Working from home is here to stay, but the office also continues to play a major role. As a customer contact manager, how do you deal with such a hybrid work situation?

Finally that chat at the coffee machine again

We can finally go back to the office! OK, this is only allowed for a maximum of half of the working hours , and while maintaining the one and a half meter, but it is already quite something. Research by Ruigrok NetPanel commissioned by mobility organization Toogethr shows that as many as 75 percent of employees miss spontaneous contact and face-to-face meetings with colleagues. Just under three-quarters say they also miss the “live” consultation with their manager. But as happy as we are again with that chat at the coffee machine, working from home will never completely disappear. Did we go to the office about 4.1 days a week pre-corona, the expectation is that, now that it is allowed again, we will spend only 2.8 days a week in the office. Over 75 percent consider the elimination of travel time the biggest advantage. But we also find it pleasant to be able to arrange our own working hours and do some household chores in between.

Hybrid working is the future

So we are not going back to the world as it was before corona. Most employees prefer a hybrid form of work. Having that freedom of choice makes for a better work-life balance. According to the Gensler Workplace Surveys 2020 , that in turn makes for happier employees. So the role of the office – and by extension, the customer contact center – is changing. The office will become the preferred place for meetings with colleagues and executives, creative processes and large consultations. The choice will fall to the home office when work needs to be done that requires a lot of concentration, such as writing a report or making calls to customers.

Equally efficient and effective everywhere

Even for your customer contact center employees, it doesn’t matter today where they do their work, whether it’s at home or in the office, they can work anywhere. As long as you make sure they use a secure cloud solution and central monitoring . In a previous blog, we already gave you nine tips for getting your employees to work efficiently and effectively . But where that is no longer matters. The customer doesn’t care where your employees are, as long as he or she is helped out of a jam. Your employees can also be reached from home, SLAs can be met and you can make excellent preparations for physical meetings. Even if someone cannot be at a physical meeting, that is no problem: you just dial in to the meeting room where your colleagues are physically together. Something positive came out of the corona pandemic after all.

Curious?

The ideal customer journey, the optimal customer experience, is the primary factor by which you can differentiate yourself from the competition. By structuring your quality process, you contribute to the future-proofing and success of your organization, both in the short and long term. Do you also want to stand out in the market? Then contact us without obligation. We will gladly work with you to find the ultimate solution for your customer contact center. Want to get acquainted first? Stay informed by signing up for our newsletter.