Adapting call centres to the health crisis

Call centres are generally involved in receiving incoming calls (sales, service, support, etc), but can also conduct various outgoing call campaigns (telemarketing, reactivation of customers, surveys, collections, etc). In either case, they bring in the expertise of a trained and equipped team to achieve the objectives assigned to them, both in terms of the volumes to be processed and the quality of the service provided.

All challenges give the call centre responsibilities and obligations that often go far beyond handling incoming or outgoing calls.

As a first point of contact, a call centre must therefore always work to maintain the brand image of its own business or its mandatory business by providing a quality of service in line with customer and business advocacy.

Clients deserve and demand the best service level regardless of the technology engaged by the contact centre to service their clients.

In the current health crisis, call centres must adapt their current infrastructure and processes and configure their telephones in remote telephony mode in order to support mobility.

Deploying VOIP technology is the best strategy available to stabilise businesses and assist customers in their most desperate situations at a time where social distancing is mandatory and an inability to provide solutions to a demanding public is mismanagement.

SCOPTEL IPBX software from ScopServ supports these two configurations as long as an address and a port are accessible to the Internet in a secure manner:

• Make sure you have the necessary security to protect the installation of public access, behind a firewall or an SBC (session border controller).
• You can also secure your local server through a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

How do SCOPTEL tools behave in "teleworking" mode?

They benefit from a transparent quality of communications regardless if they are operated from the office or by telecommuting.

The call centre agent may use the SCOPTEL APA (Agent Portal Application) to supplement the agent's telephone extension by adding a control panel to the agent’s desktop. The agent can then perform the same actions of calling, answering or transferring communications via the APA while within the office or remotely while teleworking. All incoming call processing functionalities will remain intact while adding interaction with business software, such as CRM, ERP, etc.

SCOPSTATS and SCOPSWITCH are real-time Web-based supervision tools, which provide call statistics and call monitoring while in the office or while in mobile telecommunication modes.

We are aware that some companies haven’t yet completely gone digital, that it is "complicated" to be proactive both in support and in communication when restrictions arrive so quickly.

Take advantage of the many collaborative ScopServ telephone solutions that can support businesses, from the smallest to the largest.

Here are some good telecommuting practices for you or your clients:

• Create a dedicated space at home;
• Prepare as if you are going to the office;
• Respect your working hours;
• Establish a work method to follow-up at the start and or end of the day, for yourself or with your supervisors;
• Prepare a list of daily action items to be done during the day and take stock at the end of the session;
• Respect the "hello" in the morning and the "goodbye" in the evening to your coworkers; and
• Use voice communications as much as you can. E-mails are not real-time transfers and they are often neglected due to sheer volume.

Prioritise the means of communications:

• Cellular: Important – need immediate response.
• SMS or text: Important – need an answer within an hour.
• E-mail: Important – need a written, validated response within one day.
• Visio: Work meeting.
• Slack: Courtesy discussions, no emergencies, notifications.

At ScopServ, we have all the tools needed to support companies in their pursuit of critical activities and we are always available. Our SCOPCOMM collaboration tool is an easy-to-deploy and affordable unified communications application to get you through the crisis. SCOPCOMM will allow you to communicate internally and externally and not lose your team dynamics. Take advantage!