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A SYKES E-BOOK

The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations

1The “Better” Normal: A Preparedness Guide for Work-At-Home Call Center Operations

Contents

Chapter One: A Crisis Unlike Any Other.....................................................................................................3

Chapter Two: The Better Normal Call Center Roadmap ...................................................................... 5

Overview............................................................................................................................................................... 6

Current State of Call Centers .......................................................................................................................... 6

Triage vs. Strategic WAH ..................................................................................................................................7

The “Better Normal” .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter Three: The Crisis Workstream & Immediate Next Steps .....................................................10

The Crisis Workstream ......................................................................................................................................11

Immediate Next Steps ......................................................................................................................................12

Hot Spots — People & Processes .................................................................................................................13

Hot Spots — Technology .................................................................................................................................15

Chapter Four: The Better Normal Workstream ......................................................................................16

The Better Normal Workstream ....................................................................................................................17

The Plan ...............................................................................................................................................................18

Immediate Next Steps ......................................................................................................................................19

Looking Ahead — People & Processes ......................................................................................................20

Looking Ahead — Technology ......................................................................................................................22

Chapter Five: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 27


A Crisis Unlike Any OtherChapter One:


While business continuity plans exist for nearly every

company, most were still caught by surprise by the onset

of COVID-19 and the myriad impacts that accompanied it.

Not only did those impacts affect day-to-day operations

in a general sense, they held enormous weight for local

organizations. Government ordinances required employees

to social distance, and in some cases, those edicts required

businesses to shut down entirely.

The ubiquity of the novel coronavirus has all but ensured

companies are forced to pivot in order to maintain their

business continuity. On a global scale, quickly shifting work

environments from one location to another is something few

operations were prepared for.

From a call center perspective, difficulties were compounded

by severe operational problems. To further complicate

matters, there has been little consensus around the world

for economic and health guidelines, creating widespread

confusion and questions with no real answers.

However, one thing is certain as organizations learn from

COVID-19 and prepare for other contingencies moving

forward: Many organizations will regain their footing and be

successful. Others can expect a more disappointing future.

The difference between the two will be determined by the

changes they make to their preparedness processes.

As many speak to the “new normal” and ramp up their

operations accordingly, prepared companies will heed

specific guidance for their brick-and-mortar call centers to

help them prepare for future challenges and opportunities.

Although the “new normal” has been a widely accepted

descriptor of our changing times, companies making

significant adjustments to their operations are preparing

themselves for another phase, or a “better normal,” which

will sustain their operations well beyond this initial crisis and

pave the way for organizational success.

Chapter One: A Crisis Unlike Any Other


The Better Normal Call Center Roadmap

Chapter Two:


OVERVIEW

The call center industry is currently living through an

extraordinary disruption of working environments, operating

models and associated technologies. This has put an enormous

focus on immediate solutions for operations crippled by stay-at-

home mandates and safe-distancing policies.

There are serious concerns about maintaining service levels

amid an uncertain future. However, while immediate solutions for

issues in the call center industry are crucial, the importance of

looking beyond those issues to emerging challenges is growing.

This roadmap has been designed to address both immediate

and developing call center challenges.

CURRENT STATE OF CALL CENTERS

It’s important to recognize that much of what’s going on right

now in the call center industry is not planned. Companies

are moving beyond their traditional business continuity and

disaster recovery plans to adapt for contingencies such as

stay-at-home ordinances.

Without a plan for such contingencies, it’s referred to as

triage: companies paying attention to, and acting upon, their

most critical and immediate priorities. And ensuring trained

employees can continue doing their jobs is precisely what this

triage is focused upon. It’s completely reactive and a rational

course of action. But it’s not a plan.

Chapter Two: The Better Normal Call Center Roadmap

Objective Goal

Create a complementary

framework

Prepare leadership to optimize business continuity planning, security

and operational decision-making for call centers in the better normal

Create a useful,

down-to-earth framework

Equip call center leaders to draw rapid-response contingency plans

for transitioning brick-and-mortar agents to at-home environments


TRIAGE VS. STRATEGIC WAH

SYKES was in the fortunate position of having three operational

models that prepared for an event like a pandemic. Those

models provided the expertise and experience to smoothly

transition people and equipment while maintaining operations

and customer service levels. That transition benefited from

precise knowledge of the new state: a strategic work-at-home

solution, distinct from reactively working from home as a triage

solution. The three models are:

