We Guarantee Results:
Background
- Started program pilot with 16 associates working at home.
- Initially considered working with established, large scale, outsource partners but eventually decided to build an internal program given my past experience in the field.
- Agents began by providing low level assistance (“Meet and Greet”) but steadily progressed and were able to lead calls.
- Approximately 78% of all agents schedules occurred on calls that started at the top of the hour. Only 22% were for calls that started on the ½ hour. The chart below demonstrates the flexibility possible when staffing with work at home agents
Benefits
- Full year savings of approximately $ 300,000 were documented in 2006 with full year savings of $ 435,000 predicted for year 1.
- The primary client later indicated that this was a very innovative and effective process to handle their peak call volumes which occurred during a 90-minute window on select days of the week.
- Based upon success as measured in quality and productivity, the program was expanded to 100 agents by year-end.
- Recruited all agents in the greater Kansas City area. Education and prior work experience levels among the first 100 Work-At-Home agents were much higher than those typically seen in call centers. Approximately 90% had a college degree or some college education.
Note the disparity in staffing requirements at 10:00 and 10:30. This company was able to reduce labor costs by approximately 90% from hour-to-hour.