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Oct 21 2017 It’s Time To Embrace Nontraditional Workstations

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The days when people worked only at traditional workstations, seated at a desk with a computer, paper in-tray and notebook in front of them, are long gone. Increasingly, people work while they are on the go, using tablets and phones to communicate and access their data.

As mobile technology becomes ever more ubiquitous, the trend of working from a nontraditional workstation is likely to continue to grow. As a result, employees in your contact center must change the way they interact with callers.

The Challenges Presented by Nontraditional Workstations

For contact center agents who are used to communicating with callers who are seated at a desk, nontraditional workstations can pose challenges. For example, your agents may try to give out valuable information over the phone, even though callers are not able to write it down because they are driving or doing something else with their hands.

Similarly, your agents may send links to callers that don’t display correctly on mobile devices. These kinds of scenarios can lead to frustration, as callers often get annoyed at agents who assume they have access to a computer when they’re actually calling from a mobile phone while on the go.

The Benefits of Nontraditional Workstations

The good news is that, simply by making a few changes to the way they work, your contact center agents can embrace the benefits offered by nontraditional workstations. For instance, instead of spending a long time giving out information verbally over the phone, your agents can send that information to callers in a format they can access when they have time.

In addition, there is no longer any need to rely on old paper-based methods of communicating with doctors and patients. Instead, your agents can send information electronically so their callers can look at it right away, perhaps even while they are still on the phone.

Embracing nontraditional workstations can therefore reduce agent talk time, increasing the efficiency of your call center. This new method of working can provide multiple ways for consumers to interact with your agents, giving them greater flexibility and reducing their frustration. When you embrace nontraditional workstations, your agents can provide timely information to all their callers, helping to improve customer satisfaction.

Isn’t it time you moved your contact center into the new millennium by embracing this new approach to work? Training your employees to interact with customers using nontraditional workstations could improve efficiency and reduce frustration for both your workers and your customers. Organize training sessions that highlight the popularity of mobile working and give employees some practical tips for interacting with customers who use a nontraditional workstation. Make it clear to employees that they should find out what kind of workstation each caller is using, so they can adapt their approach in each case.

Final Thought

Nontraditional workstations are becoming increasingly popular, with large numbers of doctors and patients choosing to work while they are on the go. In order to provide a service that meets the needs of all customers, contact center managers need to be aware of nontraditional workstations and train all agents to adapt their communication methods to match this new way of working.

If your contact center can fully embrace unconventional workstations, you could succeed in reducing your call times, improving the flow of information between your agents and callers, and increasing your overall customer satisfaction ratings.