Remote Working

In August of 1970, American duo the Carpenters released their second studio album, which was called Close to You. The album contained the hit song and perennial wedding favorite, “We’ve Only Just Begun,” and...

In 1978, the band REO Speedwagon released its seventh studio album. Called You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish, it was REO’s first album to crack the Top 40, reaching number...

The first half of 2020 will forever be defined by the global response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Individuals, businesses and governments worked together to mitigate an unprecedented public health crisis, ensuring human health...

The following Q&A is part of a series on creating a sustainable work-from-home contact center. Each post examines a vital technology that supports contact centers in the transition to a permanent remote-work model. Below,...

Woe is me” is defined as “an overdramatic, often comical way to express sadness or disappointment at an unfair situation.” Well, there you have it… the definition describes quite well what many of...

Chances are you have pivoted toward remote agents, and maybe not by choice: Most organizations were forced into work-from-home situations. You scrambled and had little choice. The race will soon be on to either replace...

Already experiencing pandemic change, contact centers can expect even more in 2021, at a more rapid pace. Call and ticket volumes continue to rise, and the remote workforce will remain, at least partially, distributed...

Now that call centers have transitioned to working from home, many managers and supervisors are finding coaching remotely to have its challenges. Managers often go into “survival mode” and put coaching on the back...

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid and global shift of moving contact center agents and supervisors to a work-at-home model, giving rise to two central questions: How has this impacted performance; and...

For contact centers, the proverbial genie is out of the bottle. While the development and distribution of effective COVID-19 vaccines has put the global economy on track toward normalcy, the way contact centers operate—and...

It’s mind-numbing how much is being written about COVID-19. Too much to absorb, much less process. Yet amid the lockdowns, layoffs and reopenings, we’re forced to figure out what could actually work—aside from pontifications...

I have the privilege of knowing dozens of seasoned U.S. work-from-home (WFH) leaders in financial services, health care, retail, travel, professional services and utilities who have figured out (over the years) the secret sauce...

When you think of working from home, several benefits come to mind. The savings in both time and money to commute back and forth to work. And, if you usually eat out for lunch,...

The need for remote access to core contact center infrastructure continues to grow. Whether implementing a home agent program, accommodating “on the go” leaders, establishing connectivity to outsourcers, ensuring business continuity, or tying into...

The following Q&A is part of a series on creating a sustainable work-from-home contact center. Each post examines a vital technology that supports contact centers in the transition to a permanent remote-work model. Below,...

I wish I could say, “Hate to see you go,” but that is definitely not the case. I believe that each of us has been bitterly disappointed by 2020. This year, holding the promise...

My blog series co-author, Paul Stockford, and I both lobbied to lead this one off. Paul, thanks for letting me set the stage—plus I know you’ll bring our main points home with well-researched facts...

As we close out the first quarter of 2023, our readers are focused on the future. Tiffany guides us on how to up our workforce management game. Tim shares valuable lessons learned from the...

Throughout October, our readers explored a variety of the most pressing topics facing our centers. Our authors discussed whether our agents should continue to WFH, how to best lead our agents with compassion, and...

The business world was turned upside down as thousands of companies were suddenly forced to send their employees home to work virtually. IT departments moved into high gear, and as executives learned that employees...