Business Continuity: Remote Operations

In this article, we will demonstrate ways to maintain the operation of your business. The year 2020 has introduced us to newer technological advancements, automated solutions, and a bio-threat for which the world may not have been adequately prepared.

This graph is not new to anybody who has sound knowledge of what’s happening today in the ‘whole wide world’ via the ‘world wide web’
Major global events have been put on hold or canceled and business has moved from online or offline and the work-from-home concept is making full use of our digital capabilities.

As the CoronaVirus (COVID-19) continues to spread panic across continents, businesses are scurrying to keep in stride with the quickly shifting market. Offices are shifting indoors; communication is being limited almost entirely to emails and phone calls.

As the virus turns on-site representatives and agents into remote workers, it has become imperative to find solutions that can keep up with the changing mode of communication and of working. One such solution that has come forward as an especially viable one is the use of roaming agents for inbound & outbound calling to keep the cycle working as it was before the worldwide business lockdown.

What exactly is a roaming agent?

While the term virtual agent might bring Siri and Alexa to mind, roaming agents are a bit different.. Unlike Alexa and Siri, who make use of machine learning technology via the internet to take care of digital tasks like updating calendars, setting alarms, and performing searches on the internet, a roaming agent is usually a customer support executive who has the ability to “roam”, is on the go or constantly traveling with businesses to resolve queries or queries to client locations/meetings.
To elaborate on this, a roaming agent is basically someone equipped with taking calls related to customer support for the company via routing calls to the mobile phone irrespective of the location. This is now possible through call center software with the ability to forward incoming calls to the agent’s cell phone while maintaining all the standard features of call tracking, recording, etc.

The current situation however certainly demands a more robust solution to use this service for all incoming as well as outgoing calls by remote agents to keep your business running.

How Does ZIWO Help in Work From Home Concept?

The virus is causing the shutdown of physical sites and moving the workplace to relatively quarantined home spaces. With the assistance of ZIWO cloud solution, your workplace will transcend the confines of agents’ homes.

On the other hand, administrators can establish all employees as roaming agents using the ZIWO platform, allowing them to make both inbound and outbound calls while working remotely and enabling them to provide solutions from wherever they are at that moment.

Agents can, therefore, connect to the virtual platform and continue running the business without having to be physically present in the office. This will keep the sales cycle going even when the physical sites are on lockdown. The system forwards the calls to the agent’s phone no matter where they are and they can handle customer requests then and there.

The idea is to basically provide companies the help they need to keep up with their clients needs and demands in real-time, be it through phone networks or otherwise.
Here is some more information on “How to set up a roaming agent?”

“How to enable outbound calling for a roaming agent?“

business running remotely

Of course, it’s a matter of a click for existing users of the platform but is no different for newbies. All you have to do is sign up with ZIWO for a Free Trial to get the entire ZIWO superpowers in your stride. In a nutshell,

Instant deployment
No Hardware Needed (Cloud Based)
Webphone, click 2 call, Call tracking, Call recording features
WebRTC & Live Dashboard with KPI & statistics
Pay as you go, per agent, per month
Phone numbers (DID or Toll-Free) in every country, including the Middle East.

In fact, one might even take this as an opportunity to move from the standard brick & mortar setups to completely online/E-commerce solutions thereby making it a low-risk, low-investment business to start within these dynamic times.

Conclusion

The onslaught of COVID-19 might have left the economies of the world staggering, but businesses are quickly adapting themselves to keep up with the changing needs of the market.

Roaming Agents provide one such solution. Through this feature, one can help agents connect and can keep businesses and their sales cycles running even when the agents cannot physically be present in the office or on-site and continue simply, talking to your clients.

flattening-the-curve - remote work