
How to Keep your Employees Engaged while Working from Home
- 1.BBC: Coming to a screen near you… The online adviser
- 2.Boston.com: British video chat startup Vee24 collects $5.5 million from Data Point Capital; will set up HQ in Boston
- 3.Internet Retailer: Customer service firm Vee24 raises $5.5 million
- 4.Venturefizz: Connect with web & mobile customers via live video, voice, text and co-browsing
- 5.Call Center Solution: Vee24 Democratizes the Amazon Mayday Button
- 6.Los Angeles Times: More companies adding video to personalize online customer service
- 7.Biz Report: Expert Advice – Use in-store techniques to sell online
- 8.1to1 Media: Can you see me now? How to Improve the Customer Experience with Video
- 9.The Next Best Thing in Online Banking: Live Video Chat
- 10.Digital Marketing Magazine: From Telephone to Smartphone: How Customer Service is Evolving
- 11.TMCnet: Vee24 Gives Mobile Browsers a New Voice, with Video
- 12.Unlocking Online Conversion
- 13.Direct Marketing News: The New Wave of Engagement Campaigns
- 14.Are you Prepared for the Live Video Revolution?
- 15.Flint Group Blog: Tips to do video well on social media
- 16.Vee24 Wins 2015 MITX Award – Best Tech Innovation in Shopping
- 17.Return Customer: What Millennials Expect from Online Customer Service
- 18.A Conversation with CEO Priya Iyer
- 19.5 Surprising Reasons Why You Need Video Chat
- 20.The Evolution of Live Customer Engagements
- 21.How to Proactively Use Live Customer Engagement for Lead Generation
- 22.MIT Sloan – AI CAN FORGE RICHER HUMAN-TO-HUMAN INTERACTIONS
- 23.Technical Challenges of a Fully Integrated Live Engagement Solution
- 24.3 Ways That Brands Can Leverage Live Engagement on Social Media
- 25.3 Steps to Improving Your Live Chat Customer Experience
- 26.Improving the Customer Experience with ChatBOTs
- 27.AI-Enabled Customer Experiences of the Future
- 28.Priya Iyer featured in Customer Service 2020 Report by Raconteur Media
- 29.Five Ways to Personalize Your Live Engagement Experience
- 30.Priya Iyer Awarded The SaaS Report’s Top Women Leaders in SaaS of 2018
- 31.Information Age Features Priya Iyer’s Nomination for Business Leader of the Year in the Women in IT Awards Series
- 32.Business Wire Featured Priya Iyer’s Award of Top Women Leaders in SaaS of 2018
- 33.The Live Engagement Checklist: Everything You Need to Know Before Going Live
- 34.Planning and Budgeting for a Live Chat Platform in 2019
- 35.Quick Tips: 20 Ways to Wow Customers with Video Assistance
- 36.The Future of Customer Experience is Here
- 37.Vee24 Published in UK Tech News – ‘AI-enabled customer experiences of the future’
- 38.Seminar by Priya Iyer at Call & Contact Centre Expo
- 39.Providing an Optimal Digital Customer Experience
- 40.Insights from Vee24’s Director of Marketing – A Quick and Easy Plan for Lead Generation
- 41.The ChatBOT Competition: VIP Luncheon at STK Steakhouse Midtown
- 42.Business Computing World – The Live Engagement Checklist: Everything You Need to Know Before Going Live
- 43.Vee24 Featured in ITProPortal – The Live Engagement Checklist: Everything You Need to Know Before Going Live
- 44.Digitalist Magazine – Live Engagement Checklist for the Best Possible Online Experience
- 45.Meet Us at IRCE @RetailX June 25-27
- 46.The Difference Between Customer Experience & Service
- 47.Behind The Scenes, These Bots Deliver Better Customer Service
- 48.How I Spent My Summer Internship – Learning That I Expect an Excellent Customer Experience
- 49.ChatBOTs & Live Chat in Tandem – A Perfect World
- 50.5 Ways to Drive Conversations into Conversions
- 51.Optimizing the Customer Journey with AI ChatBOTs
- 52.The Next Right Thing – Providing Excellent Customer Experience with Intelligent Live Engagement
- 53.Your Customer’s Perspective of Live Chat
- 54.Why You Need an AI ChatBOT
- 55.Why Co-Browsing is Your Key to Connecting with Customers
- 56.Meet The Family Of BOTS
- 57.Embracing AI-Powered BOTs: Identifying The Misconceptions And Pitfalls Of BOTs And Avoiding Them To Create An Ideal Customer Experience
- 58.5 Key Elements of Live-Engagement
- 59.How to Use Live Engagement to Give Your Dealership a Competitive Edge
- 60.How AI BOTs improve the Employee Experience
- 61.2020 Customer Facing ChatBOT Trends
- 62.The Future is Now: Why Your Customers are More Ready than You Think for Live Engagement
- 63.Is your Customer Service Team Prepared for the Possible Impact of Coronavirus?
