More and more businesses are discovering the possibilities and advantages of teleworking. However, these models entail managing a remote working team and, therefore, a series of problems and difficulties that companies must be able to overcome. The constant accessibility and the advance of new technologies means that it is no longer necessary to depend on a fixed location to carry out working activities. Companies have now found remote working a way to offer employees the opportunity to work from anywhere and at any time. In this way, they encourage workers’ flexibility and autonomy, while maintaining their productivity and focusing their attention on achieving their goals. When all employees are in the same space, it is much easier to ensure cohesion and collaboration between them. In remote working teams, this element does not have to be lost, but it is essential to have the right tools, especially communication tools. In Fonvirtual we also want to help companies to overcome all the challenges of remote work. Therefore, we have prepared this article in which we will give you the keys to manage a remote work team. If you want to know what they are, keep reading!
What are the challenges of managing a remote working team?
As mentioned above, companies whose employees are located in different places face a number of difficulties, especially those related to management, motivation and control of employees. Although they pursue a common goal, virtual work teams are characterised, in addition to being geographically dispersed, by the need to use new technologies to communicate. Although this is a great advantage, it is also a great disadvantage, because if the right systems are not used, information will not reach all employees equally. In this context, companies face a number of challenges when managing their remote working teams:
- How do you get workers to communicate in the same way as they would do if they were in the same physical space?
- How can we guarantee the quality of our customer service?
- How to facilitate access to the information in real time?
- How to focus on efficiency and the achievement of objectives?
- How to carry out the time control of workers?
How to manage a successful remote working team?
Although there are many difficulties that companies with remote workers have to face, fortunately there are also many technological solutions to overcome them. At Fonvirtual we have a solution with all the necessary elements to manage remote working teams: the virtual PBX. Here’s how our solution will help you solve each of the issues mentioned above.
For effective communication
For any company with a remote working team, it is essential to ensure that all employees can communicate with each other as they would do if they were, for example, in an office. In this sense, Fonvirtual’s virtual PBX has a powerful internal communication system through chat, voice and video. With it, all employees can talk from anywhere and hold online meetings as long as they have a device (computer, mobile or tablet) with an Internet connection. As it works via WebRTC, no software download is required. In addition, in order to ensure that information reaches all employees quickly, it is possible to create lists and distribution groups in which some or even all members of the team are included. Finally, internal communication will be carried out from the same interface where customer interactions are managed, so it will not be necessary to resort to a third-party platform to talk to our colleagues. This feature also implies an additional advantage for our customer service, since in the event that an employee is answering a call or a message for which he does not know the answer, he will be able to ask another employee without having to leave the interaction or change from one screen to another. Moreover, the distribution of interactions will be done efficiently, also taking into account internal activity.
To guarantee the quality of our service
Many people believe that having a remote working team means that the quality of customer service is diminished, as they cannot monitor the service provided by individual employees. To ensure that everything is working correctly and that the service is adequate, our solution has a supervisor panel from which you can check in real time everything that is happening in your virtual PBX (which agents are available, how many are answering calls, their location…). On the other hand, from the same panel you can interact with an agent remotely from any place and any device. You will be able to give advice without the customer to know, thus ensuring that the service is the right one. If necessary, you can also make a three-way call with the customer and the agent.
To facilitate access to information in real time
Another major challenge that remote working teams face is facilitating access to information for all employees. To do this, today’s companies use a Customer Management System or CRM, which allows them to keep information in one place that can be accessed by all team members from any location. This tool can be connected to other softwares, so if we integrate our virtual PBX with the CRM of our company, we will be able to enhance the advantages of both systems. The agents will be able to access customer information quickly and without leaving the interaction, as the record will be raised automatically, and they will be able to modify any data from the same platform. Changes will be recorded in real time, so employees will have the confidence that data will always be up to date, and our customer service will be more efficient.
To optimise the performance of agents
Related to the above, Fonvirtual’s virtual PBX, by grouping internal and external communications in the same place, will allow us to achieve an efficient and productive customer service. Having our internal and external communications on the same platform saves time, as we do not have to switch from one application to another to make an enquiry or deal with other interactions. This allows agents to focus on other, more value-added tasks and achieve their goals.
To carry out time control
Finally, nowadays, it is compulsory for employees to keep track of their working hours, that is, to record the hours worked by each employee. Our virtual PBX has a status change system that agents can modify manually to indicate to the rest of the team whether they are available, unavailable, absent… Subsequently, a report is generated that you can consult from the supervisor panel that will allow you to see how long the agents have remained in each status. With all of the above, managing a remote work team is easier if we have the right systems and tools. At Fonvirtual we want to help you get the most out of remote work, so we would be delighted to know what your needs are. Contact us!
