The contact center industry, like many other corporate services, experienced considerable transformation in 2020. According to Statista, during the COVID-19 outbreak, the percentage of US employees working largely from home increased to 44%, up from 17% before to the pandemic.
It’s been four years since then. COVID has almost vanished from media headlines, but the trend toward remote work has not only continued but is gaining traction. In today’s article, we’ll go over the essential factors of moving to a fully remote contact center model using Global Bilgi’s Sirius cloud based platform.
Let’s start with a brief historical overview.
Remote Work in Contact Centers: Where It All Began
Working from home is not a new concept. NASA engineer Jack Nilles created the word “telecommuting” in 1973, long before Skype or Zoom calls existed. Even before the present era of remote work began at the turn of the millennium, a small number of IBM employees worked from home to assess the effectiveness of telecommuting.
The trial was effective, and within ten years, around 2,000 IBM employees, primarily in customer service, were able to work partially from home. This strategy enabled IBM to examine the efficacy of remote work while also lowering office space expenditures. The experiment also aimed to provide flexibility and boost production.
Google appeared in 1998, while Cisco Systems introduced the first IP phones. Corporate VoIP call center software rapidly evolved, enabling businesses to save significant expenditures on communications between remote offices, conference calls, and data exchange. The advancement of the internet and the decrease in communication costs have provided good conditions for remote employment in contact centers.
A Modern Approach to Remote Contact Centers
Remote work trends in contact centers are expected to develop steadily between 2023 and 2024, with a concentration on hybrid and totally remote models.
Cloud-based contact center solutions, which offer access to all necessary tools from anywhere in the world, are a major driver of the shift to remote models. The use of cloud technologies streamlines distant team administration while also ensuring excellent data security.
Remote employment for contact center agents is becoming increasingly popular because of the benefits it provides to both organizations and people. It helps businesses minimize office rental expenses while also expanding access to a global workforce, which is becoming increasingly vital for contact centers.
How to Set Up a Remote Contact Center with the Sirius Platform
The benefits of establishing a remote contact center are evident. For firms, this means lowering office space expenses and increasing access to talented workers regardless of location. Agents benefit from flexible scheduling and the opportunity to work from home, which enhances their work-life balance. But how can you set up a remote contact center in a way that is convenient for operators while ensuring good service quality?
Needs Assessment and Planning
Before deploying the Sirius platform, conduct a thorough review of your company’s requirements. This will assist in determining the ideal system setup and ensuring its proper operation. At this point, it is critical to answer the following questions: Which communication channels do you intend to employ (telephone, website live chat, email)? What number of calls and queries are expected? What integrations with other systems are required?
It is worth noting that, with the proper configuration, the Sirius cloud contact center platform may support the simultaneous operation of up to 500 agents.
Following the needs analysis, a detailed implementation strategy must be created. The plan should comprise the following sections:
- Project description,
- Project goals and key performance indicators,
- Work schedule,
- Responsible persons,
- Project budget.
If an existing system is being used, special care should be taken during the data migration stage. It is critical to create a precise migration plan to reduce data loss risks and maintain continuous contact center operations during the transfer to the new platform.
Setup and Integration
The Sirius platform provides two deployment options: cloud infrastructure or on-premise servers, depending on security and scalability needs. Sirius remains a web-based platform that can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. The platform’s fault-tolerant architecture and horizontal scalability allow robust operation even in high-load scenarios.
Sirius offers two basic voice communication methods: SIP client and WebRTC. The SIP client is installed on the operator’s device and maintained via a web interface to provide high-quality audio. WebRTC, on the other hand, enables calls to be made directly through a web browser, requiring no additional software. To maintain a quality connection in low bandwidth environments, the platform employs adaptive codecs such as Opus and iLBC.
Sirius integrates easily with other systems thanks to a variety of methods, including API, HTTP(S) Rest, JSON, XML, SOAP, WSDL requests, iframes, and more. This allows for easy data interchange with CRM systems, ERP systems, accounting systems, and other services utilized by the firm. This interface streamlines common operations, improves contact center efficiency, and gives a single point of access to all client information.
Access and Staff Training
The Sirius platform is a modular system that includes a variety of contact center management capabilities. To make it easier to use such a sophisticated system, our developers created the OneAccess program, which uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol. This software offers single-sign-on access to all platform components, greatly simplifying user workflows. Furthermore, OneAccess enables for the formation of user groups with varying access levels, ensuring that agents, supervisors, project managers, and other staff only have access to the functions they require.
By the way, if you are thinking about the transition to a remote contact center, you will be interested to read our article “Our experience in efficiently managing remote contact center agents“.
User authentication can be done via a login and password linked to an email address, or using a corporate authentication system such as Outlook. This technique ensures great data security and well-organized work procedures.
Global Bilgi provides complete assistance to clients throughout their experience with the Sirius platform. We provide comprehensive online training classes for supervisors and operators that cover all system functionalities and make practical recommendations for their optimal use. Our professionals assist in customizing the system to meet your requirements and provide advise on any issues that arise during operation. We recognize that good staff training is critical to the effective installation of a new system, so we prioritize it.
Monitoring the Performance of a Remote Contact Center
Managing a contact center with remote employees can be difficult. The Sirius platform addresses this with the AQoS (Assessment and Quality of Service) initiative. This quality assurance software enables real-time monitoring, recording, and storage of audio and video discussions, as well as chat transcripts, allowing for in-depth study of agent-client interactions. Flexible options enable the development of bespoke evaluation criteria for various types of interactions. Furthermore, the screen recording capability provides a complete view of the client encounter, allowing you to discover employee performance strengths and areas for development while also assuring effective training.
Sirius’ GBDashboard solution allows you to visualize massive volumes of data and receive instant insights into the functioning of your remote contact center. This program monitors 169 key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time, including call duration, wait time, conversion rates, and more. With a straightforward interface and the option to highlight essential metrics, you will always be aware of the most significant occurrences in the contact center.
Conclusions
Contact centers throughout the world are progressively migrating to remote and hybrid work models for their agents. This trend increases operational flexibility while lowering expenses.
The Sirius cloud platform provides everything required to set up an effective and scalable remote contact center. Sirius’ capabilities enable flawless operations even under large loads, increase employee efficiency, and improve customer service quality. The platform includes a bilingual interface, multiple communication channels, tools for evaluating agent performance, and thorough analytics.
If you’re seeking for a trustworthy way to organize a remote contact center, we encourage you to learn more about the Sirius platform. Fill out the feedback form and get a personalized demo to learn more about the platform’s capabilities and find the best solution for your business.
