As customer experience providers, we always strive to take CX to the next level. This motivation led us to what we believe is the next evolution in elevating experiences: SmartVirtual.
SmartVirtual is a robust work-at-home (WAH) delivery model that solves many of the issues associated with archaic WAH practices and brick and mortar contact centers, while also improving CX in every measurable category.
Traditionally, after being seen as a way to repatriate volume from offshore locations, WAH was largely a capacity solution for BPOs, in that providers would send people home to work whenever they ran out of physical space. After that, it became a means to ebb and flow employees on a seasonal basis or if a client’s needs demanded it.
This outdated approach to WAH is still commonplace for many providers in the industry, despite evidence that a Smart Virtual approach to CX is an improvement over traditional brick and mortar. Here’s why SmartVirtual is the most logical and valuable route to great CX.
Access to Talent Without Limits
CX providers live and die by their ability to find suitable employees, which is why the number one differentiator of Smart Virtual is access to an almost unlimited pool of great talent.
SmartVirtual grants the ability to find talent in a broad range of geographically dispersed locations, meaning there are never any staffing issues to deal with. The value comes from access to amazing people wherever they reside, instead of dealing with the constraints of operating in one limited location.
For instance, natural (and unnatural) disasters can have terrible impacts on brick and mortar operations, but the impact is never to the same degree when employees are geographically dispersed. As such, SmartVirtual is also the only solution that automatically includes business continuity and geographic redundancy, as it removes that single point of failure.
Traditional brick and mortar operations thrive on hiring people with no experience at the cheapest rate, so its success is built on the premise that you can train anyone to become a great provider of CX. While this does work in practice, we think there’s a better approach.
As a pure-play WAH provider, we’re able to employ Ambassadors with many years of work and life experience, which is a key differentiator of SmartVirtual against physical contact centers. The benefits of a more mature and experienced workforce are quantifiable in almost every measurable category, from performance and productivity to security and reliability.
The simple fact is that materially better talent results in lower turnover, higher productivity, better quality results, and incredible CX outcomes.
Virtual Teams, Virtual Collaboration, Virtual Innovation
Work at home processes, platforms, and services are most impactful when designed specifically for the work at home model, not just modified from a brick and mortar setup. Without taking this approach, they simply won’t serve to create the most efficient environment for WAH employees.
As part of our SmartVirtual approach, and in partnership with Rapid Cyber, we leverage the most comprehensive communication platform in the industry. Designed specifically for virtual workers, it’s a true collaboration tool that allows us to have persistent chat and video-enabled interactions, as well as monitor screens for security and compliance. It enables us to keep tabs on everything we need to manage while really bridging the gap for the person sitting at home.
On the client-side, our platform enables us to turn on different capabilities to suit a client’s specific needs. For instance, if a client needs text, chat, or video-enabled services, we can switch those on instantly and at almost no cost to implement. Our platform scales at a moment’s notice, enabled by the latest in secure cloud-desktop services and powered by the industry standard in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
As a provider of cloud-based ecosystem solutions, this flexibility is core to the concept of SmartVirtual, which enables us to do as much for our internal teams as we do for our clients, and it translates into real cost savings.
Paying Sustainable, Competitive Wages
As a cloud-based CX provider, we’re able to take the dollars that would normally go into physical infrastructure and attract people with living wages that are sustainable for them, not just us—another essential aspect of SmartVirtual.
Great onboarding and training experiences do reduce turnover, that’s a fact, but good compensation is almost always the main deal-breaker. There are higher rates of people leaving companies over bad pay than due to bad experiences with managers, for example.
At Activus Connect, we pay a competitive rate of between $14 and $15 per hour, representing a decent living wage. By comparison, the average rate seen in most contact centers is $10 to $11 per hour, which is simply unsustainable in today’s world.
Let’s put it this way, in an industry where 10% attrition is a dream, our 3% monthly average speaks for itself.
Improving CX Quality Through Technology
We’re not convinced that listening to a small percentage of random calls results in much valuable, actionable insight, which is why we provide 100% auto quality as part of our Smart Virtual model.
Our conversational and behavioral analytics platform listens to every single interaction, transcribing them and scoring them against clients’ precise quality measures. This innovation allows us to provide precise, targeted feedback to our ambassadors on their behaviors.
In a short coaching session, Ambassadors learn about the key improvements they can make across ALL of their calls, not just a small random sampling. With that knowledge, they have the chance to modify their approach in a way that will result in better outcomes for customers.
This platform is core to SmartVirtual because its a fundamentally different way of coaching and developing talent, aligning to today’s CX and BPO world of value-driven outsourcing, not simply a means to reduce cost.
To sum it all up, SmartVirtual ticks all the boxes that traditional brick and mortar cannot. It gives us access to the best talent while avoiding a single point of failure, it allows us to provide competitive price points for clients, higher-than-average wages for Ambassadors, and, above all, enhanced experiences for customers.
So, what’s stopping you from becoming SmartVirtual?