By this time of year, winter has well and truly settled in for the next few months and with winter comes more challenges for our businesses. Bad weather such as snow, ice and even rain has been known to slow things down; trains become unreliable or out of service, roads become dangerous and busy and walking is simply not an option for most.
This bad weather can leave businesses short-staffed and, as a result, the level of customer service we are able to provide becomes lower and lower. What can we do to avoid this from happening? We can’t change the weather and we can’t force our agents to trudge miles in deep snow or pouring rain just to get to work but what we can do is provide our agents with the flexibility to work from home.
The Benefits of Remote Working
Remote working is an arrangement whereby employees can work from anywhere. That means providing staff with all the tools they need in order for them to get the job done from wherever they are; whether its home, a relative’s house or even the local coffee shop. All they need is a reasonably fast and reliable internet connection and staff can avoid the commute and still meet their targets, regardless of the weather.
There are benefits to remote working beyond just avoiding the bad weather. Remote working helps workers save time on their commute, have more control over their working time and help them to reconcile work and home life. It also frees them from the distractions of the office; colleagues, meetings etc.
On the other side of things, employers can also benefit. They can save on desk space, cut office overheads and create a more agile workforce. Evidence also suggests that trusting staff to organise themselves can boost their morale and, ultimately, deliver better results. On top of all this, when bad weather strikes, having remote working facilities in place means your workers can access everything they need and you can continue to provide the top level of service that you are known for.
How Cloud Telephony Can Support Remote Working
For many businesses, communication is one of their most vital assets. Without the ability to offer multiple communications channels and fast responses to their customers, most organisations will simply fall behind. Thanks to modern communication technologies, companies of any size can benefit from full call centre functionality with remote working capabilities; call centre facilities are no longer reserved just for the big players with large office spaces and hundreds of staff.
A hosted call centre solution has many advantages, but when it comes to remote working there are some features and capabilities that really stand out from the rest:
- Mobility
- With VoIP, your work phone number can be accessed from your desk phone, mobile, tablet PC or pretty much anything that has an Internet connection. This means, wherever your agents are located, they have access to their calls.
- Omnichannel Communication
- It’s not just phone numbers that can be accessed from anywhere. Phone calls, emails and chat facilities can also be accessed from anywhere. Facebook messages, webchats, WhatsApp messages, emails, texts and more can all be accessed from one piece of hosted software. What’s more, remote agents can access all the information they need to deal with customer enquiries quickly and efficiently, from anywhere.
- Flexibility
- Hosted telephony solutions are extremely flexible. Users can be added and removed as required and setup couldn’t be easier. Remote workers can be set up and ready to go within minutes without even leaving home.
- Talent Pool
- Remote working functionality opens up the talent available to you. By giving potential employees the ability to work remotely you are no longer limited to employing local people. They can be anywhere in the world.
Speak to Kane
Kane Communications are here to help. We provide free, impartial advice, every step of the way to help you find the best solution and can deliver the perfect call centre solution with all the features necessary to enable remote working.
We understand that no two businesses are the same and use our knowledge and experience to deliver secure and reliable phone systems to help you provide your customers with an experience that is second to none.
Please feel free to drop us a line to discuss your needs in more detail.
