holidays for remote call center agents

There is nothing quite like the hum of a contact center during the holiday season. Dozens of crock pots simmer, cheerful music whispers (in the break areas, of course, as to not distract from quality customer service) and supervisors walk the floor to check in and provide encouragement where it’s needed the most. Through the briefest of chats on the way to and from the quickest restroom breaks you’ll ever see, an unspoken and unmatched fellowship forms. 

It forms amongst those who selflessly spend the holidays with their work family so they can financially support their family at home.

Depending on the industry they support, it’s typically taboo for a contact center agent to request paid time off or to call out of a scheduled shift during the holiday rush. Because of these parameters, the customer support organization is a team that traditionally feeds feverishly off of the comradery, recognition and energy boost that comes with in-person holiday cheer at the office. 

Now, we’ve entered a world where our agents are likely remote and remaining hopeful for a semblance of that same holiday spirit to start stirring up. Employers everywhere are scrambling to find meaningful ways outside of the norm to connect with their employees and ensure they feel valued and appreciated this holiday season.

How do we let our people know that we are still thankful for their time, their talents, their hard work and their sacrifice? How do we ensure that they have the support needed from us to care for themselves and for our customers while their families are potentially celebrating in the very next room?

Here are a few gestures for your remote employees to boost morale, and perhaps even productivity, in a year that has brought unprecedented lows for remote workers globally.

 

1. Delivered Meals

It’s likely that your agents will be working in the same home that their families are celebrating in this year. If they can’t be around the family table during the main event, how great would it be for them to share a meal with their loved ones before or after their shift?

Use your data reporting and visualization platform, like Aceyus, to help make this happen. We give you the capability to access your Workforce Management data and your inter-day call tracking in one reporting platform and one dashboard view. You can then coordinate the deliveries at specific times throughout the day that you see would work best to their day’s schedule. Easy as pumpkin pie!  

 

2. Paid Time Off

While we realize it’s not always feasible, our customers are finding ways to get creative and build in paid time off for their agents during the holidays! One customer is even having the traffic desk monitor inbound communications to the center and perform paid “early outs” for agents if the center can support it. If your hands are tied and your forecasted traffic volume simply does not allow for you to offer paid time off during the holidays, offering a floating holiday or two that may be used at another time of the year (with appropriate notice, of course) would be an unexpected and greatly appreciated treat!

Should you have the need to modify your routing rules at a moment’s notice this holiday season, Aceyus helps our customers do this without requiring them to access an ACD or IVR. Whether its hours of operation, emergency routing, message activation, percent allocation or other custom options, we’ve got you covered.

 

3. Virtual Gift Giving

61% of people surveyed last holiday season prefer cash or gift cards to a traditional present. With the uptick in shopping from the comfort of our own homes due to COVID, this number has increased exponentially. The simple gesture of sending gift cards, coupled with a thoughtful note, will go a long way with your employees. If you’d like to get the whole team involved, a virtual gift exchange will still be a hit!

Do you typically reward your top performers at the end of the year for meeting certain KPIs? Aceyus gives you full visibility into your telephony metrics as well as experiential scores in a single dashboard and reporting tool. We can extend this end-to-end data visibility to your agents or other business stakeholders in real time, too, to drive productivity and the recognition team members deserve year round!

 

It may seem like an impossible feat to ignite the holiday flame from afar this year, but with these simple, safe and scalable ideas, we’re certain you can help your agents bring their work family spirit home with them this year. 

Aceyus Team

Aceyus Team

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