- 64.Is the Auto-Dealership Dead?
- 65.Increase ROI with Digital Engagement
- 66.How to Keep your Employees Engaged while Working from Home
- 67.Do You Have the Infrastructure to Allow Your Agents to Work from Home?
- 68.Social Distancing Amplifies your Customer Engagement Choices
- 69.Tips for Identifying the Pitfalls and Misconceptions of Bots
- 70.The Future of Live Engagement is Here as Vee24 Launches V11 Intelligent Conversational Experience
- 71.Join Us for Webinar on our latest Release
- 72.Selling in the Age of Impatience
- 73.Behind the screen: How a customer sales agent uses video chat
- 74.Customer Engagements Must Be Multi-Experience Interactions
- 75.What is video chat?
- 76.Jordan’s Furniture Enhances Its Online Customer Experience for One-Stop Shopping
- 77.Prism Health Advocates Chooses Vee24 To Deliver a VIP-Level Client Experience
- 78.A New Definition of “Webinar” for Consumer Brands and Businesses
- 79.An Intelligent Guide to ChatBOTs: Taking a Team Approach
- 80.The Watches of Switzerland Group Launches Virtual Boutique in the UK with Vee24 to Boost High-end Customer Sales and Service
- 81.D’Ieteren Automotive Chooses Vee24 to Connect with Customers Face-to-Face at Virtual 2021 Brussels Motor Show
A little less than a month ago, many of you were managing teams in the physical confines of the office, and almost overnight with little to no time to prepare, you and your teams had to become fully remote. Our loyal customers often ask what we do to ensure success for our employees when they need to work from home. As the head of our Center of Excellence, the first thing I stress is that managers need to be empathetic under the circumstances when their team is working remotely. Some employees may have children at home who are homeschooled or have family members to take care of others may be living with roommates who are working from home and vying for precious desk space or internet bandwidth. What we all share is the uncertainty of the times, cabin fever and lack of preparation for all to prepare for their teams to work remotely. Without empathy, many employees may become distant and that will directly affect their interactions with customers and it could hurt the company’s brand in the long run. The guidelines that I share with our customers are the same rules that I use every day with my team:
- Set clear expectations and goals
- Communicate constantly throughout the day
- Set a daily and weekly rewards program
- Set virtual face-to-face meetings via video
- Monitoring employees to keep them engaged
These are guidelines that need to be set early on to have success with a remote workforce. As with any change to an organization, you need to prepare for an adjustment period and some trial and error with some of these guidelines to see how they work within your collective culture. Over the next few weeks, I will be diving into each of these guidelines to offer actionable tips that you can implement with your teams, but I want to start with the one that is sometimes difficult to execute given your “in office” cultural norms.
We are going to start with “Set clear expectations and goals”. The question that every manager is asking themselves at the moment is – “How do I keep my employees fully engaged?” There is a belief that since people are being paid while working from home, they should “do their job.” However, it is essential that you as the manager, outline directly what your employees’ responsibilities are and your expectations of them in the new work routine As with any change in the working environment, there may be some challenges early on, particularly if your employees were used to working side-by-side with peers and management and need that in-person interaction. This is why empathy is so important. You need to ensure you create an engaged and motivated team and this is a key to making the entire work from home experience successful.
There are many tactics we do at Vee24 to keep remote workers engaged. This includes regular 10-minute meetings, or stand-ups, throughout the day to ensure the employees are engaged and ready to support our customers. Another key one is to make sure there is constant instant messaging (Slack, Skype, and etc.) activity that is active throughout the day. . A third tactic is to make it fun. I create weekly work games because I know my team’s culture and demographics and these games keep my team involved and more importantly, competitive.
Some of the games we play to keep the employees engaged include: online quizzes, online bingo, host ‘bad shirt day’ or planning a scavenger hunt. We always keep a scoreboard for each of the games. Keeping score is an incredibly useful tool to reduce alienation from isolation, boredom and adds some good fun into the day.
By supporting the team in these ways, we have also seen many of the employees engaging with each other over instant messaging and video for playful banter (much like they had in the office) – which is a great way to further tighten team dynamics. This is especially important for organizations that have seen a severe downturn in customer service interactions or sales engagements. It is also a good approach with newer employees to get acclimated and up to speed faster in their new role.
At the end of the day, engaged and happy employees are key to any customer engagement team – either working at the office or working at home. In our experience, regular engagement with your team is a key guideline to ensure you have a successful work from home program for your team.
The key guidelines that I outlined above will help you ensure that there are appropriate technologies for employees to support your customers, cultivate empathy, achieve goals, and keep employees fully engaged. Like any new management initiatives, the work from home strategy will need some tweaks to ensure overall success in your particular environment. With a good remote work strategy, you will go back to delighting your customers and measuring your metrics just like in the office.