This week we feature an article by Wayne Turmel who writes about how to be successful with a remote customer service team. This is a new challenge that many employers are facing. – Shep Hyken When you’re trying to serve your customers, your reps must be self-starting, relatively autonomous, and focused on their jobs. You probably also […]
This week we feature an article by Wayne Turmel who writes about how to be successful with a remote customer service team. This is a new challenge that many employers are facing. – Shep Hyken
When you’re trying to serve your customers, your reps must be self-starting, relatively autonomous, and focused on their jobs. You probably also want them to help each other out, answer questions for one another, and share what works so that everyone can improve. That’s hard enough to do in a call center or office. But how do leaders create great customer service teams when everyone is working from home, or at least from somewhere you’re not?
A great many companies have found that there are advantages to having their customer service agents working from home. There are significant savings in real estate and hard costs, it’s easy to get coverage 24/7, and workers view not having to deal with a commute as a major benefit. The downsides include not knowing when folks are actually working, what they’re working on, and people not interacting and sharing information as well as you’d like. How do leaders maximize the benefits of remote work while minimizing or eliminating the problems that can result in a less-than-stellar customer experience?
Maximizing the Good Stuff Many managers worry that people won’t work as hard or efficiently from home as they do in the call center or when the boss is watching. Our research for The Long-Distance Leader shows that as people become more used to working this way, the worries about this diminish. In fact, less than 28% of first-line supervisors and managers worry that “when the cat’s away, the mice will play.” This is usually more a concern of senior leaders who are less used to working remotely and tend to come from a generation that isn’t as used to using technology to instantly solve problems and be proactive. The research, from Harvard Business Review and others, shows that if people are properly set up for success, they will often surprise you with their productivity. Some of the things that need to be in place are:
Minimize the Downside This is not to say that if you set people up for success they’ll succeed, it’s just a starting point. If you’re going to create a highly effective team, there are some important things good Long-Distance Leaders do to help address the obvious challenges of not being altogether:
Companies all over the world are showing that remote-working models can succeed. The biggest trick is to remember what good leaders have always done, then find ways to mimic those behaviors in this crazy new world where the people you work with could be almost anywhere.
Wayne Turmel is the co-author, along with Kevin Eikenberry, of The Long-Distance Leader, Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership. He’s a co-founder of the Remote Leadership Institute and for 20 years has been obsessed with helping people communicate more effectively to lead people, projects and teams.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.
Read Shep’s latest Forbes Articles: Uber Your Business Before It Gets Kodak-ed
Sign up for instant access to Shep’s research report on customer service and customer experience.
"*" indicates required fields
© 2023 Shepard Presentations, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Legal Information | Sitemap Legap
Site by: digitalONDA