Historically remote work has been conceptualized as people doing white-collar jobs in grey sweatpants from the comfort of their kitchen table. However, with the rise of the gig economy, remote work has taken on a more nuanced meaning. Remote work now includes writers, drivers, delivery people, and even contact center agents. At the foundation of many of these jobs is a platform that specializes in SaaS or CCaaS. One such platform provider is Five9, the leader in intelligent cloud contact center software. With over 2,000 customers worldwide and over six billion minutes of annual customer interactions, they have developed a track record of empowering success for companies and an international community of remote workers.
Since the global saturation of COVID-19, remote, and gig work has experienced a surge in demand. This is due primarily to fluctuations in economic stability for many whose income depended on a fixed location that was impacted by safety restrictions. As a result, people from various stations in life turned to flexible remote options, and Five9 was ready to answer the call. “Our starting point is from a cloud CCaaS perspective; this allows our customers to employ people with non-traditional and diverse backgrounds,” explains Anand Chandrasekaran, EVP of Product and Management Design at Five9. “This could be a student looking for a summer job or a veteran who has some spare time and looking to make some extra money. This is important because, in addition to learning about whatever product the employee has to support, another major skill is providing empathy. Our Five9 platform allows our customers to benefit from a diverse workforce that can better connect to consumers.”
The 3600 Impact of the Five9 Cloud Solution
The ROI on the Five9 CCaaS solution reaches the client, employee, and community. By having access to a large and diverse talent pool, companies can expand their operational reach more effectively. Employees can avail themselves of a means of income that affords them independence. Communities benefit from being serviced by a workforce that is familiar with local needs and concerns. “A lot of empathy is about local knowledge, so having folks in regions where the end customer is located is advantageous and promotes better service to the range of consumers who may call into our clients,” says Chandrasekaran. “A cloud-based solution that allows for service delivery from just a browser promotes equitable opportunities. Many of our customers don’t intend to bring everyone back to the office after this pandemic, which provides more room and opportunity for talented individuals to be considered for these remote jobs. We are super excited about helping to empower that movement.”
Gamification That Brings Remote Workers Together
Five9 recognizes the impact that remote gig work has taken on workers during these socially distant times. Chandrasekaran points out,
“One of the things that doesn’t get a lot of attention in the remote work model is isolation,”
“This occurs within a team and in relation to supervisors who were once available as an immediate resource for support. In that aspect, gamification helps with visibility regarding how teammates are doing and providing a point of reference for connecting with supervisors.” The integration of gamification functionality allows employees to feel acknowledged and maintain social connections. Additionally, there are instances when someone may be at the top of the leader board. These situations present an opportunity for lateral and vertical conversations about how to enhance performance.
Meeting the Challenges of the Remote Model
One of the major outcomes from the world reacting to COVID-19 was the realization that a location dependent business model is not the most sustainable when faced with a sudden added level of uncertainty. Most businesses came to this conclusion almost simultaneously and created a tidal wave of demand to shift to a cloud-based remote model. For contact centers, availability is vital even during periods of extreme flux. “Once the push to work from home began, there was a need to support that shift for our customers; at times in as little as 24 hours,” tells Chandrasekaran. “In some situations, the customer experienced a significant influx of call volume from consumers with the same questions due to COVID-related changes.” Duplication of effort kills productivity, so Five9 provided a workaround that meets their clients’ needs and provides consumers with critical information.
“The need arose for an extension for those kinds of questions where people could get answers quickly without the hassle of poor automated responses. This is where we introduced Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVA) to our CCaaS platform that allows AI to answer frequently asked questions in an intuitive manner that replicates a live call agent experience”
This is only the beginning for Five9 and their exploration of how to improve the remote CCaaS model. As jobs become increasingly more mobile, Five9 will be there to help businesses adapt to any world-changing event