• SYKESHome (work-at-home agents)

• Hub-and-spoke (combining on-site with remote agents)

• Brick-and-mortar (in small, rural towns as well as urban areas)

Having years of experience with work-at-home

agents was crucial in three ways:

Virtual training resources were immediately available

to support agents accustomed to on-site classrooms

and coaches being just down the hallway

Agents leaving brick-and-mortar had a seamless

transition to infrastructure that replicated on-site

capability and technology that provided the virtual

equivalent of on-site operational support

Everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the

newest agent, knew work-at-home is very different

from brick-and-mortar

While work-at-home and brick-and-mortar perform almost

identically, a virtual center's performance results come from

specifically designed governance, management, technology and

operational processes. There were no illusions it was just a case

of changing the location of the agent’s computer.

“While work-at-home and brick-and-mortar

perform almost identically, a virtual center’s

performance results come from specifically

designed governance, management,

technology and operational processes.”

SYKES’ hub-and-spoke model, on the other hand, gives brick-

and-mortar operations the option of allowing agents to work from

their homes for varying periods of time. It’s proven highly popular

with agents — and customers — because our brick-and-mortar

centers can react to greater demand without facility constraints.

Our hub-and-spoke experience brings value by teaching the

organization real-world lessons on the differences between work-

at-home (SYKESHome) and work-from-home (hub-and-spoke).

The biggest takeaway? Many on-site people don’t fit the profile

for a high-performing, happy-at-home agent. We’ll go into those

differences in greater detail later.

2.

3.

1.


THE “BETTER NORMAL”

While COVID-19 was the catalyst for

change into a “better normal,” it is

far from the only feasible future high-

impact event. The most prepared

companies are ready for any

contingency, whether it is due to a

local event such as a hurricane or a

global one such as a pandemic.

"While COVID-19 was the

catalyst for change into

a “better normal,” it is far

from the only feasible

future high-impact event."

For the latter contingency, the historical

timeline for vaccine research and

distribution is around 18 months, with

the virus projected to remain active in

cycles of diminishing severity over that

time. Meanwhile, call center operations

will adjust and optimize, customer

intents and behaviors will change, and

new technologies will emerge.


Ultimately, the work-at-home model has a unique ability to recruit specialized talent from a much broader geography than a brick-

and-mortar facility. This makes it possible to begin remote operations slowly and deliberately by listening to existing customers.

It’s not unusual for companies to have customer groups that need agents with vertical-specific credentials or training, such as

healthcare licensing or technical certifications — precisely the people work-at-home is good at finding, training and retaining.

Some thoughts on how the better normal is beginning to manifest:

Call center operations: Many are expected to

stay predominately in the work-at-home model.

The efficacy of brick-and-mortar centers will

depend largely upon location and will be

redesigned to accommodate safe distancing.

Retention: In SYKES' experience, is that there’s a

personal profile that fits remote work, and it stands

to reason many people sent to virtual offices don’t

match it. Call centers should expect higher-than-

normal attrition rates over the coming months.

Workforce management: Call volumes will remain

high and call center capacity will be challenged by

attrition, work environments and remote training.

Successfully handling call traffic with available

agents will require greater flexibility and adaptability.

Channel adoption: Challenges within the call center

workforce will make a return to normal wait times

unlikely. This will cause customers to reconsider chat and

messaging channels as alternatives to voice. Many will

find these options, particularly messaging, appealing.


The Crisis Workstream & Immediate Next Steps

Chapter Three:


THE CRISIS WORKSTREAM

As noted earlier, call centers spent the first few

months of the COVID-19 pandemic performing

triage — not unlike what takes place in a hospital

emergency room — which is focused on the most

important and urgent operational threats.

When triage takes place, it’s equally important for call

center leadership to create a crisis workstream —

owned by a team that’s a cross-section of the people,

processes and technology organizations. The crisis

workstream has objectives similar to triage — protection

of core operations. The difference is this workstream is

focused on imminent, but not immediate threats.

Chapter Three: The Crisis Workstream

& Immediate Next Steps


IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS

At-home eligibility: For fast, effective, work-at-home

deployments, assess the suitability of each on-site worker for

virtual offices. Will they need a personal computer? Do they

live alone, with family members, roommates? Have they been

trained for work beyond their current job?

Regional regulations: Accurate by-country regulatory

information, along with compliance procedures and reporting

requirements, will expedite work distribution across geographies.

