Hitting home – what contact center agents really think about WFH

The contact center industry has arguably embraced the shift to working from home more than any other sector.

Yet there’s been very little discussion about what the estimated three million Americans who work at contact centers think about this, given they now do a lot – and sometimes all – of their work from their homes.

As part of our Hitting Home research, we wanted to explore this issue more. So we conducted a focus group with contact center workers to dive into their views and experiences. (This complemented a survey of 1,000 consumers carried out at the same time.)

All of the agents were full-time contact center employees and worked at least half their time at home – most of them worked at home every day. They were located across the US, from Illinois to Texas, and Washington DC to California.

Data from analysts and vendors alike suggests that agents enjoy the flexibility that working from home provides, while businesses benefit from happier employees, reduced overheads, and lower carbon emissions, among other advantages.

“I love it” was the common response from the agents in our focus group when we asked about their experiences with WFH. It saved them an hour or more each day on their commute, removed micro-management, and gave them more freedom and flexibility.

From our moderated discussion, four key observations with important implications for the security of WFH agents that stood out.

1. Agents think customers don’t mind they’re WFH – but customers think differently

Our focus group attendees reported they didn’t tell customers on the other end of the phone where they were working from.

One agent said: “I try not to let it on that I'm working from home. I don't mention it at all. I just feel like it's something that they don't need to know.”

Another told us: “I don't think they necessarily know, and my company actually prefers that they don't know, which is why they don't allow any noise in the background. But I don't think customers know or even care as long as they are getting what they need.”

The consensus was that customers don’t really mind. After all, the working world has changed since the pandemic, and WFH is now common in many white-collar jobs. Does it really matter where someone is doing their work from?

But this isn’t what consumers themselves say. In our survey, a majority of consumers (55%) told us they consider contact center agents who are working from home to be a risk to their personal privacy. And if it became apparent that a contact center agent was working from home in a not completely secure environment, 26% of all consumers said they would not use the company again.

By not proactively informing customers of their location, agents might be indicating an awareness that they wouldn’t be delighted to find out. Especially when sensitive information – such as payment details and Social Security numbers – are involved.

2. Home Agents’ home setups try to mimic the security measures offered by the contact center - maybe not always successfully

Companies are happy to let their employees work from home more often, but the quid pro quo is they ask them to create a professional, almost office-like environment in their homes.

That means a dedicated workspace, a closed door, and no noise or disturbance in the background.

In reality, this doesn’t always happen though

Most of our focus group attendees didn’t have a home office, for instance. They tended to work in their living room, spare bedroom, or basement – or maybe move between rooms and take their laptop with them: “Sometimes I move around, you know, for internet reasons or just to have a change of scenery,” one agent told us.

Total privacy wasn’t universal. As another agent said: “We do have to take extra [security] measures because we're at home – because, you know, people have families and [other]people who might have access to our laptop.”

This underscores the reality that the home environment is fundamentally different from the office, and security measures need to be as robust as those applied in the contact center environment.

3. Home working can get interrupted – which can pose a security risk

Our focus group was full of stories of moments when corporate rules got bent if not outrightbroken. Security inevitably got sacrificed as a result.

Family members would drop by: “My cousin, he works for parking enforcement for the city, but his area of foot traffic is near my home, so he has a key because sometimes I'm on a call and can't let him in. So since he works in the field, sometimes he needs to warm up his lunch or whatever.”

Kids would enter the room while their parents were at their computer: “My son may appear on occasion – like, pop into the bedroom while I'm working.”

Distractions are everywhere. Friends would come round to work together and combat loneliness: “I have about two or three of my friends, who also work from home full time. And for some reason, they'd be like, dude, I'm coming to your house this week. . . I mean, we just hang out and just work from home together.”

Life happens. Even the best-laid corporate plans can get disrupted. Businesses need to ensure that their technology and security policies cover the fact that other people may be present in the room while an agent is handling sensitive customer data.

4. The right tech is crucial for agents but mustn’t become a burden

Contact center agents understand how important the right hardware and software are for them to do their jobs successfully, and to secure customer data. That involves a mix of ethernet cables and headphones to give them the fastest, clearest connection, and a VPN and multi-factor authentication to stay secure.

But agents pushed back against further layers of technology, as that would add extra burdens to what is already a bandwidth-heavy job.

As one put it: “On being more secure and more safe – as you do that, it might lock down the system, so that my portal would be slower in performance.”

The sweet spot is a security solution that is easy to navigate and as frictionless as possible for agents and customers alike, but that offers high levels of protection and ensures agents can’t accidentally be the cause of data breaches.

You can read more about our Hitting Home campaign – including what everyday consumers across the US think about their personal information being handled by agents working from home – in the report here.