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In this two-part blog series,Trevor Butterworth, founder of the UK Contact Centre Forum (UK CCF) – a networking and support group for professionals working in the contact center and customer service industries in the UK – shares the top five reasons why contact centers want to keep working from anywhere.

8x8: Why have contact centers in the past struggled to make the most of remote working tools?

Trevor: During the lockdowns in 2020, there was a headlong rush for contact centers to adopt cloud-based remote working solutions to get back up and running quickly. But as time has gone on, it became clear to many organizations that the tools they invested in don’t actually deliver what contact centers need for the long-term.

I heard from a lot of organizations that had to purchase and commission new technology solutions in record time, in some instances incredibly short timescales of ten or 15 days. It simply isn’t enough time to know if it’s the right long-term tool or how business needs might change in the future. And after nearly two years, organizations now have a much better idea of what they need.

8x8: As homeworking has become more accepted, how have contact center business owners responded?

Trevor: Regardless of the reason—travel concerns, public health and safety, climate conditions or other events—businesses need to be able to say, “Right, as of Monday, 100% of you are working from home.” I think contact center owners have also started to see how working from anywhere can increase resilience in all kinds of situations, whether it’s in the case of infrastructure issues like a power cut or seasonal problems like snowfall or flooding.

8x8: How have contact center agents and customer service staff found the changes?

Trevor: Agents have to be able to serve people smoothly on any channel, with all the information they need in front of them. It’s difficult to do, and it’s terrible for business when it doesn’t work. Eighty-four percent (84%) of customers say they are frustrated when an agent doesn’t have their information at hand. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are delivering huge benefits in this area, and it is today’s work-from-anywhere, cloud-based tools that enable these technologies for the contact center.

8x8: How do you see contact centers progressing? Are we ultimately heading back to centralized, large-floor operations?

Trevor: The traditional contact center environment has always been big open-plan offices where agents all work together, team leaders are wandering the floor supervising, and desktop workstations have centralized access to on-premise systems. But over time this has changed with more companies choosing to make experts from other areas of the business available to contact center teams.

This has many advantages. For example, customers get direct access to the right information to fulfill their request or solve their issue. And if the number of face-to-face interactions reduces, these staff can effortlessly attribute some of their time to other areas of the business. Subject matter experts predict that by 2025, 25% of retail employees will double as contact center agents. And it is cloud-based contact center solutions that are enabling it by ensuring that contact center agents and the rest of the organization—especially subject experts—are interconnected.

8x8: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in contact centers as a result of hybrid working?

Trevor: Great question. This is something we will cover more in detail in part two. But in short, there is huge movement in the job market generally at the moment, and contact centers are no exception. Now that people have experienced flexible working, they can see the benefits. And we’re finding that not everyone wants to go back to being in the office full-time. And in a buoyant job market, contact centers who don’t offer this flexibility are already losing valuable staff—and struggling to recruit replacements.

You can read more about the effect of homeworking on contact center recruitment and retention in part two of Trevor’s blog series.

8x8 has also published advice for those looking to make the most of remote working. Discover more here.