Remote work has been becoming increasingly popular in the past several years to the point that it’s practically a new norm in some industries. Especially since the onset of COVID-19, more employees than ever are working from home effectively and may not be returning to the office. As of February 2020, 3.4% of the population in the United States has been working remotely.
It’s likey that your business has seen an increase in remote employees, even if you’re considered essential and keep a physical location open. Many customer service positions can be done remotely, as can administrative tasks. The transition is much easier if you have policies for remote work in place in advance, but even if it’s been a sudden switch for you, there are some ways you can more effectively manage remote work and increase productivity.
Goalsetting
Whether you’re running a small business or a large organization, there’s always a chance that employees may become confused about their roles during a transition. You need to make sure each person on your team knows what their goals are and understands how to reach them. One way you can ensure this is by following the objectives and key results (OKR) management framework.
Objectives: These are your overall company goals. They should be easily understandable and realistically attainable. It’s best to focus on just a few at a time. A great example would be to increase sales by 10% in the next quarter.
Key Results: These are the metrics by which you measure progress toward your objectives. Key results are specific and measurable. If you find that sales have increased by 2% in the first month since you set your example objective, you’ll know you have more work to do in the next months to reach your goal. Key results show you whether your objectives are too easy or if they need to be toned down.
OKRs boost clarity within an organization while encouraging engagement and transparency.
Managed Services Provider
An MSP is a service provider that offers platforms to manage their customers’ IT infrastructure. If you decided to hire an MSP for your business, they would be able to monitor your servers, firewalls, and more from a centralized platform. MSPs can even use a single administrator interface to protect their own systems, as well as that of their customers (your business), with a single login MSP portal.
Having a single account to manage all customers reduces reliance on passwords, which are the most vulnerable part of IT infrastructure. Cloud communication tools allow MSPs to quickly monitor and identify trends to eliminate potential security risks. A single login MSP portal can even have deep integration with other MSP tools to offer your business the best possible experience in a time where keeping data secure is more important than ever.
Customer Support
Retaining existing customers is always easier than finding new ones, and offering exceptional customer service is one of the best ways to ensure they come back. Contact centers can provide support for customers in any business, and it’s easy to hire remote agents. With ServiceNow call center integrations, you can increase the productivity of your agents and offer a memorable and personalized customer experience.
A unified desktop improves the agent experience by letting them easily keep track of conversation across multiple channels and pull up relevant customer data when needed. Speaking of multiple channels, this solution uses true omnichannel technology. This means that customers can choose their preferred method to contact your agents whether that’s voice calls, SMS, text, email, webchat, and more. Additionally, they can switch channels seamlessly if needed while keeping contact with the same agent, so no one’s time is wasted. This level of convenience and personalization means your business can provide a great customer experience for each caller.
By maintaining clarity amongst employees, keeping your systems secure, and using the best technology to keep customers satisfied, your business can thrive for as long as your employees need to work remotely.