Contractual compliance: Is any on-site work restricted

from home environments? If so, determine if revisions are

necessary and feasible.

Security: Enable secure computing, access and phone calls

to ensure multi-factor authentication, VDI or VPN compliance,

and softphone compliance (such as by using models with the

latest WebRTC codecs, encryption and decryption).

Workforce collaboration: Compensate for the fact that agents

and their coaches aren’t co-located in the same building

anymore. Can agents “virtually” raise their hand for a quick

chat while the customer is on hold? Are coaches able to listen

to agent conversations and whisper guidance in their ear?

Workforce management: Use technology to your advantage.

Flexible scheduling, effective communication and real-time

dashboards help usher in the better normal without wondering

“who’s doing what?”

Training: Is there a concise, digestible, work-at-home

curriculum available for experienced brick-and-mortar agents?

Voice deflection: Are callers informed of and encouraged

to use your self-service tools and alternative methods

of communication (e.g., mobile apps or website)?

Background checks: Background information from

governmental agencies may be very slow or unavailable. If so,

what alternatives does HR recommend for new hires?

HR accuracy: Make certain HR has accurate, updated, verified

agent contact information, then distribute both soft and hard

copies to all managers and supervisors.

Stay in contact: Regular communication is a best practice, but

frequency needs to be elevated for work-at-home operations.


HOT SPOTS — PEOPLE & PROCESSES

Transition attrition: Unlike agents specifically recruited for

work-at-home, the first-year attrition rate for on-site workers

shifting to work-at-home is around 50%.

In the current climate, everyone with a job is happy to have

one. As that changes, expect significant turnover if transfers

back to brick-and-mortar aren’t available. It may be possible

to mitigate turnover by creatively and interactively addressing

questions like, “How do I reach this supervisor? ”or “How do

I get my training off-site?” For people accustomed to working

in brick-and-mortar, these queries could be answered through

conversations with colleagues.

"Working from home during the coronavirus

pandemic — and generally hunkering down

amid stay-at-home orders — mixes multiple

aspects of life. That can be a recipe for stress.

For those accustomed to large offices and

co-worker interactions, it’s a drastic change."

- “Stopping the stress of working from home,” American Heart Association News, March 26, 2020.

Productivity and efficiency slumps: To avoid negative impacts

to the health and well-being of agents new to their work-at-

home roles, implement a plan that encourages them to:

• Follow familiar routines, not only for themselves but also for

their families.

• Maintain balance to avoid burnout and guard against “job

creep.” Don’t allow agents to work more hours without approval.

They need to take breaks as they did in brick-and-mortar.

• Exercise regularly.

• Know their benefits and use them, particularly for assistance

or counseling programs.

• Use interactive voice response (IVR) scripts to share

information with customers. This will help customers

understand long wait times or background noise.

Also, encourage managers and supervisors to:

• Be adaptive with scheduling — for example, experiment with

shorter shifts without breaks.

• Consider doubling coaching time to strengthen engagement.

• Temporarily relax goals and metrics.

• Temporarily increase resolution authority.

• Be transparent with team and individual metrics.

• Have frequent, individual contact using video

whenever possible.


Be aware that this health and well-being coin has two sides: The agents are

working in an unfamiliar environment and call volume is not only exploding,

customer intents are also more urgent and complex.

Training gaps: A changed work environment typically causes unanticipated

changes to formerly familiar policies and procedures. Evaluate and determine if

it makes sense to create a series of targeted training on common but important

items like how to communicate from home or how to do payroll remotely.

Limited training time: Companies are discovering that lower on-site seating

capacities, combined with work-at-home difficulties, require hiring new employees

who must be trained in very short time periods. One approach is to deliver an intent-

based training, with targeted learning limited to only the highest volume intents. This

tactic can be supplemented by proactive channel strategies and self-service.

Does targeted training and learning come across as complicated initiatives that

can’t fit into your “immediate” bucket? That’s not the case, as these two examples

of quick learning and training from www.athome.sykes.com make clear.

Work at Home Teach at HomeAdjusting to Your New Environment

Tips for Teaching & Facilitating Online


HOT SPOTS — TECHNOLOGY

Virtual training: The move to remote work has undermined

a foundational training asset — the classroom. In order to

compensate, call center operators need VILT (Virtual, Instructor-Led

Training) technology and the infrastructure to support it at scale.

