As you’re well aware, the Covid-19 pandemic has completely transformed the way we work throughout the nation. With the UK set to be in lockdown for up to six months, call centre managers across the UK are having to balance maintaining their level of customer service while ensuring the wellbeing of their staff.
For most of us, observing social distancing health and safety measure means working from home or remote office spaces. But what does this mean for the call centre sector?
How to run a successful home-based call centre in 3 simple steps
We’ve put together some information on how you can get your call centre up and running remotely to maintain business continuity.
1. Getting remote systems and application access set up
First and foremost, you need to ensure that your team have access to remote contact centre systems and applications. Using cloud based system management and configuration, 3CX Contact Centre solution can be installed and configured remotely and offers the following advanced features to ensure your customers receive the best service during ever evolving circumstances:
- Shared whiteboards
- Automated reporting
- Call monitoring and assistance features
- Queue monitoring and handling
In a remote workspace, these features that allow for monitoring, collaboration and transparency are more crucial than ever. Call monitoring and assistance allows to deliver on-the-job training remotely and can help you ensure that all agents remain highly skilled and that all calls are quality assured.
2. Call audio delivery and quality
VoIP solutions allow your agents to access your corporate networking using an agent-to-cloud VPN over their home broadband or in their remote office locations.
Ensure consistence audio delivery and quality throughout voice calls by using an integrated softphone. A SIP-compatible softphone requires no installation on an agent’s desktop, but allows call centre managers to monitor agents remotely.
3. Ensuring security and compliance
To ensure that your remote call centre is secure, and that your agents are all policy compliant, it is important to ensure that all applications require agents to use a unique username and password when signing in through your VPN or corporate network. You should also encrypt all your traffic through the most recent transport layer security (TLS).
For agents taking card payment data, features such as Semafone can ensure PCI security standards are upheld for CNP (card not present) payments. This feature stipulates that sensitive authentication data such as 3-4 digital security codes must be protected and cannot be stored.
Managing your call centre agents remotely
Fortunately, with so access to advanced cloud-based contact centre solutions, operating a call centre remotely is easier than ever. Keep your agents motivated with rewards in place for those who meet business objectives and KPIs and maintain a high level of communication with regular video conferencing.
To get your cloud-based call centre solution configured remotely, get in touch with our team of experts at PBX Hosting.