Stay-at-home agents have become a kind of holy grail in the contact centre sector. The idea that CSRs can be scattered around the country, taking and making phone calls via sophisticated VoIP connections that ensure they meet their KPIs is just, well, not happening.
We all know what the benefits of a remote agent are – lifestyle gains for the employee, a committed and plentiful staff for the employer, and less traffic commuting on clogged motorways will benefit the environment (just think of the carbon credits!).
But – and I am more than happy to be disproved on this – the pyjama wearing stay-at-home agent seems to be more a product of wishful thinking then an actual reality. Two years ago, in the TUANZ Topics April/May 2005 edition, writer Rosa Carter-Holt went looking for stay-at-home agents and concluded found that “despite my best efforts, I simply couldn’t find any examples of contact centres operating this way.”
In the article Rosa featured two American companies who employ remote agents, including the JetBlue airline in Utah – which was profiled in Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat. JetBlue is a leader in remote working but it doesn’t appear to have many followers - there’s an article on the International Customer Management Institute’s website featuring JetBlue entitled ‘The work-at-home agent: the model of the future?’
It appears this idea has some time to go before it becomes an established reality.
But maybe its time that New Zealand companies led the way. Our telcos have shown a willingness to go offshore to find contact centre agents, but what if they used their own broadband networks and installed VoIP technology in the homes of New Zealanders who don’t live in the main centres but who are willing and able to work remotely?
It's one question I intend asking at the panel discussion on Outsourcing at the ICT Skills Shortage Conference next month.