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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...
12 Jan 2010
The UK is famed for many things; William Shakespeare, David Beckham and The Royal Family...however maybe our most infamous British characteristic is to be taken completely off guard by our unpredictable weather.
A little snow falls and the whole country grinds to a halt. Children can’t go to school (cue much cheering across the country), roads became hazardous and even pathways are unable to be cleared due to potential legal issues (apparently if someone slips and falls on a cleared driveway/path/Tesco car park then the owner of said tarmac is responsible, however if it is covered with snow and black ice and someone breaks a leg you cannot be held responsible...political correctness gone mad? Or are we simply protecting ourselves?)
Obviously this most recent bout of snowfall has been particularly horrendous, with many villages cut off from the rest of the country. (Although somehow the news crews are always able to access said villages and film those who are stranded...)
One of the overriding factors of the snow and ice and sleet and wind and rain (the list goes on and on) is that many people have been unable to travel to their place of work. In some cases this is completely understandable and the roads have indeed been treacherous. Others however have seen this as a perfect opportunity for a free holiday, ‘trapped’ at home and unable to possibly even entertain the idea of getting wrapped in countless layers and heading into the office.
Here in the CallScripter office we have had several team members who have struggled to make it in, but even on those very rare occasions that it has proved impossible they have still been able to work from home thanks to our well-connected hosting infrastructure.
Due to the snow, call centres up and down the country saw a dramatic increase in the amount of calls handled, due to car breakdowns, overflow call handling and accidents happening on the icy roads. Indeed our sister company, a call centre, handled a record-breaking amount of calls last week, a 25-40% increase in calls compared to a normal week. This resulted in Wednesday being the busiest day on record in the call centre’s 12 year history.
However what happens if agents are unable to get into your call centre on time? Many journey times have been doubled, if not tripled, and that is if the roads are even accessible and safe to drive on. This ultimately puts call centres at risk, by looking unprofessional to their clients as call waiting times are increased, therefore the customer on hold gets more and more impatient at the slow response time. Resulting in a lose lose, frustrating situation for all involved.
So what can be done to counter-act this? The cynical among us may say that people have to sleep in the office or set off three hours before their shift is due to start, however the practicalities of this are not exactly realistic.
One solution that is currently working for a new breed of call centres is that of homeworking. By employing homeworkers your agents can work from the comfort of their own homes; without putting their safety at risk by driving through the snow and ice; they will never be late, due to traffic or snow blocking the road; and as long as you ensure you have a reliable connection, callers will never realise that your agents are anywhere but the office! They can be sitting in their pyjamas handling calls, and no-one will be any the wiser.
By implementing homeworkers, agents have the ability to work uninterrupted and also cover irregular shift patterns or emergency spikes in traffic (i.e. during a blizzard), meaning that productivity is higher and your clients receive a more comprehensive service.
Also a hosted homeworking solution provides something extra for your clients. By having a hosted system it can be utilised from any location, at any time, yet offers all the features and functionality of the premise based scripting software. The primary benefit of this solution is that there are no geographical barriers, meaning that your agents can literally work from anywhere, as long as they have a PC, a telephone and access to the Internet. It can also be scaled up or down, depending on demand.
Therefore it is perfect for emergency situations like the one we are currently experiencing with the snow. At peak times, and in crisis situations, you can simply assign more of your agents to work from home, and when things begin to calm down, homeworking operations can immediately be scaled down and your agents can resume their position within your call centre.
By the way this year has started weather-wise (and certainly looks set to continue for the foreseeable future) can you really afford not to implement a homeworking solution, even if it is just as a disaster recovery measure?
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
IPPlus PLC is an AIM listed business services group, whose interests include software and outsourced contact centres. The group, whose Headquarters are in Ipswich, Suffolk, trades under three main trading styles: Ansaback, CallScripter and IP3 Telecom.
Ansaback is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week bureau telephony service providing overflow and out of hours call handling, emergency cover, dedicated phone resources, non-geographic, low call and freephone telephone facilities, as well as disaster recovery lines and other ancillary telecommunications services.
CallScripter is an enhanced customer interaction software suite, specifically developed for contact centres, telesales and telemarketing operations. By introducing CallScripter’s dynamic scripting environment into their organisation, clients will gain immeasurable benefits to themselves, and their customers. The software facilitates the rapid set-up, handling and reporting of sophisticated inbound, outbound and email campaigns. The current client database encompasses a wide range of industries including outsourcers, financial services, helpdesk, telemarketing, internet providers, accident management and charities, meaning that it is the perfect application for any customer-facing environment.
IP3 Telecom provide a range of network-based interactive call services on either a managed basis or self-serve option. Clients can route their required services through IP3's web portal, allowing them to monitor their call traffic on real-time. Alternatively IP3 can generate periodic reports via email. The web portal allows fast and efficient configuration of services and is hosted across resilient platforms with triple redundancy for location, infrastructure and service providers. Web access allows for remote management from anywhere in the world, without any proprietary software requirement.
Press Contact: Emma Noye
Direct Tel: 0844 544 8831
Email: emma@callscripter.com
IPPlus Plc 2 Melford Court, The Havens, Ransomes Europark, Ipswich, IP3 9SJ www.ipplusplc.com