VILT enables groups of people — in different locations — to learn

together in real time so the learning can emulate the interaction found

in a physical classroom. Common features on vendor platforms are:

VOIP, audio/video conferencing, recording, screen-sharing, chat,

reporting and polling.

Top vendors include:

Cisco WebEx Training Center: Features a

common whiteboard that each student can

see and write, draw and brainstorm upon.

Adobe Connect: Enables students to form

small groups for learning activities — where

they share documents and a whiteboard. The

instructor can move from one group to another.

Jigsaw Meeting: Features dynamic

polling, enabling the instructor to increase

interaction through gamification like

knowledge checks and contests.

Microsoft Teams: Features video

conferencing and instant messaging

capabilities for ongoing communication.

Audio quality: With large numbers of

remote agents, utilizing a wide ISP range,

monitoring technology that measures audio

for quality and background noise is required

to maintain consistent quality standards.


The Better Normal Workstream

Chapter Four:


THE BETTER NORMAL WORKSTREAM

Ultimately, to emerge from crisis in a strong competitive

position, brick-and-mortar centers must focus on creating

and implementing an agile and robust solution framework.

We recommend building two complementary teams:

• A Crisis team that addresses immediate threats to core

operational areas

• A Better Normal team with two responsibilities:

• In collaboration with the Crisis team, build concise action

plans for emerging, longer-term operational threats

• Support rapid and informed senior management

decisions by iterating better normal scenarios along with

associated recommendations

These teams will work in tandem to ensure greater

preparedness for future contingencies as well as to help

people adjust and maintain operational excellence.

This plan is one step ahead of triage activities but still focused

on imminent threats — the here and now. In contrast, the

point of the Better Normal team is to maintain an outlook of

months and quarters to give senior leadership an evolving,

strategic plan that guides decision-making in a consistent and

responsive way.

The Better Normal team should work collaboratively with

the Crisis team, operational groups and industry analysts

to gather the data and intelligence needed to create those

scenarios and associated collateral.

While the Crisis team is comprised of key individuals who

have likely been actively involved in ongoing triage activities,

the Better Normal team should consist of well-regarded

directors from key operational and financial groups, headed

by an executive with open-door CEO availability and deep

Chapter Four: The Better Normal Workstream


familiarity with senior leaders.

THE PLAN

Start out with the three-year (or your company’s timeline)

strategic plan, which will provide planning assumptions, along

with details of decisions and dependencies within financial

projections and upcoming initiatives.

Next, develop a range of scenarios across upcoming months

and the next several quarters. Look at the financial assumptions

and the decision-making criteria around major initiatives, then

critique both in light of the current environment.

Now, put those financial assumptions and decision rationale

into one of three buckets: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Which bucket holds the most significant financial assumptions,

and which holds initiatives with the highest capital expenditures?

Which bucket holds the least and the lowest? Finally, run this past

the Crisis team — is there anything on their radar to consider?

This exercise provides the Better Normal team with a good

sense of any urgent, critical strategic issues and a starting

point for iterating scenarios for the next months and quarters.

From there, the team can try to predict how governments and


central banks, for example, will react to those scenarios.

IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS

Analyze costs: Shifting from in-center to from-home support

services often leaves little time to determine how this business

model disruption affects call center profitability. Analyzing the

costs of these changes will help you prepare for the unexpected.

Refine activity analysis reporting: How quickly and accurately

is management able to identify dominant call actions and

trends? Reporting should be able to show what grouping

of agent activities take up 75% of their time and how that

grouping is — or isn’t — changing.

Scrutinize remote technical support: The sudden and massive

shift from on-site to at-home agents has also radically shifted

the nature of technical support from brick-and-mortar to home-

based environments. Any service-level shortfalls should be

March 27-29, 2020

Auto loan 13%

61%

23%

12%

11%

10%

3%

5%

Business loan

Credit card

Home equity line or loan

Mortgage

Personal loan

Student loan

None of the above

Very prepared

51%

14%

30%

4%

Somewhat prepared

Not prepared at all

Don’t know

quickly addressed and improvement opportunities seized.

Evaluate knowledge base effectiveness: While call center

operations typically have a knowledge base, many fall

short of being robust and easily searched by agents, which

undermines agent efficiency, training effectiveness and

information consistency.

