FAQs: Enabling your remote workforce

With businesses gradually reopening, many have been quick to identify that the “new normal” will place significant importance on the remote workforce. Office-based staff will be offered the ability to work-at-home, for those sectors that can, and the best method of enabling this remote workforce with cloud communications has become a hot topic for CIOs, Heads of Operations, and Managers in general.

Here, at Zing, we’ve frequently identified remote working as a potential area for improvement for our clients, and a focus point for ongoing success within the customer service department.

Below, we’ve outlined some of the most frequent questions asked to us by clients and we’re giving our answers to you in the hopes of helping you on your journey to transform your customer experience.

__________________________

Q: Business is picking up again and I want to offer remote working to my office-based staff – where do I even start?

A: Enabling your remote workforce may seem like a daunting challenge, especially when there’s so much choice available to you. However, like with a phone system, it’s important not to just look at the options available. Instead, try and identify what your goal is and what you need to make that work.

For example, is your goal to have a completely remote sales team? In that case, setting up a cloud-based phone system that integrates with your CRM, increasing the efficiency of your agents, would be the best option. Remain goal-orientated and with a flexible design – you can build on your solution as future needs arise.

__________________________

Q: Staying contactable is important for my business, how can I get my calls directed to my remote workforce?

A: Despite the growing popularity of virtual communications, many customers still exhibit a preference for live interaction with agents. Being able to direct calls to your remote workforce remains essential for your customer experience.

Luckily, it’s never been easier. Softphone products, like the Zing Respond Dialer, allow agents to take calls wherever they have an internet connection. By combining softphones with proxy numbers from providers like Twilio, means you can keep your original number, minimising disruption for your customers.

__________________________

Q: My customers don’t prefer one particular channel of communication, how can I stay in touch via my contact centre?

A: Having an omnichannel contact centre isn’t just an added-bonus, it’s a business imperative. The modern customer expects businesses to be able to move seamlessly from live web chat to voice call, to a follow-up WhatsApp conversation – all without having to repeat conversations with different agents along the way.

Making sure your business can keep up with these demands will ensure you deliver an exceptional customer experience and exceed your targets. Integrating software like Twilio Flex, or Twilio Conversations, with your CRM enables your agents to have complete access to all interactions with customers and allows them to respond across all mediums. Get in touch if you want to find out more about this!

__________________________

Q: I already have other systems (a CRM and a ticket desk), how can I integrate my contact centre into them?

A: The foundation of an effective contact centre is a single and holistic view of every customer. Your contact centre must work in perfect harmony with your CRM and other industry specific workforce optimisation solutions you may have (including reporting and analytics).

Some contact centre solutions offer plug-ins that can offer some basic level functionality for generic tasks. However, bespoke integration will help you achieve full optimisation and synchronisation across your different in-house systems. By ensuring all pertinent information is kept in a central, accessible, location, integration will help you transform your customer experience.