No Reservations

Any retailer that operates a call center understands the difficulty of attracting and retaining quality customer service employees. Average turnover within call centers runs about 20 percent annually, according to the Global Call Center Network, but some companies have found that offering telecommuting can help reduce that figure.

That’s the approach that Red Lion Hotels Corp. is taking. The Spokane, Wash.-based company operates more than 40 Red Lion hotels in the western United States as well as TicketsWest, a ticket distributor for venues including the Spokane Arena and the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.

From Spokane, the company operates a call center that handles some 560,000 calls annually, with hotel reservations comprising 60 percent, says Julie Silbar, director of Red Lion’s business systems operations. The remaining calls are for tickets, and agents are trained to handle both types of calls.

The call center employs some 50 agents, about 20 of whom have been working from home since November. Scheduling flexibility was paramount among several factors that prompted the company to look into at-home agents. It’s not unusual for event tickets to go on sale outside normal business hours, such as on Saturday mornings. If it’s necessary to bring in extra agents, those who work from home are able to jump right into receiving calls. “It’s easier to get agents on the phone at home,” Silbar says.

Early last year, Red Lion outsourced its call center operations to Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a subsidiary of Xerox Corp. About 4 percent of ACS’ 34,000 agents work at home, says manager of corporate communications Chris Gilligan, adding that it is the fastest growing segment of the business. “Companies like the savings, flexibility and level of employee it brings to the table,” he says.

Making the switch
Several considerations helped determine which employees would be strong candidates for telecommuting, Silbar says. As a starting point, management assessed employees’ attendance, productivity and ability to meet service levels while working in the office. The successful candidates were those with a work history that gave Silbar confidence they would be able to motivate themselves with no supervisor present. New employees must work for at least six months on the Red Lion account before being considered for an at-home position.

Along with the requisite professional attributes, the agents making the move require an office area with a door that can be closed to offer privacy, as well as a functioning desk and chair and a broadband Internet connection.

ACS provides each agent with thin-client desktop computers configured with the same security measures (encryption software, access restrictions) as those at the call centers. Agents are not able to use the computers for non-work-related activities. “This is a secure way to process transactions from home,” Gilligan says.

At-home agents work with ACS to set up Voice-over-IP services that run on the agents’ workstation. The software “allows the agent to answer a call, put a caller on hold, transfer the caller, conference the caller just as if she was sitting in a bricks-and-mortar location,” Gilligan says.

The configuration used on the phones was tested in multiple markets across the country to ensure that call quality and stability were acceptable. The testers also verified that the systems could handle data transfers and phone calls simultaneously.

The at-home agent sets up her own computer system, which entails the same log-on process that agents use to access their computers in the office and provides step-by-step instructions for accessing required networks or applications. Before turning the at-home agents loose, ACS conducts training that allows them to handle simple troubleshooting. In the case of TicketsWest, agents are located within an hour of the call center, so they can come in for additional training or technical assistance.

Just as they can with agents working in-house, ACS and Red Lion have the ability to monitor at-home agents’ production and quality statistics.

Cost and benefits
With ACS providing the hardware, Red Lion was able to move to an at-home workforce without making a significant upfront investment. Red Lion provides the ticketing and reservation software; the phone lines run through a server provided by ACS.

When agents move from a call center to work-at-home arrangements, overhead and facility costs decline. It also appears that productivity gets a boost, Gilligan says, because at-home employees have less transition time. They can get right to work and don’t need to wrap things up a few minutes early before leaving the office for the day.

Recruiting costs are reduced, as well; although firm statistics are hard to come by, ACS estimates turnover among at-home agents averages about 3 percent, Gilligan says.

Red Lion hasn’t noticed any drawbacks to the at-home arrangements, Silbar says. The biggest benefit? It’s easier and faster to get agents on the phone when they’re needed to handle spikes in call volume. At the same time, the agents appear to be happy with their new arrangements.

Red Lion may expand its at-home agent work force as the company grows. When sales are slow, the at-home agents can check with the office to see if they can wait an hour or so before logging on, which saves on labor expense. Conversely, “using at-home agents allows for quicker response to spikes in call volume,” Silbar notes, “which in turn allows us to serve our customers better.”