Assess customer intent tracking: The graphs below tell a

compelling story of how the novel coronavirus has affected the

financial health of many customers. Is a similar story reflected

in customer intent shifts within your reporting and analytics? If

not, is the internal data consistent with anecdotal feedback from

agents and supervisors? Any discrepancies should be carefully

scrutinized for root causes and fixes applied.

Identify pilot opportunities: Triage and Crisis team activities in

areas such as agent engagement, voice deflection and training

may also be opportunities to gain insights into lessons learned

Consumers rate their financial readiness for coronavirus impact

SOURCE: J.D. Power Covid-19 Pulse Survey © April 2020 The Financial Brand SOURCE: J.D. Power Covid-19 Pulse Survey © April 2020 The Financial Brand

Loan types for which consumers couldn't make minimum payment


and how to react in future situations.

LOOKING AHEAD — PEOPLE & PROCESSES

Adaptive service models: Despite the present confusion,

there are some common-sense assumptions to be made

about what will and won’t happen in the next 12 months:

• The traditional brick-and-mortar operating model won’t

be resurrected.

• High call volumes will gradually return to an

approximation of what they were before. However,

difficult economic times will continue, so customer intent

will also continue to be challenging for agents to handle

and resolve.

• The productivity and efficiency of the current work-from-

home workforce, originally hired for brick-and-mortar, will

become increasingly difficult to maintain.

• Training without classroom sessions will make the

onboarding of new agents slower and less effective.

Although each of these assumptions may turn out to be

incorrect in one way or other, the picture that emerges shows

that the current work-from-home model isn’t the permanent

fix. It’s time for call center leadership to begin working on

adaptable service models that will provide sustainable,

scalable and profitable outcomes.

Let’s take the SYKES hub-and-spoke model as an example.

It’s a successful from-home/on-site hybrid solution that’s grown in

popularity over the past several years and is very different from a

true work-at-home model, where the people hired are onboarded,

trained and work in a completely virtual manner.

Instead, hub-and-spoke agents are hired, trained and put into

production in brick-and-mortar centers. If performance meets

expectations, they have the option of rotating between work-at-

home and brick-and-mortar.

The hub-and-spoke model is a global model with the potential to

deliver a scalable mix of virtual and physical characteristics — an


effective starting point for service-model innovation.

Adaptive training models: With regard to the next 12 months, dropping distinctions between

training for work-at-home and brick-and-mortar is another common-sense position for call

centers to take. There are three reasons for this:

Effectiveness: There’s no question that training without classroom time is challenging.

However, there’s also no question that agent outcomes are unaffected. SYKESHome

and its brick-and-mortar agents are equally proficient after completing their virtual and

classroom training. We discovered the demands of virtual teaching drove investments

in technology, knowledge base and curriculum. And those investments produced

more efficacious processes and methodologies than in our classrooms.

Business continuity: It’s clear that, going forward, every call center agent must

be comfortable and successful with virtual training. Will classrooms be used when

available? Of course, but they cannot be an operational dependency again.

Talent recruitment: Working from home has become a mainstream activity that many

people prefer — if not permanently, then for some number of days of the month. Call

centers that train all employees to have that opportunity will have an advantage over


their competitors for the best talent.

LOOKING AHEAD — TECHNOLOGY

A secure endpoint is how agents access the applications

needed for work on the computers in their home. It’s important

for the Better Normal team to raise awareness that the security

of from-home endpoints also needs to be flexible.

Many companies supplied agents with PCs or workstations,

while some agents had their own personal computers. In the

great majority of these cases, companies used VDI to turn

those machines into secure endpoints in agent homes.

VDI is desktop virtualization: What the agent sees on their

computer screen is actually the projected image of an application

— delivered securely from a central server behind a firewall.

A familiar VDI example is Citrix. This software securely brings

Windows applications to local PCs (or Macs, mobile devices

or Chromebooks) by sending images of those applications

to the screens of logged-in computers. Citrix can also deliver

images of non-Windows applications to computers like

greenscreen emulators.

However, there are situations where VDI doesn’t meet the

agent’s or the company’s needs. Some support responsibilities

require high-performance components like a quad-core

processor or multimedia capabilities. Also, for an increasing

number of companies, VDI is old school.

The Better Normal team should work with IT to find a secure

endpoint solution that’s flexible enough for both scenarios.

SYKES uses container technology to create a completely

secure from-home endpoint by locking the PC down and

bringing it up in a clean state, with all ports, printing and screen

capture disabled. Agents can only store to the hard drive and, if

something is stored, it disappears when the agent reboots and

returns their PC to its normal, personal computer configuration.

