The document summarizes the results of a survey of 75 participants from the UK and Ireland on the benefits and barriers of implementing home working for contact centers. The main benefits identified were improved flexibility for employees and resources, cost reduction, and improved employee engagement. The top barriers were lack of control over employees, engagement challenges, and technology/connectivity issues. Most companies surveyed had implemented or were exploring home working, using broadband and softphones. Responsibility for equipment typically fell to the company.
2. • 75 participants from UK & Ireland
• Surveyed in June 2013
• Supplemented by meeting with key CCA
members to derive interpretation
• These slides are a snapshot of key results
• Added interpretation from different angles
and industry sources
Survey details
3. Main Benefits - Results
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
Improvedflexibilityfor
ourworkforce
Improvedflexibilityfor
resourcingour
customerservice
Costreduction
Reducedabsence
rates
Opportunitytoattract
adifferent/widerskill
set
Improvedservice
levels
Improvedemployee
engagement/satisfacti
onlevels
Reducedcarbon
footprint
What do you think are the main BENEFITS of implementing
home-working for your organisation? (Please select as many as
you think are relevant.)
4. • Lots of benefits!
• All highly scored
• Flexibility is the key benefit
–Micro-shifts
–Split shifts
–Zero commute time
• Disaster recovery?
Main Benefits - Interpretation
5. How are Cost Reductions Achieved
*At Home Customer Contacts
6. • If home working takes away the limits on where your staff are, can
you route calls to an advisor who lives somewhere in the area of
customer?
• Geographic matching
• If home working changes the age & type of person you recruit, can
you route calls to an advisor of a similar demographic?
• Demographic matching
Questions
7. Main Barriers - Results
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
Lackofcontrolover
individualemployees
Morechallengingtohave
goodemployee
engagement
Morechallengingfor
individualstohavecareer
progression/individual…
Coachingwouldbetoo
difficultandnotso
effective
Lackoftrust
Disciplineofstaff
Compliance®ulation
Challengesresupporting
andpromotingcompany
culture
Technology
restraints/issues
Security
Concernsoverhealth&
safety
Relianceonconnectivity
iebroadbandinternet
connection/phone…
Concernsrelatedto
acoustics/background
noise
What do you think are the main BARRIERS of implementing home-
working for your organisation? (Please select as many as you think are
relevant.)
8. • Connectivity/technology
– Perception or reality?
• Security & Compliance
– % of fraud within home working is the
same as or lower than in-house
– 42% of companies reporting fraud
actually lower than in house
• H&S not a high priority?
– Initially the main concern for companies
investigating home working
– Companies transition once they
establish a position
Main Barriers - Interpretation
9. What is the scale of homeworking - results
Do you currently have customer service staff working from
home?
Yes
No
Trialling at the moment
Investigating
Planning to implement within
the next 6-12 months
10. • 59% have implemented, or are
trialling/investigating or
planning home working
• 61% plan to increase this
number
• Almost all are <20%
– Expansion
– Trial
• Very quick transition from trial
to implement
– Once trust established
– Once companies establish that
it works
What is the scale of home working - interpretation
11. Technology Choice - Results
14.8%
40.7%
44.4%
What do you use for telephony for your home-
workers?
Analogue line with
phone
PC-based soft-phone
(connected through
broadband)
IP/TDM desk-phone
(connected through
broadband)
12. • Does not immediately tie in with Q2
where technology was cited as main
barrier
• For those who are implementing,
broadband is a reliable option
• Companies copying in-house
technology for at home advisors
• Do not want expense of putting
phone line in?
• Do not want to tie up advisor phone
line?
Technology Choice - Interpretation
13. Equipment responsibility - Results
81.5%
18.5%
Who is responsible for providing hardware such as
phones, computers and headsets for your home-workers?
The company provides the full
set of hardware for our home-
workers
Our home-workers provide
their own hardware to a
certain specification as
agreed by the organisation
14. • Equipment responsibility was initially a big barrier to home working
adoption
• Companies now taking responsibility for all aspects of at home advisor
equipment
• Again, copying in house architecture out to home workers
Equipment Responsibility - Interpretation
15. • Employment status
– 58% have a mix of full time and part-time
– No one model of employment is
dominant
• Anyone at home?
– 43% planning mixed model of some
working at home, some in-house
• Training & Coaching
– Over 50% train in-house
• Is it cloudy?
– Approx 11% use cloud based software,
50% use thin client
Selected other results
16. Global airline, 2 year
study, 50% of US
workforce
10% increase in calls per hour
12% increase in revenue per
hour
Reduced CC budget by 15-20%
Work from home case study*
*At Home Customer Contacts
17. • Joint benefits of environment and person
• A new environment
– Background noise cited as significant
dissatisfaction
– Home is a much quieter environment
• Recruiting a new demographic
– Average age in-house – 23
– Average age at home – 38
– Average education in-house – 30% have
college level education
– Average education at home – 80% have
college level education
Why home working works
18. Why home working works
• Significantly increased
employee satisfaction
• Some increase in customer
satisfaction
19. • It depends…
• …What are your priorities or challenges?
• There isn’t one model that works for
everyone
• Increase flexibility or extend availability
– Mix part-time & full-time, at home & in
office
• Decrease cost
– Close and sell your building & send everyone
home!
• Increase employee satisfaction &
retention
– Employee advisors directly
What is the right model for you?
20. • Twitter
– @contactcentred
– #athomecctr
• Slideshare
– http://www.slideshare.net/plantronicsea
• Blog for interpretation
– http://blogcentral.plantronics.com/contact-
centered/
Contact Us
We wanted to look at the impact of environment on customer service performance. We chose a home working case study to show a clean transition to new, non traditional CC environment, and to show the impact of this new environment. Home working in European contact centres hasn't been around long enough to really study the impacts on customer service, hence aUS case study is usedSnapshots from other trials to show impacts are wider than efficiency:10% increase in customer satisfaction across many measures, a markedly improved employee retention