5 Tips for Managing Remote Customer Service Teams
Learn how to manage remote customer service teams by following tips to encourage professional performance.
There are marked differences between leading a team that works in person and doing the managing remote customer service teams.
Remote communication and trust in professionals are important points for the quality and level of service experience to be delivered at a high standard.
Along these lines, a factor that contributes to the success of remote teams is that professionals maintain a more relaxed routine, without the stress of the daily commute and the chaos of transportation and public roads.
The trend of working from home, the famous home office, was accelerated with the decree of social isolation as a protective measure during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Since then, that work model has only grown.
Um Catho study showed that remote work opportunities increased 496% in the first half of 2022 — 372 thousand new vacancies appeared — compared to the same period in 2021.
O economist Bruno Imaizumi, based on data from the IBGE, concluded that the performance of home office professionals increased 53.6% compared to the first quarter of 2020.
People who work remotely are qualified professionals who are better paid for their expertise, especially in areas such as technology, finance, information, and communication. Altogether, more than 6 million of people work in a home office in Brazil.
In fact, is your company planning to work with external professionals and need tips for managing remote customer service teams?
Read on and learn how to manage a team remotely. Have a good read!
5 tips for managing a remote support team
To successfully manage remote customer service teams, follow the tips below:
1. Have structured service processes
For it to be feasible to work with a remote team, the company needs well-structured service processes. The purpose is to provide guidance with clear guidelines on:
- how to proceed when receiving a call;
- what service tool is used and how to access it;
- Tone of voice of the company's communication;
- business customer profile;
- access to the service SLA and to knowledge base.
If your company hires a supplier that also manages remote customer service teams, project leaders optimize the processes and pass it on to the new attendants.
2. Define internal communication channels
A decentralized team must maintain good communication. For managing remote customer service teams, this is an essential detail.
Uma assertive communication requires channels that facilitate the contact of professionals with each other and with their leaders. Some examples of internal chat tools are: Slack, Skype, and Google Chat. In turn, online meetings can be held through platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype.
Avoid using WhatsApp to communicate with the team, as this can easily escalate to messages outside of working hours, which creates unnecessary anxiety in the employee.
3. Keep track of performance indicators
Good management of remote customer service teams needs data to guide decision-making and help agents improve their skills.
Select and track the results of performance indicators it is strategic for the team to constantly evolve. In this sense, some indicators to monitor are:
- ticket volume per agent;
- average call satisfaction per attendant;
- first response time;
- duration of calls per professional.
4. Maintain a feedback loop
Remote work does not allow you to arrive at the attendant's desk spontaneously to talk in person. To have that moment, Maintain feedback cycles of performance with the team.
The frequency may be monthly, quarterly, or biannual. The important thing is that managers are aware of fluctuations and do not hesitate to hold extra meetings if they detect worrisome behavior.
Close monitoring motivates the attendants, in addition to allowing them to share their impressions of management processes and propose improvements, which brings them closer to the company.
5. Use technology to support service
Throughout these tips for managing remote customer service teams, you noticed that we mentioned several digital tools that support remote work, right?
In other words, without the technologies supporting operations, it would be impossible to decentralize the service team.
In addition to the tools mentioned above, using a customer service platform facilitates the integration of professionals with the company's work model.
Some of the help desk providers on the market that are worth knowing are: Zendesk, Intercom, FrontApp, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Hubspot, Octadesk, Mitzap, and Twilio.
What are the challenges of managing remote teams?
One of the challenges of working with remote teams is having professionals able to do the self-management on a daily basis. Managing your own time, the tasks, and the deadlines of the activities that need to be delivered are fundamental points to create an integrated team.
Managers need to trust the hired team and manage them in a balanced way using the available tools, without exaggerating daily contact. If the staff is well trained and guided, they are able to get the job done.
For this reason, opening space for the team to collaborate is important, after all, it is they who have direct contact with customers and can extract valuable insights from this relationship.
How to successfully manage a team remotely?
Managing remote customer service teams is challenging, but the process can be successful with guidance from an expert partner.
A Cloud Humans offers a unique solution in the market, assuming complete management of the service area to improve team efficiency, reduce operating costs and increase customer satisfaction.
To this end, we use, among other resources, technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) that guides the division of tickets between the attendants and the ideal volume for each one. In this way, the service is initiated, on average, from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Calculate the cost of each ticket opened in your company currently with our free CX calculator and then Talk to our experts about how to reduce service costs in your business.