CRM - October 2008 - (Page 25)

Untapped Troops optimization provider Verint Systems, incorporated home agents into its brickand-mortar facilities in 2005 with a pilot program. (The official program started in 2006, according to NEW.) “At the time when we were starting to look at homebased agents, we had eight brick-andmortar [customer service facilities],” recalls Barry Danoff, NEW’s senior vice president of information systems and technology group leader. “We were looking at how to strategically grow our contact centers, and one of the things we were looking at was really the [WAHA] workforce in order to neutralize some of the environmental impact from people coming to work.” Starting with a pilot of 20 WAHAs, Danoff says NEW has expanded to 650 agents across 26 states. “The home-based model is not just a great way for us to get a great labor force and great representatives,” he says.“It’s also great when our clients look at what we’re doing for the environment; how we can do things better…and make a difference.” By Danoff’s estimate, NEW’s home agents have saved 169,000 gallons of gas, $600,000 in annual fuel costs, and 1.6 million pounds of greenhouse gases that were not generated. M THE RIGHT STUFF Due to the perfect storm of high gas prices and flexible hours, many WAHA vendors report an increase in applications this year. LiveOps, for example, has seen a 20 percent increase in applications, according to Whipple. Cincinnati-based customer care and billing services provider Convergys has seen an increase of between 20 percent and 30 percent both in visits to the company’s Web site and in applications, according to Brad Krinhop, its vice president of home agent operations. When asked if the boost in applications would make it harder to find the cream of the crop, Houlne says that his company already has a stringent process to ensure only legitimate WAHAs make the cut. Working Solutions has 750,000 registered agents, but only 76,000 make the first cut. Of those, between 8,000 and 9,000 are background checked, formally interviewed, tested, and ready to go www.destinationCRM.com any potential WAHAs are stay-at-home mothers, while others are looking to supplement their family’s primary income. There’s another group, however, that’s ready to join the soiree—and to provide high-quality work from home. Enter San Rafael, Calif.–based Veterans2Work (V2W), a company looking to place disabled military personnel back into action stateside, and to provide them the opportunity for gainful employment despite being homebound and unable to commute and work in a brick-and-mortar facility. According to V2W’s Web site, four basic goals provide the marching orders for the entire organization: • create jobs for disabled veterans and their caregivers; • demonstrate that disabled veterans working from their homes can deliver superior results; • establish a broad base of highly satisfied business clients; and • raise public awareness and involvement, consequently affecting policy and legislative change. This has long been an underutilized workforce, says John Reynolds, V2W’s founder and a Vietnam War veteran, of soldiers coming home after serving their country but unable to work in a standard capacity due to debilitating combat wounds. Study statistics back up this claim. A report last January from the Small Business Administration found that, from 1988 to 2005, 64 percent of the 2.9 million service-disabled United States veterans were unemployed. “[Disabled veterans] still have that dedication, a can-do attitude,” Reynolds says. “What they need is a little bit of extra TLC and there’s no reason why they couldn’t be just absolutely stellar.” The TLC he’s referring to isn’t much different than that seen by other potential WAHAs: screening and training. Veterans may need text-tospeech or speech-to-text capabilities depending on their specific disability, Reynolds adds. He sees unlimited possibilities, and is already partnering with companies such as Creating Opportunities by Recognizing Abilities, Intervox Group, RainSpark, and the Telework Coalition, to find who has the right stuff. Paul Stockford, chief analyst at Saddletree Research, says it’s about time companies think about veterans as a complement to their WAHA forces. “I just hope that this helps the industry find a conscience,” he says. “I think we all get swept up in how busy we are and how important we think we are and our jobs are. Sometimes, it helps to stop and really gain a perspective—and maybe realize that there’s a reason call centers are here beyond cross-selling and upselling.” —CM when notified. “The myth is, ‘I have [a personal computer] so I can work from home myself now,’” he says. “Not everybody can work from home whether you think so or not; it takes a different type of skill set.” Krinhop identifies some traits he looks for: self-motivation, prior experience working virtually, and a passion for customer service displayed throughout the interview process. For example, if the interviewee mentions saving on gas only in passing (as opposed to citing it as a central reason), Krinhop says he has a winner. Whipple says another way to weed out the pretenders from the contenders is by level of commitment. “Our agent candidates actually have to submit to and pay for their own background checks, have a dedicated landline, and the right computer [specifications],” he says.“That helps to keep serious people about this applying rather than [those saying] ‘let’s see’ on a whim.” This isn’t to say it’s solely the vendors’ burden to weed out potential agents. While some would-be WAHAs can find guidance from a friend already in the fold, the Internet has a plethora of Web sites out there for those who seek to work from home. A simple 25 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | OCTOBER 2008 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - October 2008

CRM - October 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality�Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Sprinting Toward Disaster? SAP�Retains Market-Share Lead in�CRM A�Week of Strong Customer�Service CRM�on Twitter Build a Good Event and They Will Come Required Reading There's No Place Like Home The New Breed of CRM�Consultant The Price is Right...You Hope How Much Marketing is Too�Much? The�Sweet Smell of High-Quality�Service The Next Act! For An Acquisition Some Stories Never Get Old CRM�Eases the Pressure For WIKA�Instruments Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - October 2008

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