To improve productivity and cut staffing costs, some call centers are turning to teleworking.
While the obvious facilities cost savings are partially, if not completely, offset by increased technology expenses, call centers report lower tardiness and higher agent retention with teleworking.
Tardiness is a becoming more of an issue as roads get more congested and delays mount. The Road Information Program (TRIP; www.tripnet.org), a non-profit group, reports that commute times increased nationwide by 14% from 1990 to 2000 - from 22.4 minutes to 25.5 minutes.
Traffic delays and hassles also shrink call center labor pools. With call centers paying low wages for full- and part-time work, agents do not like to drive more than 20 minutes to a job unless there are few jobs available. Result: fewer workers to draw from, which risks wage and turnover jumps.
Convergys saw tardiness and turnover drop when it implemented a telework program at its Jacksonville, FL, call center, and at centers in Nebraska and Utah in 2000. At-home agent performance was identical to that of agents working in the centers.
The Jacksonville experience is especially salient. TRIP ranked the metro area as one of the top ten in the US for commute length increases. Other cities with big drive-time jumps were Raleigh, NC; Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and West Palm Beach, FL; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta, GA; Greensboro-Winston-Salem, NC; Las Vegas, NV; Providence/Warwick, RI-Fall River, MA.
Jacksonville's average commute time increased to 26.6 minutes by 2000 from 22.6 minutes in 1990. But other cities have worse commutes: Atlanta at 31.2 minutes, followed by Miami at 28.9 minutes and Orlando at 27 minutes.
Carla Meine, president and CEO of outsourcer O'Currance Teleservices (Salt Lake City, UT), reports that teleworking enables her firm to tap into a high quality and more loyal workforce. More than 80% of her agents telework.
Meine's agents are in their late 30s compared with the early 20s typically found in call centers. She says they are better able to deliver excellent customer service and sales compared with younger, inexperienced agents.
Freed from the straitjackets of dressing for and commuting to work, her agents are likely to stay longer, reducing staffing and turnover costs. O'Currance's turnover is 100% per year, compared with 200% to 300% for inbound and outbound sales.
"Our agents are those who would never dream of driving to and working in a call center," says Meine. "They are a different caliber of people."
Learn more about teleworking at the 2nd Annual Teleworking Conference. The gathering is part of Call Center Demo & Conference Dallas, which takes place January 27 - 29, 2003. Eddie Caine, professional services manager with TManage, and Brendan Read, Call Center Magazine's Services Editor (and teleworker), will co-present a session on teleworking how-tos and lessons learned.
