Most contact center leaders have access to data that enables them to assess just how busy their agents are and if they have capacity to take on additional work. They also have the ability to optimize results that impact customer experience (CX). This balance of efficiency and CX is made possible by strong workforce management practices.

There’s always at least one in every contact center. The agent that tests your patience, triggers an eye-twitch, elicits some curse words (in your head, of course) and makes your job as a contact center manager much more challenging at times. But the reality is, these agents aren’t waking up in the morning with the goal of making your life more difficult! Nor did they accept the job with the goal of failing – which means there is still hope for them!

The coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly put a strain on the workforce, and many organizations are reviewing their current strategies to ensure business continuity as the crisis continues. To successfully navigate the pandemic and achieve positive business outcomes, companies need to take strategic and meaningful steps towards building a more flexible working environment that enables agile and remote working practices.

Most state a federal government agencies are struggling with exponential increases in call volumes as a result of the pandemic. One unnamed agency experienced an over 3000% jump in call volume. The scariest part of that data point is that agency had not yet begun executing contact tracing efforts.

Last week, I noticed headlines announcing yet another business that’s decided it “won’t reopen half its offices after pandemic, amid restructuring and work-from-home success”. Maybe that’s not so shocking, though, considering that work-from-home contact center agents have an 80% better retention rate than those working out of a physical call center (according to a recent ICMI benchmark study on agent experience).

Maintaining a strong performance management process with remote contact center agents can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. On a regular day in the contact center, a supervisor will usually walk the floor, check on performance levels and coach agents face-to-face. In a remote contact center, performance management processes look a bit different, but the fundamentals remain the same.

Jeff Kennon, Director of Customer Experience for NeoNova, a customer support enterprise servicing some of the world’s leading internet service and telecom providers, says that leveraging a workforce management platform helped delight both customers and agents. He explains how opening new channels has made for a great customer experience.