Work-at-Home Agents Damage Net Promoter and Customer Satisfaction. Is this Preventable? A Call Center Case Study
May 6, 2010 at 11:54 am | Posted in Call Center Agents, Call Center Training, for External Relationships, for Internal Relationships, Relationship Analytics | 3 CommentsTags: customer satisfaction, Frost & Sullivan, home agents, Michael DeSalles, net promoter, remote agents, remote call center agent, work-at-home agents
The remote agent model is compelling for many reasons – from elimination of the cost of physical work space, to decreased employee attrition and the higher caliber of employee that can be hired once geographical limitations disappear. At the recent Frost & Sullivan Customer Contact 2010 Event, Michael DeSalles, Strategic Analyst of Contact Centers stated, ‘It is estimated that the work at home agent model is growing by 40% annually’[1]. Attrition among work at home agents is only 10% compared to attrition rates of nearly 50% in typical call centers[2]. The ability to fill agent positions with individuals who have college degrees (80% of work at home agents do) and management experience while reducing overhead is an intriguing proposition to many organizations.
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Moved to http://www.metrics.net/blog 
CRM team…very interesting results and I think your observations about the right agent,setting expectations etc…was ‘spot on’. Very thought provoking blog. As I’ve said publicy and in our Market Insights, the easy part is the technical move to a home agent model. The hard part is the management of the home agent population.
Do you have any commentary or research re: Home Agent supervision? Do you believe that the supervisors need to be virtual too? Or… is smart to keep supervisors in the role of managing facility agents and home agent together??
Looking forward to your next blog..all the best!
Comment by Michael DeSalles— May 6, 2010 #
Great Blog. As an outsourcer I can see where an at home model as an adjunct to a previously fixed facility can create a host of difficulties, I wouldn’t discount looking for a company that is first, last and always an at home provider however. There you will find that these issues are nowhere near as severe.
Best regards,
Daniel G.
Comment by Daniel G. Willis— June 22, 2010 #
Thanks for the comment Daniel. Very much agreed.
Comment by Customer Relationship Metrics— June 25, 2010 #