Keeping a remote worker is quite advantageous: the operator already works at his desk, with his laptop, headset, and coffee – for him there is no need to organize an office workplace. Due to circumstances, remote employees rarely have conflicts with their colleagues. In addition, you are free to choose the best specialists, not paying attention to geographical obstacles. All you need is remote call center software!
But how does a remote worker get along with the office team? How to involve him in the work process? How do you teach and motivate them to deliver a project before the deadline?
Now, let’s look at the methods how do best manage a remote call center:
Make video meetings
When you and your employee are not in the same office, how can you explain something as you would in person?
It’s simple, use video meetings to create presence and importance for each remote employee and schedule weekly video calls to share information more effectively.
Some types of communication should only be handled by phone. Any type of emotional issue, such as performance issues, should be handled over the phone. A video call will be much better because it will give you more visual clues as to what is going on with the other person.
Create a great company culture
Culture plays a vital role in employee retention and satisfaction, whether remote or not. Always be clear about the company’s vision and message. A culture deck, a slide show that reveals your company’s culture, core values, and mission, gives your team a standard of expectations.
But it’s more important to live the culture you aspire to. Quarantining yourself as a call center team forces you to evaluate how you live your culture when you are apart. To make your call center agents feel more engaged, try to make sure your actions align with your company’s existing culture.
Use agent management software
Remote call center software helps with automating incoming and outgoing calls to operators which gives them faster interaction with customers. The software will reduce the number of remote customer service employees and help manage a small and big staff of operators in real-time.
Moreover, you’ll have the ability to expand the number of ways to reach your customers: web chats, emails, SMS, and without switching to other software.
The software will also allow you to monitor how many hours remote call center employees work. Such a tool will allow you to effectively manage them and be sure that the operators perform their functions. Such software for remote work will also allow you to listen to the calls and analyze mistakes in conversations, and subsequently give recommendations to the staff to improve the quality of work. It will also connect to active conversations to help the operator in non-standard situations.
Offer a competitive motivation
If the motivation system is built incorrectly, there is a risk that an employee with low self-discipline can derail the project. In addition, working from home can quickly bore the employee: it is not uncommon for remote workers to lack live communication. This can reduce the result or force the employee to change jobs. Thus, a slightly different system of motivation should be applied to remote workers.
Those who have been working with remote teams for several years have had time to get a lot of bumps and gain invaluable experience. But it’s this experience that has allowed them to develop ways to motivate workers to meet project deadlines, grow, and stay on track:
- Regular 1-1 meetings with employees
- Communicate with the employee every day
- Introducing new employees to old ones
- Monitoring the results
- Employee testing, and training
- Respectable salary
Let the remote worker feel and realize that he is part of the team. He should take part in online meetings, skype sessions, briefings, brainstorming sessions on an equal footing with other employees.
Develop a detailed training and onboarding program
You should hold events explaining your company’s mission and core values, as well as introducing them to management, internal policies, benefits, and more. Show them how to set up their laptops, how to download programs and applications they may need, how to improve the skills they need to work, and how to access their payroll. During downtime, give employees a list of online training on compliance or skills they need to learn, which you can easily upload to your online distance learning platform.
Moreover, ask department heads if they can send a team representative and give an overview of their department: what they do for the company, and team goals. These call center training tips will help your new employees learn about the company and get to know employees from different departments.
In all of this, a virtual onboarding program can help you automate all of your processes and save a tremendous amount of time.
Use your quality assurance tools
Obviously, controlling remote employees is necessary so as not to let things slip away in the hope that each team member will be conscientious and responsible (after all, few employees will continue to “give one hundred percent” if they are let go free to swim from paycheck to paycheck).
Depending on these conditions, call center methods, such as listening to call recordings, and filling out quality assessment templates, are used to control the employment of remote staff.
Start collecting the contact center feedback
First, determine the reason you decided to start collecting feedback, such as a repeat complaint from a user. Then evaluate the five sources of feedback, and determine which ones will give you the information you need to solve your current problem.
If you use surveys or interviews to collect data, make sure they are timely. Give preference to open-ended forms of questions.
Once you choose your feedback mechanism, make sure customers get answers on time.
Conclusion
VoIPTime Contact Center software and its tools for remote operation for your call center would be a great choice. Yes, the transition to managing a remote workforce can seem daunting right now. But with the right technicians, hardworking employees, and advanced remote call center software, the workflow will become a seamless process.