Using container technology and an actual machine provides

great flexibility — if VDI is required, VDI can be used. If a

company wants the simplicity of locking down a PC and

securely running native software via the internet or a VPN,

they can do that as well.

Implementing contact center as a service (CCaaS) technology:

Legacy brick-and-mortar call center technology faces steep

challenges in adapting to at-home business models:

• Fast and seamless connectivity: On-premises systems

weren’t designed for inbound connections from working

environments with uneven ISP quality and performance.

• Specific from-home features: Remote agents need different

features than on-site agents. It’s why SYKESHome developed


a OneTEAM platform specifically for at-home agents.

OneTEAM: SYKES’ cloud-based workforce

management platform

• Shows supervisors when agents are idle or active

• Enables agents to virtually raise their hand for coaching

help during work

• Lets supervisors listen to calls and whisper advice

• Allows questions to be posted to the team for quick responses

• Measures agent metrics and displays them on a

real-time dashboard

Call centers facing remote agent support challenges will find

CCaaS a compelling possibility, particularly after taking these

four attributes into consideration.

• Speed of implementation

• Ease of connectivity to other cloud-based applications

• Highly capable portals and dashboards

• Consumption-based cost

Common CCaaS features include:

• Automatic call distribution (ACD) and interactive

voice response (IVR)

• Blended routing and queuing of voice and digital channels

such as email, web chat, SMS, social media and video

• A conversational assistant capability to support self-service

and assisted-service interactions and transactions

• Proactive contact, including outbound dialing, SMS and

push notifications

• Support of virtual operations, remote agents and subject

matter experts that reside outside the traditional contact

center operation

• Integration of workforce engagement management (WEM)

functionality, such as agent scheduling and forecasting, and

call/contact recording, into the CCaaS offering

• Capturing real-time and historical contact center performance

data, as well as leveraging curated knowledge bases to

Serenova

8x8

Genesys

Talkdesk

Vonage (NewVoiceMedia)

Five9

NICE inContact

Evolve IP

Aspect Software

Completeness of vision

Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, North AmericaSOURCE: Gartner (October 2019)

As of September 2019 © Gartner, Inc

Challengers Leaders

Niche Players Visionaries

Abili

ty to

exe

cute

Magic QuadrantMagic Quadrant


provide more effective self- and assisted-service interactions

Empowering channel transformation with automation:

Transforming channel mix has become a higher priority than

ever for every call center leader.

That’s because there’s been a collision between two very

powerful and opposing phenomena. On one side, call volume

has increased significantly as people cancel trips, negotiate bill

payments and so forth.

On the other side, thousands of agents are suddenly working

from home with new infrastructure and routines — right when

37%Yes, we have been able to successfully replace calls with cheaper or more convenient channels

33%No, our customers have stuck to the same channels they were using over the last few years, even though other options have become available

11%No, we have seen an overall increase in our contacts by opening up additional channel opportunities for customers

19%Not applicable, my company only handles interactions in one channel

Has your organization been successful with replacing calls

with contacts in cheaper or more convenient channels?

Deloitte: Global Contact Center Survey, 2019.

Monthly active users (in millions) of the most

popular messaging apps

Most popular global mobile messenger apps as of July 2019,

based on number of monthly active users (in millions)

Looking at the monthly active users of the top 3 most popular messaging

apps speaks for the popularity of these chat applications: The top 3 apps

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat combine together more than

4 bilion active monthly users.

customers most want and need to speak to a real person.

Since call center management can’t hire and train as fast as

call volumes and wait times can build, any amount of deflection

from voice to other channels is imperative.

The main difficulty? Customers have always resisted service on

any channel except voice. And automation? Most customers

associate it with miserable experiences navigating IVR options.

Sources

We Are Social; Various sources (Company data);

Hootsuite; DataReportal

© Statista 2019

WhatsApp

Facebook Messenger

WeChat

QQ Mobile

Snapchat**

Viber*

Discord

Telegram

0 200 400 600

200

250

260

294

823

1112

1300

1600

800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Monthly active users in millions

Additional Information:

Worldwide; Various sources (Company data);

DataReportal; as of July 15, 2019


Fortunately, there are paths out of this problem.

