In 2020, there was worldwide disruption as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and contact centers everywhere were radically upended by the chaos.
Call centers were forced to close while call volumes skyrocketed, and agents faced increasing call complexity and customer concerns in a time of disruption. Industries like travel and hospitality were overwhelmed, and contact center leaders had two top priorities: keeping agents healthy and business running, at a time when customer service is intrinsically linked to a company’s bottom line.
Current data shows that until the crisis, most contact centers were still traditionally on premise. According to Gartner, 90% of global organizations were using on-premise solutions for their contact centers before Covid-19, with nearly 7 out of 10 customer service agents working from traditional call centers and less than 10% from home. Moving forward, they predict that 71% of contact centers will be remote.
Now, as leaders plan ahead to the recovery phase, the question on everyone’s minds is whether agents will stay home forever. So, let’s look at some of the benefits of flexible agents working from home.