Modernizing the Contact Center: Strategies from Online Marketplace Shiftsmart
At Shiftsmart, we help companies modernize their businesses to provide customers with optimal service and experiences. Shiftsmart offers an online marketplace connecting a dynamic workforce with businesses facing complex staffing requirements. We empower workers to find better opportunities, increased pay, and flexible hours through a unique labor ecosystem that benefits organizations and individuals.
photo/ Gerd Altmann
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses adjusted service offerings and technology platforms to meet the changing dynamics. Contact centers required adjustment for both fluctuating demand and the realities of social distancing. Throughout the pandemic Shiftsmart advised contact centers on strategies to manage through the crisis as well as to navigate a modern digital-based future.
Contact centers with in-office staff have difficulty scaling up or down to meet demand. Consider a center with 50 stations. If customer inquiries double, and the center was already staffed to capacity, then the organization has limited options. They can outsource some of the calls and emails, but this approach requires setup time and training and the outsourced firm is not equipped to manage fluctuating demand. Before COVID-19, this business model was not ideal, but it was still manageable. Most firms could predict seasonal demand patterns or would hire more staff in advance of any new product launch or expansion. However, if demand spiked unexpectedly, these centers would often scramble for coverage, or would accept longer hold and response times for their customers.
Shiftsmart devises strategies to help companies manage demand and modernize their contact centers. Forecasting demand is challenging within a dynamic global business environment. Companies require flexible staffing options that enable nimble reaction times, hours instead of months. xceptional team members who are proficient on multiple platforms and understand how to meet customer’s needs are essential. Shiftsmart offers a unique workforce looking for remote work positions who provide contact centers an on-demand and trained staff..
Modern contact centers must support multiple channels and provide full coverage and timely response via those channels. Skilled workers are vital to manage calls, emails, Facebook chats, tweets andchat conversations. Customers now demand to communicate with companies when and how they choose.
Shiftsmart develops and mobilizes flexible call centers staffed with professional workers who can manage multi-channel interactions and quickly scale up or down to meet demand.
Author: James Daniel
