When remote workers are down due to technical issues, they are getting paid for not working.  This is obviously not the desired outcome, but what can be done about it?

Managing a remote or hybrid workforce is no simple task.  There are many variables to consider, some of which are not in the company’s or the employee’s direct control, such as the reliability of the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) and other utilities.

Moving key systems to the cloud is a major step in the right direction, but even there you may run into limitations, because not all Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platforms are the same.  There are differences in both licensing models and architecture that can either simplify or complicate the issue, especially when omnichannel interactions are considered. 

MotionCX has developed many features that will help you manage remote workers more efficiently, and at lower cost.  We are on the side of “simplify.”

The Cost of Downtime

Time is money.  Downtime is money wasted.  If an agent is down for 15 minutes, that’s an extra paid break.  In an 8-hour shift, that equates to 6.25% of their paid time.

But how often are issues resolved that quickly?  I’ve seen many instances where remote users have been down for over 90 minutes, including time waiting for a callback from an overburdened help desk, ineffective troubleshooting steps, and a re-boot.  In the end, the resolution was simply to change the default speaker and microphone to the headset. 

At 90 minutes down, 18% of the shift is lost labor.  That’s a solid chunk of time, and if it’s happening to other remote workers (why else the long wait for the help desk?) there are likely to be service level issues and other KPI impacts brewing.

But it doesn’t need to take that long.  MotionCX has features to help identify and resolve remote worker issues faster, improving operating costs and boosting your CX.

MotionCX Makes Remote Worker Support Easier

The real-time dashboards in MotionCX include data regarding the user’s softphone version, sound settings, and even IP address.  This enables help desk and IT support personnel to gather data without relying on the end-user, avoiding delays waiting for ticket updates and boosting the accuracy of the data to 100%.  Troubleshooting time is cut in half (or more), and agent downtime is minimized through more efficient and effective support.

Challenges with Remote Worker Equipment and Environment

The at-home work environment will never have the same business continuity standards as an on-site operation.  How many agents have UPS battery back-up, diesel generators, and contracts with fuel suppliers to enable continuous operation in the face of a multi-day power outage?

That being said, there are advantages to the at-home environment, particularly with a decreased spread of communicable diseases.  After all, that’s what started the mass exodus to work from home back in 2020.

While the disaster recovery standards in our home environments are not as bullet proof and bunkarized as an on-site data center, top-tier cloud hosting platforms like Microsoft Azure and/or Amazon Web Services (AWS) provide fully redundant platforms with diverse geo-locations, providing continuous operations in the most extreme circumstances.  So an agent may lose power, but the cloud is still online.      

But items like power and Internet connectivity are just a few pieces of the puzzle, and it’s not all solved in the cloud.  Hardware and software are also make-it-or-break-it items.  If you are willing to take the risk of a “bring your own device” program, where employees provide some or all their equipment, the troubleshooting and technical support gets very complex.  It’s not just a question of a headset not working, now we need to determine the make and model of the headset, how it connects, features like noise/echo cancellation, etc.  All these factors can influence the audio quality.

Even when the company provides all the equipment for the remote workers, there are opportunities for a computer’s microphone or speaker settings to be wrong, requiring help desk support.   

Easy Cost Cutting: Avoid Redundant Software Licensing

Many on-premises systems, and even some hosted platforms, have separate licensing models for remote users.  In the worst-case scenarios with a fully hybrid environment, where all workers spend some days on site and some days working at home, each employee needs a license for each environment, doubling the costs to enable and sustain the hybrid model.

The MotionCX licensing model provides more for less.  Our full suite bundle unlocks the potential of the platform and enables your staff to service your customers, securely, from any location with an Internet connection.  And this isn’t just a single license for voice.  It includes SMS/MMS, email, chat and other types of digital messaging.  With an omnichannel solution, every user can handle every channel without upgrading their license or switching to a different UI. 

Better Tools to Monitor and Support Remote Workers

With a remote workforce, there’s more to monitoring than quality assurance.  Measuring downtime and gathering data regarding the root causes for it can save you a lot of money by minimizing lost labor. 

Poor network quality leads to packet loss and jitter (choppy sounding calls), dropped calls, and agent downtime.  MotionCX softphone monitors the connectivity and call quality for both the user and the caller.  You can perform a quality assessment on an employee’s network connection and headphone/microphone test using the softphone.  It may not be able to fix your home ISP, but it will give you detailed information about the user’s environment and get you to the root cause faster.  This data can also help debunk agent claims of technical issues that may just be attempts at work avoidance.     

At the end of the day, MotionCX helps your agents stay engaged, lightens the load on your IT resources, and makes your customer experience something worth raving about.