Productivity Tips for Contact Center Agents Working From Home

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COVID pandemic has established Work from Home as a viable alternative and now businesses are seriously assessing the possibilities of deploying remote workforce for everyone. A 2 yearlong Stanford study credits work from home for increasing productivity among employees.

The Stanford study divided 500 employees into two groups, half of it worked from regular office spaces while the other half was asked to work from remote locations. The employees working from home were found to be 13% more productive than their counterparts operating from designated workspaces.

The same study also accredited Work from Home as a better option because employees who functioned from home completed their full-shift whereas employees working from office arrived late and left early.

What are the other benefits of letting employees work from home?

A survey by Indeed reveals, letting employees work from remote locations decreases the attrition rate by 50%. Work from home scenario has promoted the culture of employee satisfaction and in return, employees have offered organizations with their unwavering loyalty and better output.

Helps with Business Continuity: COVID pandemic has rendered organizations from around the world helpless. Enterprises are seeking expert advice on deploying remote workforce for business continuity. Leveraging work from home can help organizations offer their services uninterruptedly to clients from around the world.

Client’s Preference: In the post-COVID world, MNCs will start preferring organizations that allow their employees to work from home. COVID has introduced remote working as a viable option and any company that leverages it as a tool will benefit immensely. Every enterprise wants to keep its processes up and running hence agencies that let their employees function remotely will gain heavily.

Reduces Stress Level: Multiple studies have found that employees who work from home lead a happy and stress-free life. Experts suggest that it is the lack of daily commute and the urgency of reaching workplaces at the right time that leads to lesser stress level and allows employees to contribute productively.

More work in Less Time: Employees find themselves free to schedule their tasks according to their routine, which leads to quality output. Happy employees are likely to impart quality services leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Also Read: How to Deploy a Remote Workforce for your Contact Center?

Agent Productivity Tips that are a Must for Employees Working from Home

Contact center employees working from home are likely to experience fatigue due to monotony. While workspaces allow agents to interact among themselves also the competitiveness brings the best out of them. When working from a remote location, contact center agents can get prone to laziness and experience low motivation.

Best Productivity Tips for Agents Working from Home

1. Get Started Early

Contact center agents are not only responsible for answering calls a lot of them are required to fill forms and generate reports daily. Getting started early in the morning will help employees accomplish the tasks at the earliest and have the left day to themselves.

Also, the morning inspiration can help agents offer better support to customers leading to higher productivity and more sales. Agents can also use the extra time for preparing reports or sales-pitch that will reflect positively in their performance.

2. Plan your day as if you are in Office

Agents often lose track of time when working from home, which leads to downfall in performance. Planning for work from home days just the way people plan their regular office days can benefit immensely. With a plan for the days, employees will be able to keep a track of time and compare how much they have accomplished.

Such routines are expected to keep employees on track and help them accomplish tasks without getting distracted. Leveraging Google sheet, calendar and reminders will help employees schedule their days and adhere to the timelines.

3. Establish Your Workspace

When working from remote locations, employees can easily choose a location that improves their attention span and productivity. Find one such corner in your house and convert it into your workspace. Bring in a comfortable chair, establish your system and use organizers to keep everything in place.

When your workspace is clean, organized and properly-lit, it will help you focus and offer better support to customers. Things to keep in mind when establishing your workspace:

It should be free of distortion and honking sounds
It must elevate your working experience
Should be comfortable facilitating long sitting hours

4. Try Social Media Blocker

Social media notification is perhaps the biggest distraction when working from home. Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp can eat up your days without you realizing it. Trying social media blocker apps can help agents concentrate on work.

Plan your day and feed your schedule in the app and it will block all kinds of unnecessary notifications, keeping you focused at work. Here are the other benefits of trying social media blocker:

Helps you remain compliant with the varied client protocols
Allows you to get more work done in less time by removing varied distractions
Reduces your chances of getting caught on social media platforms by your manager during work timings
Leaves ample content for you to consume once you are done with your work

Must Read: Processes Every Growing Start-up Should Consider Outsourcing

5. Discover your High-Productive Period & Use it for Important Tasks

Let’s admit it is tough to be productive round the clock; often people find themselves dragging their work and then there are times when they are super-active. Discover your high-productive period, it can be before lunch or after evening tea, use it for the most important task on your to-do-list.

When you use your productive time for the toughest or most important task, it gets easier for you to complete the rest of the tasks, which makes your overall days simple and fun. One needs to be highly strategic and analytical with time when working from home.

6. Eat Healthy & Take Short Breaks

Healthy breakfast and lunch are very important because it keeps your brain healthy and active. Industry experts suggest short breaks for employees who function remotely because it refreshes their brain and allows them to focus on work.

7. Go Out of House Often

When employees start from home, they prolong their tasks throughout the day, which leaves them with no time to go out. When working from home, it is important to maintain a balance between work and personal life. Find time to go out and refresh yourself.

One of the best ways to maintain a balance is to work at least one day in every week from co-working spaces or coffee shops. Multiple co-working spaces charge on per visit basis, which is quite affordable and suits the purpose. Libraries and public lounges are other places where contact center agents can attend calls and offer their services.

8. Take a Cold Shower

Medical studies have proven that taking a cold shower in the morning activates every organ of the body. A cold shower has proven to be more effective than black coffee. When you get rid of lethargy at the earliest, you can use the entire day for being productive. 79% of participants that took part in the medical study fell less sick and took fewer leaves.

9. Try New Things

Lack of colleagues and fun times can lead to monotony hence it is important to try new things. Trying new things can keep the stress levels of employees working from home under control.

A new habit, a unique game or reading a new book can help employees keep themselves sane on stressful days. Also reading books, gaming and pursuing hobbies are proven ways of improving concentration and productivity.

Also Read: Trends that will Shape the BPO Sector in 2020

Methods Managers can try to keep their Employees Productive

Smart Scheduling: Assign Right Job to the Right Person

When employees are provided with tasks they are good at, they end up outperforming themselves. By letting the subject matter experts handle the processes, organizations can easily move towards better customer satisfaction.

Managers need to be smart and quick with scheduling; traverse the reports and discover employees who have shown exemplary performance in the recent past and allot work accordingly.

Make it Competitive

Managers must keep the competitive spirit alive in employees to keep them productive. By setting small targets and letting agents compete among themselves for the “performer of the week” or “talent of the week” title can help managers get the best out of their agents.

Managers can also conduct off the topic competitions like a selfie contest, where the one with best workstation selfie wins; such small but caring tasks will keep the employees engaged and stop uniformity from seeping in.

Coaching and Mentorship

Managers and other key-stake holders can interact with contact center employees from time to time and help them up-scale. Coaching and mentorship, when provided through remote sessions, can help employees learn new things from the comfort of their homes.

When employees feel rewarded and get to learn new things from the comfort of their homes, they are less likely to leave organizations and serve for a longer period.

Final Thoughts

In the last five years, the amount of people working from home has increased by 44%. More and more organizations are letting their employees work from home because it controls attrition and also improves employee satisfaction.

With happy employees, enterprises can accomplish greater tasks and offer customers with incomparable service. Contact center agents working from remote locations can achieve an exceptional level of work-life balance if they make the most of the tips shared in this article.

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