Manage remote workforce to enhance customer service
As the workforce continues to shift away from the traditional office toward a more virtual, remote environment, managing staff can become a bit more complicated. However, with the advent and rise in popularity of new communications technologies, employers have more tools available to them to not only monitor staff but enable their productivity as well.
When it comes to managing a remote employee’s level of engagement and measuring success, business decision makers can look to communications technology solutions. In a recent Dynamic Business article, contributor John Ward explored the changes that have occurred in customer service in particular with the emergence of social, mobile and cloud technologies. “The cloud is revolutionizing the way businesses are adopting new technologies for customer service,” Ward wrote. “Today, businesses of any size can ‘turn on’ applications that run in the cloud and instantly have access to powerful, enterprise-grade tools that run on any web browser, tablet or smartphone. Many of these tools are low cost, and as with any true cloud computing application, they require no additional hardware or software.” Ward detailed how customer service demands have evolved as people can use more mediums than ever before to access the business team, including email, phone and social channels. It is important for enabling continued business success and growth that customers are able to gain consistent access to service staff, and a virtual PBX system is an excellent solution to maintain an access point between the consumer and company service staff – especially when dealing with a remote workforce. Furthermore, as the current trends in customer service are also prevalent in small businesses, the concerns over customer interaction are of a more universal nature. This means the benefits of implementing new communications technology could be enjoyed by all.
Using technology to troubleshoot employee issues
While enhancing customer service is a worthy endeavor for any business, in order for this to be successful, all staff will need to be on the same page and in line with company goals. A recent post for The Payroll Blog outlined a strategy for managing troublesome employees, noting that no business is immune to potentially problematic employees regardless of how rigorous the hiring process is. One of the elements of the strategy that the source outlined for managing troublesome employees is to make a point to document everything. This includes all types of communication and all interactions. AccessDirect’s hosted PBX phone system includes the Find Me Follow Me call forwarding feature, which could be particularly useful for knowing where staff is at all times and being able to reach them whenever. In another recent article for Tech Radar, contributor David Howell shared advice on managing a remote workforce in particular, explaining that technological advances have made the process of monitoring a geographically diverse workforce much less time consuming and more affordable. He in particular noted the potential benefits of mobile communications tools like online collaboration tools, teleconference systems and mobile platforms (i.e. smartphones and tablets). “Business is now transacted on the move, so mobile communication technology has rapidly developed to offer small businesses, in particular a host of tools to allow them to manage their remote employees,” Howell wrote. “The key to using the communications technology available is to understand your business’ goals and what your employees need to achieve. Once you understand these two factors, your business can easily choose the mobile communications and collaboration technologies it needs.”
