With an increasing number of companies moving their call center operations to India, either directly or through the outsourcing route, the need for customer service representatives (CSR) is clearly on the rise. The call center industry is clearly on a recruitment run. In this context, call centers can enlarge their base of prospective CSRs by targeting home-based professionals through a remote call center program.

But, We Can’t See the Back of Their Head!
Before a company can consider looking at this program, the call center organization must overcome two factors. The first is a shift from the paradigm—in order to manage someone you must see the back of his or her head. To achieve this, you need to ensure that systems are in place to train and manage remote CSRs in a manner identical to in-house CSRs. If the call center management utilizes tools for monitoring, statistics and training, then the same should be used for remote CSRs as well. The training of all CSRs should be identical, with the at-home worker required to go through the same in-house training program.

Are the Technology Connections in Place?
The second concern you need to address is with regard to technology. It has to be in place to deliver both voice and data to the headset of the CSR.

n Voice: The remote CSRs should not have calls forwarded to their homes but instead have the voice connection ‘nailed’ up to their headsets without delay. In essence, the CSR virtually has a long extension cord to the switch. Another factor to consider is that a CSR may be passed calls from different toll free numbers; so the identification of the type of call is important as well.

n Data: The data side of the equation involves a couple of factors. First, as the CSR is answering incoming calls, the data connection to access the host system must be available in real time. If the host system is a Windows-based client server, the question of system speed must be evaluated.

In this context, you need to assess the need for broadband solutions and specialized software for the remote worker to access the host system. The use of DSL and ISDN connectivity can help achieve higher speeds of access; however, the cost per at-home worker goes up. In India, many of these issues are currently not answerable or not viable. With broadband just starting to make its appearance, most Indian houses rely on dial-up access, which does not deliver standard bandwidth.

The Benefits
Some powerful benefits of a remote call center program are as follows:

n Labor Pool: Normally, call centers only recruit people from within a 10-20 km radius of the center. With the remote worker, the labor pool a company can draw from is only limited to the local exchange of the phone company.

n CSR Retention: Higher CSR retention has a direct impact on lowering training costs, as well as costs of recruitment. It also raises the quality of the service delivered to your customers. Some of these benefits are not measured just in hard costs but in soft costs over the long term as well.

n Staffing for the Peaks: The at-home workers tend to be more flexible in their schedules. Ideally, call centers would like to staff more agents during the peak calling times and decrease agents during the valleys.

This can be accomplished with the flexible schedules offered to the at-home worker.

n Hard Costs: The reduction in the costs for building additional terminals is a large cost saving. The remote worker option allows companies to accommodate new business requirements without having to opt for a building upgrade or move to a larger center.

Configuration and Setup
When an at-home worker connects to the main system for voice and data, he/she is required to have two separate phone lines. The first one is used for modem connection to the host system, the other for the voice connection to the call center switch. Other aspects of setup focus on the equipment used by the worker. Will the computer need special emulation software loaded on the desktop? Will the remote worker need a special type of phone? Many advanced switches have the ability to control the phone from the computer screen.

Selecting the At-home Worker
When selecting the at-home workers, several things need to be considered. Do they have the equipment needed for the position? Will they be able to work well independently? Do they have a noise-free environment? Will they be able to train in-house? What are the motivating reasons that they want to work from home? These simple facts will help with the selection process:

n Hiring Process: Interviewing should focus on past behavior and job history. This process is standard for in-house and remote employees. One critical area is stability. If your candidate has ‘job hopped’, he or she will probably not be a good choice.

n Inspections: You should evaluate the work environment of all at-home candidates. Look at hardware, space, organization and possible noise interference. The successful remote employee must have a ‘professional work area’ located within his home.

The Work Environment
One of the final steps in the hiring process involves an inspection of the environment that the remote CSR will be working in at home. Since this area will, in a sense, be an extension of your office, you want to be certain that there is nothing that would compromise the professionalism you expect your staff to exhibit. The accompanying checklist illustrates the primary areas of interest for the inspector.

First, you want to be certain that the appropriate hardware and software exist for the connection between your office and the remote site to be successful. The hardware would include:

l A Pentium III,
l A 56 kbps external modem,
l Windows 98 operating system

Second, two phone lines both in the same room:
l A phone with a keypad separate from the handset
l The phone connection should have call waiting disabled
l Electrical requirements include a grounded outlet, and a power strip

Third, it is important to inspect the actual area in which the CSR will be working. The preferred environment is a separate room converted into an office; however, this need not be a hard and fast rule. Key issues would be the distance from the work area to TVs, stereos, bathrooms, laundry rooms, or any other situation that might result in unwanted noise during a business call. It is also important to make note of pets and their location within the home to determine whether they could be heard or not. Small children could also potentially be a source of background noise that has to be considered as well.

Enhanced Customer Care
Remote workers can partner with your organization to augment your workforce and offer flexibility to your call center operations. They can effectively serve as the ‘front office or back office’ for customer contact spanning areas like customer care, customer acquisition, technical support, and Web support.

In summary, not all applications within a call center will lend themselves to an at-home worker. However, employment and technology trends suggest that highly successful call centers of the future must employ sophisticated and innovative business models to thrive in a competitive environment.

Syam NT, senior technical specialist (professional services) Wipro Infotech