Messaging — not chatbots: Although chatbots

seem to have cornered the hype on channel

innovation, it’s important for call centers to

focus instead on messaging — which has these

significant advantages over the chat channel:

Familiarity: Messaging use has soared to billions

of daily texts. Why try deflecting customers to

chatbots when they’re already so comfortable with

messaging? Now, Apple Business Chat, Google

Business Messaging and Facebook Messenger

have jumped on the bandwagon.

No time constraints: Just like a phone call, chats

must start — and be resolved — within a single

timespan. If the customer abandons the chat for

any reason, they have to start all over again. With

messaging, the customer and agent can stay

engaged for hours or days until resolution.

Concurrency soars: Since chats are one-time

activities like phone calls, they only raise agent

concurrency to 1:2. Messaging, on the other hand,

can elevate concurrency to 1:4. It’s as if the call


center just gained half of a full-time employee.

"A Facebook-commissioned Nielsen study

of global Facebook data found that 1 billion

people use Messenger each month. The

same study also found that 56% of those

surveyed would rather message than call

customer service."

- “Facebook for Business: Facebook IQ: Digital Research and Insights; How Messaging Moves Business

Customer experience (CX): Customers can start messaging

anytime without waiting for an available agent. They can

respond back quickly or slowly. Nothing must be repeated or

remembered — the text can be read and searched. Supporting

documents, pictures and links are easily sent.

Agent X: Messaging can be automated to reduce repetitive

steps, and team collaboration, robust coaching and knowledge

base searches are made much easier and more effective.

Implementing automation: Shifting the customer from voice

to less agent-centric channels is a good first step toward

greater agent bandwidth, but it’s not likely to be enough

to create the scalability needed to bring wait times and

other performance metrics back in line with service-level

expectations. To meet that goal, call centers will need to

deploy automation that will scale optimized channels to

greater performance.

Priorities: Increased bandwidth will be a top call center

objective for the foreseeable future. Since concurrency is

a reliable indicator of increased, same or lesser bandwidth,

messaging’s 1:4 concurrency marks it as the best channel

to begin automation. In fact, automation has the potential to

increase messaging concurrency by two or three times.

If you don’t have a messaging channel yet, move to your

chatbot and review any existing automation — does it reflect

current agent activity, or is it in need of updating and revision?

If you don’t have automated chatbots, consider implementing

a very simple step like automating an FAQ.

Robotic process automation (RPA): This software provides

the simplicity, agility and flexibility you’ll need to automate

channels quickly and effectively, without touching underlying

systems or databases.


ConclusionChapter Five:


CONCLUSION

Brick-and-mortar call centers, like the vast majority of

business organizations across the world, have been

radically affected by the global pandemic.

Those centers also face compounding factors that include:

• Unpredictable governmental policies and mandates

• A worldwide impact that negates geo-diversity as a risk

mitigation and business continuity possibility

• A fundamental operational conflict as call volumes and

resolution complexities increase while agent availability

and efficiency erode

• Work-from-home migration, although a necessary and

unavoidable shift in operation models, is not the same as

the proven work-at-home model and poses long-term scale

and sustainability issues

As companies prepare for future contingencies, the

framework offered by Crisis and Better Normal teams can

provide better business continuity and more seamless

growth, creating more evolved operations. By working in

collaboration, those teams exist to build action plans for

long-term operational threats and offer recommendations to

better inform management decisions.

Bear in mind that this solution framework plays another

role in cultivating durable competitive strengths. It buffers

existing strategy teams and processes within brick-and-mortar

center organizations from the pressures created by this

unprecedented pandemic business environment.

The wisdom of keeping a clear head in tough times like

these may be largely self-evident, but acting on it will be

difficult unless organizational adjustments are made. For

companies that are adjusting to a work-at-home model,

SYKES can provide guidance and solutions that ensure

operations continue to run smoothly, regardless of the

circumstances at hand.

Chapter Five: Conclusion


Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated is a leading provider of multichannel demand generation and

customer engagement services for Global 2000 companies and their end customers. SYKES’

differentiated full lifecycle solutions and services — digital marketing, sales expertise, customer

service, technical support and more through multichannel delivery platforms — effectively

engage customers at every touchpoint of the customer journey. Our complete service offering

helps clients acquire, retain and increase the lifetime value of their customer relationships

through cost-effective solutions that enhance the customer service experience, promote

stronger brand loyalty and foster high levels of performance and profitability.

Learn more at sykes.com/notjustalltalk.

© Copyright 2020 SYKES. All rights reserved.


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