In today’s ever-evolving landscape for customer service, the hybrid contact centre can mean a multitude of things. Some people use the term “hybrid” to refer to an environment where some of their technology is in the cloud, and some is stored on-premises. Others commonly refer to “hybrid” contact centres as those with both in-office and remote workers.
Following the massive changes to happen to the workforce in 2020, many contact centre employees are beginning to work more consistently from home. Although around 53% say that they would prefer “hybrid working,” where they can move between the home and office.
In this new landscape, most contact centres will need some kind of hybrid strategy, which supports software delivered over the cloud.
Planning a New Hybrid Contact Centre
To make the shift into the new, hybrid world, contact centres will need to begin by deciding which approach they want to take. All hybrid contact centre environments will require a combination of cloud and on-premises technology. However, hybrid employees and workforces can operate in different ways. For instance:
- A hybrid workforce: This approach splits your employees into teams where some work in the office, and some work from home. Useful for creating consistency, the hybrid workforce means your employees know where they stand each week
- Hybrid employees: This approach allows agents and reps to balance their time between the contact centre and the home or “remote” environment. This allows for a great deal of flexibility with your teams, but it can be harder to plan
The model you choose for your new hybrid environment will depend on several things, including the personality types of your team members. For instance, will some people in your staff be more comfortable with remote working than others? You should also consider ergonomics, and whether your people have a dedicated space outside of the office for work. Will they be able to access the right technology, both through the cloud and in terms of hardware?
What Do You Need?
Every hybrid contact centre is different. Some companies will work best when every employee has access to high-quality conference phones and dedicated equipment. Others will prefer allowing their employees to take a BYOD approach to working both on the cloud, and in the office. Having a cloud environment that’s flexible enough to suit a range of hardware choices will be essential.
Companies will need a full strategy for success that centres around providing an employee with the right devices, supervision, support, and software. A quality management system and workforce monitoring software will help to keep track of team members wherever they are. Extensive reporting and analytics tools will ensure that you can examine the performance of your employees and motivate them towards better results.
Hybrid teams will also need to consider the unique needs of their business and customers when it comes to things like privacy and compliance. How can you ensure that the data moving between your hybrid workers remains safe and secured?
A hybrid contact centre may well be the future of customer service, but it’s something that requires careful consideration and planning.
