtual operations, remote agents and subject
matter experts that reside outside the traditional contact
center operation
• Integration of workforce engagement management (WEM)
functionality, such as agent scheduling and forecasting, and
call/contact recording, into the CCaaS offering
• Capturing real-time and historical contact center performance
data, as well as leveraging curated knowledge bases to
Serenova
8x8
Genesys
Talkdesk
Vonage (NewVoiceMedia)
Five9
NICE inContact
Evolve IP
Aspect Software
Completeness of vision
Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, North AmericaSOURCE: Gartner (October 2019)
As of September 2019 © Gartner, Inc
Challengers Leaders
Niche Players Visionaries
Abili
ty to
exe
cute
Magic QuadrantMagic Quadrant
23The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
provide more effective self- and assisted-service interactions
Empowering channel transformation with automation:
Transforming channel mix has become a higher priority than
ever for every call center leader.
That’s because there’s been a collision between two very
powerful and opposing phenomena. On one side, call volume
has increased significantly as people cancel trips, negotiate bill
payments and so forth.
On the other side, thousands of agents are suddenly working
from home with new infrastructure and routines — right when
37%Yes, we have been able to successfully replace calls with cheaper or more convenient channels
33%No, our customers have stuck to the same channels they were using over the last few years, even though other options have become available
11%No, we have seen an overall increase in our contacts by opening up additional channel opportunities for customers
19%Not applicable, my company only handles interactions in one channel
Has your organization been successful with replacing calls
with contacts in cheaper or more convenient channels?
Deloitte: Global Contact Center Survey, 2019.
Monthly active users (in millions) of the most
popular messaging apps
Most popular global mobile messenger apps as of July 2019,
based on number of monthly active users (in millions)
Looking at the monthly active users of the top 3 most popular messaging
apps speaks for the popularity of these chat applications: The top 3 apps
WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat combine together more than
4 bilion active monthly users.
customers most want and need to speak to a real person.
Since call center management can’t hire and train as fast as
call volumes and wait times can build, any amount of deflection
from voice to other channels is imperative.
The main difficulty? Customers have always resisted service on
any channel except voice. And automation? Most customers
associate it with miserable experiences navigating IVR options.
Sources
We Are Social; Various sources (Company data);
Hootsuite; DataReportal
© Statista 2019
Facebook Messenger
QQ Mobile
Snapchat**
Viber*
Discord
Telegram
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260
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1600
800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Monthly active users in millions
Additional Information:
Worldwide; Various sources (Company data);
DataReportal; as of July 15, 2019
24The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
Fortunately, there are paths out of this problem.
Messaging — not chatbots: Although chatbots
seem to have cornered the hype on channel
innovation, it’s important for call centers to
focus instead on messaging — which has these
significant advantages over the chat channel:
Familiarity: Messaging use has soared to billions
of daily texts. Why try deflecting customers to
chatbots when they’re already so comfortable with
messaging? Now, Apple Business Chat, Google
Business Messaging and Facebook Messenger
have jumped on the bandwagon.
No time constraints: Just like a phone call, chats
must start — and be resolved — within a single
timespan. If the customer abandons the chat for
any reason, they have to start all over again. With
messaging, the customer and agent can stay
engaged for hours or days until resolution.
Concurrency soars: Since chats are one-time
activities like phone calls, they only raise agent
concurrency to 1:2. Messaging, on the other hand,
can elevate concurrency to 1:4. It’s as if the call
25The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
center just gained half of a full-time employee.
"A Facebook-commissioned Nielsen study
of global Facebook data found that 1 billion
people use Messenger each month. The
same study also found that 56% of those
surveyed would rather message than call
customer service."
- “Facebook for Business: Facebook IQ: Digital Research and Insights; How Messaging Moves Business
Customer experience (CX): Customers can start messaging
anytime without waiting for an available agent. They can
respond back quickly or slowly. Nothing must be repeated or
remembered — the text can be read and searched. Supporting
documents, pictures and links are easily sent.
Agent X: Messaging can be automated to reduce repetitive
steps, and team collaboration, robust coaching and knowledge
base searches are made much easier and more effective.
Implementing automation: Shifting the customer from voice
to less agent-centric channels is a good first step toward
greater agent bandwidth, but it’s not likely to be enough
to create the scalability needed to bring wait times and
other performance metrics back in line with service-level
expectations. To meet that goal, call centers will need to
deploy automation that will scale optimized channels to
greater performance.
Priorities: Increased bandwidth will be a top call center
objective for the foreseeable future. Since concurrency is
a reliable indicator of increased, same or lesser bandwidth,
messaging’s 1:4 concurrency marks it as the best channel
to begin automation. In fact, automation has the potential to
increase messaging concurrency by two or three times.
If you don’t have a messaging channel yet, move to your
chatbot and review any existing automation — does it reflect
current agent activity, or is it in need of updating and revision?
If you don’t have automated chatbots, consider implementing
a very simple step like automating an FAQ.
Robotic process automation (RPA): This software provides
the simplicity, agility and flexibility you’ll need to automate
channels quickly and effectively, without touching underlying
systems or databases.
26The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
ConclusionChapter Five:
27The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
CONCLUSION
Brick-and-mortar call centers, like the vast majority of
business organizations across the world, have been
radically affected by the global pandemic.
Those centers also face compounding factors that include:
• Unpredictable governmental policies and mandates
• A worldwide impact that negates geo-diversity as a risk
mitigation and business continuity possibility
• A fundamental operational conflict as call volumes and
resolution complexities increase while agent availability
and efficiency erode
• Work-from-home migration, although a necessary and
unavoidable shift in operation models, is not the same as
the proven work-at-home model and poses long-term scale
and sustainability issues
As companies prepare for future contingencies, the
framework offered by Crisis and Better Normal teams can
provide better business continuity and more seamless
growth, creating more evolved operations. By working in
collaboration, those teams exist to build action plans for
long-term operational threats and offer recommendations to
better inform management decisions.
Bear in mind that this solution framework plays another
role in cultivating durable competitive strengths. It buffers
existing strategy teams and processes within brick-and-mortar
center organizations from the pressures created by this
unprecedented pandemic business environment.
The wisdom of keeping a clear head in tough times like
these may be largely self-evident, but acting on it will be
difficult unless organizational adjustments are made. For
companies that are adjusting to a work-at-home model,
SYKES can provide guidance and solutions that ensure
operations continue to run smoothly, regardless of the
circumstances at hand.
Chapter Five: Conclusion
28The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated is a leading provider of multichannel demand generation and
customer engagement services for Global 2000 companies and their end customers. SYKES’
differentiated full lifecycle solutions and services — digital marketing, sales expertise, customer
service, technical support and more through multichannel delivery platforms — effectively
engage customers at every touchpoint of the customer journey. Our complete service offering
helps clients acquire, retain and increase the lifetime value of their customer relationships
through cost-effective solutions that enhance the customer service experience, promote
stronger brand loyalty and foster high levels of performance and profitability.
Learn more at sykes.com/notjustalltalk.
© Copyright 2020 SYKES. All rights reserved.
29The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations
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