How to Set Up a Remote Contact Centre

The pandemic greatly accelerated the shift to remote contact centres. Analysts project that 53 per cent of the contact centre workforce could be working remotely by 2023. Working remotely is so appealing to workers that nearly half say they would look for another job if they were no longer able to work remotely.

The benefits of a remote workforce aren’t all on the employee side, of course. Businesses can benefit from lower overhead and a larger pool of accessible potential recruits. The flexibility of remote work can help attract top talent, too.

Here’s how to set up a remote contact centre of your own to benefit employees, your business, and customers, too.

Must-have features for a remote contact centre

The platform it runs on defines a remote contact centre, and not all software solutions are created equal. Here are a few criteria to keep in mind:

User-friendly design

Clunky or complicated software user interfaces can slow down each step of the process, culminating in hours of wasted time throughout the whole remote contact centre. Your software vetting process should answer: Is the user interface intuitive? What’s the learning curve? Is it scalable? How flexible is it across various browsers and devices? The software you choose should meet you where you are, with the framework to grow.

Security features

Secure management and storage of your customer interactions and their personally identifiable information (PII) is another major consideration. The geographic diversity of a remote workforce can mean employees are spread out across local, national, and international jurisdictions that govern the use and storage of customer PII. Should a security breach occur, it can land a financial blow to the company involved, even if it used third-party remote contact centre software. This is why it’s vital to vet the security practices of your provider.

Cloud-based architecture

Low hardware overhead is one of the biggest benefits of a cloud-based remote contact centre. The old model of on-site centres required miles of cable and large server rooms with IT staff to support the system. With Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), employees can make calls through a browser interface on their desktop or an app on their smartphone.

Seamless routing

Everyone can think of a time when they were routed from department to department, trying to find the right contact centre employee to address their specific need. This creates a memorably awful customer experience! A system that offers intelligent routing ensures your customer always reaches the right agent at the right time. No matter how the customer contact began—an email, a tweet, or a call—a system that utilises unified routing logic and prioritisation delivers your customer to the agent best equipped to handle their questions.

Robust self-service options

Paired with intelligent routing, a flexible and customisable self-service menu can hasten connecting customers to the right person in your remote contact centre. This is especially important if you have a broad and complex array of goods or services. An intelligent self-service system efficiently guides customers to the correct answers while capturing their responses as part of the customer communication history. Should they eventually need to speak to someone in the contact centre, the employee can ultimately resolve their issue.

Programmability

A great software solution is customisable to your workflow, while a subpar one requires your business to adapt around the software. Look for a solution that not only suits your needs but can be tailored and configured to address any new requirements that pop up.

Creating a positive remote work culture

Even with the best system in place for launching a remote contact centre, your remote workers are only as good as their management. A positive remote workplace culture depends greatly on trust. In a survey of roughly 800 businesses, 94 per cent of employers reported that workers maintained or improved productivity while working remotely!

With the freedom that remote work allows, some employees miss the sense of community established while working together. Events like virtual coffee breaks and virtual happy hours are a great way to create a space for your employees who thrive on relationship building.

The shift to remote work also requires both employers and workers to unlearn old habits and establish new ones. It’s vital for anyone in supervisory roles to communicate clear expectations as everyone adjusts to the new work environment. This fosters trust and teaches your employees that they can come to you before an issue escalates to a problem.

As long as employee productivity remains at or above target, managers should be prepared to work with employees to create more flexible schedules. Consider the employee who takes their lunch hour later in the day, so they can pick their children up from school, while delivering five-star service. They’re a bigger asset than an employee who locks themselves into their workstation for eight hours a day while delivering two or three-star service.

Aim for omnichannel service

Trust, communication, and flexibility are all key to establishing a successful remote contact centre and offering an incredible customer experience. Breaking away from the traditional siloed call centre model to a cloud-based contact centre system takes your customer experience delivery to the next level.

A truly omnichannel system empowers your contact centre employees by giving them access to the customer’s entire communications journey. This means they can deliver targeted and optimised service without making the customer repeat their issue for the hundredth time. The seamless transfer of conversation between tweet, text, email, and phone also enhances the customer experience by allowing individuals to communicate in the way that best suits their circumstances.

The trust you place in your remote employees empowers them, and with the prioritisation of a system that offers a full suite of supervisory tools, you can do your best work monitoring your team from a more hands-off position. A great supervisor user interface tracks productivity and customer interactions, so you can intelligently infer a complete picture of the customer experience delivered.

Take the first step

Companies across the globe have already adapted to a larger remote workforce. The tools to support this cultural shift have been in development for over a decade and optimised through trial by fire during the pandemic.

Moving forward with setting up a remote contact centre system is no longer a big leap into the unknown. It’s a step forward and a necessary one to remain competitive in this new workforce landscape.

Learn how Twilio Flex is leading the remote contact centre revolution.