How does your business conduct its call center operations?

More importantly, with remote vs in-office call centers, which is more effective in helping your business grow?

With the recent pandemic, more businesses have begun to embrace remote call centers and remote working in general.

In fact, statistically, more than 50% of call centers have more than half of employees work from their homes. However, many companies get second thoughts regarding hiring staff who work from home.

When deciding between remote call centers and in-office call centers, many questions arise in the mind of business owners. 

What is the role of a call center in future operations? With 2022 approaching, a business might want to be ahead of its competition. 

In this article, we will examine the benefits and challenges of remote vs in-office call centers.

Benefits And Challenges Of At-Home Vs In-Office Call Center Office 

Prior to the pandemic, the US and many other countries started hiring staff for remote call centers. India might be a little late in the race, but it’s catching up fast. 

You may encounter some challenges, like lack of teamwork, lack of support staff, and isolation from your co-workers. However, as per studies, long-lasting at-home call center operations have seen great success in the field. 

Most companies have driven great policies, technologies, and staffing models that help you achieve great outcomes. In fact, such a success rate has developed over time. Moreover, even pre–covid, at home operations were reaping great advantages. 

There are great variations in terms of your call center office. Some businesses have seen many benefits whereas some may have seen challenges.

Let us learn some of these benefits and challenges in the below article: 

Benefits Of A Remote Call Center 

• When a person is working at home, it naturally increases the engagement level. Thus, resulting in high retention.
• Your business gets access to highly qualified and skilled staff. 
• Working from home offers flexibility for your telecallers and that further results in a great work-life balance. 
• Also, your business can maintain communication for extended operating hours. 
• Your business continues even during a crisis or disaster. 
• Decreases management and operating costs. 

Read – Why call center is required?

 Challenges Faced By A Remote Call Center 

• There is a huge challenge of feeling isolated and disconnected from a team. 
• Sometimes, there is a lack of internet speed at home which results in fewer operations time. 
• Your agents are usually more distracted at home. This could lead to a less dedicated workplace. 
• Lack of team monitoring can result in decreased productivity of your business.
• Due to less secure network connections, there are high chances of data security risk. 
• Your agents may face technical issues. 
• Misunderstanding of text-based communications with supervisors. 
• Your agents may face difficulty in managing personal and work life at home. 
• Managers need extra skills to manage virtual teams. 

Also read: Complete guide on call center

Benefits Of An In-Office Call Center 

• The major benefit of having an on-site call center is data security. Your data is more safe due to secured networks. 
• Easy accessibility to supervisors.
• Better opportunities for learning and development through great networking with peers and managers. 
• Your managers can see or hear immediately when an agent is in trouble. or has doubts or needs assistance in between calls. 
• Better opportunities for your telecallers to get involved in cross-functional projects 
• Your agents are well immersed in the company’s culture. 
• It is a great appealing factor for younger agents for increased career growth. 

 Challenges Of An In-Office Call Center 

• Higher chances of absenteeism. 
• Recruitment in a limited area.
• Higher operational and overhead costs. 
• Due to covid, you have more health and safety concerns to take care of on an in-office call center. Moreover, this could raise business expenses. 
• Usually, traditional operational timings are longer.This could lead to higher costs and less efficiency of agents. 

 Adapt On-Site Office Practices For Work From Home Agents 

Work from home practices have been evolving for a long time. Specifically, lower virtual training skills and agent engagement processes are the main challenges faced. These are both expected of your employees in a remote work module. 

In fact, all organizations expect their agents to work effectively even when they are working from home. But in reality, this is not the case. 

Here are some challenges that most virtual call center workers have to deal with effectively in today’s scenario: 

Recruiting and retaining work from home call center agents 

The greatest benefit of recruiting work from home agents is the ability to hire agents without any geographical limitations. 

This is a great strategy for your business to attract and retain skilled and talented labour.

 Engaging remote working agents

Typically, work at home call center operations may attract and appeal to agents. However, over time the productivity and long-term interest in at-home operations lower down naturally. This is majorly due to feelings of isolation and not appropriate connectivity with your team. 

So, it’s important for you to have constant communication with in-house agents for better engagement. As a business, you can always incorporate events or innovative social events like birthday celebrations, festivals, and more. 

 Incorporate video into virtual training

The training level for your agents depends on the type of industry and business. 

Some companies only require a virtual call center floor with a few days of online training. In comparison, many other companies need hand-in-classroom training with an on-premise nesting period before they start with work-at-home operations. 

As such, it’s important to incorporate video into virtual training to ensure effective operations. 

Also, read – How to manage remote business communication

 Wrapping up

So, after evaluating remote vs in-office call centers in detail, which do you think is best for your business? 

Overall, you need to consider both benefits and challenges before you select one. Both remote and in-office call centers can help your business achieve great sales and manage customer support.

NeoDove can help your business to achieve your short and long-term sales goals. As a specific telecalling CRM, it’s designed for various different call center operations. Apart from that, it can help you manage customer interactions seamlessly and provide exceptional customer support.

Book a demo today!