Has COVID-19 had an adverse impact on your customer service?

It was March 2020, and professional sports declared the suspension of games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the turning point for most people, accepting that the situation was serious. Like many, I hoped this would be a short-term thing, lasting a few weeks, or worse a few months and then we could get back to normal in September. Fast forward 18 months and we’re still not back to normal and perhaps life will never return to the same way it was before.

Prior to the lockdown, flexible working or working from home was not widely adopted by businesses through fears of reduced productivity, a drop in customer service levels and the concern that if staff are working away from an office environment, they’re not working to the best of their abilities. The truth is, working from home has been part of the technology industry for many years, it is real and now considered normal. The flexible approach to work locations will be around for the rest of the year, if not long into 2022 and beyond.

Now the question is how you manage this remote workforce to keep everyone focused, to avoid any concerns you may have had?

In a blog post written by Jo Causen, CEO for The UK Institute of Customer Services back in July 2021, she states “We have seen many service successes through this tough period, with many organizations accelerating adoption of new technologies and processes, with better communication and resources aimed at advice and support that often proved even more successful than their predecessors. The crisis has also exposed some organization’s weaknesses or lack of proper investment in service.

The effects of this pandemic are going to continue to be felt across all sectors for many years to come, but we must strive to deliver a service our customers expect and indeed received previously. Technology is ever changing, this isn’t new. But it’s this rapidly changing and adapting industry that will help businesses to work effectively regardless of staff location.

We at Xarios always knew business insight was key to a companys success. Now with your employees working from home, business insight is more important than ever. You don’t necessarily want to micromanage your team members, but you do want to know how customer calls are being handled and any opportunities for improvement. For call centers, you want your people to pull together during high traffic periods in real time, like how it was pre-pandemic. That’s hard with agents working from home, but standard practice with hosted analytics.

Dimensions Analytics from Xarios is the solution that can help businesses understand, maintain, and improve their customer service.

Jimmy Lim | VP Cloud Product