Virtual Contact Center Supporting Organizations Go Green

The Virtual Contact Center has become important for its ability to provide organizations with significant benefits in not only cost savings but also, as more and more businesses become aware of their environmental impact and responsibilities, the virtual contact is also helping organizations go green. The virtual contact center, which supports the home agent model, is web-based and makes it possible to access and utilize tools and reports from any location where there is an Internet connection. By supporting the home agent model, the virtual contact center is able to attract a broader, more educated labor pool that better serves their customers.

The e-business now prioritize going Green. This will mean decrease in the consumption of power in the data center by switching off the air conditioners at night. The call center industry has no exception. The will start to implement a Green hosted call center environment. A virtual call center allows the organization to participate in the reduction of power consumption. Call center will allow its agents to work in any place where they have access to phone and Web connection. This will result to significant reduction of physical space and vivid change on the expenses of rent and utility. For instance, a traditional call center allocates 120 square feet of office space per agent. Commercial space rent is from $17 to $28 per square foot per year. If the cost is $21 per square foot rental, the cost per year per agent equates to $2,500, or $250,000 per 100-seat call center. Assuming the utility costs is around $30,000 per year and the possible savings in a hosted environment are extensive. Also, the virtual contact center can allow organizations to extend their service hours and offer improved customer service levels as callers are better able to reach agents and are connected directly to agents who can assist them with their needs quickly and efficiently.

Aside from these abilities, the virtual contact center becomes important to organizations looking to go green as the agents they employ are home, not commuting and releasing more carbon emissions or using electricity, fuel or other costly elements of a brick and mortar establishment. By reducing the organizations carbon footprint, the virtual contact center has huge benefits on the environment including a significantly reduced carbon footprint and removing pollution from the air.

The Green concept has been over hyped in a number of industries, and call center industry is now starting to enjoy measurable benefits that go beyond by merely giving satisfaction to the environment. By implementing a hosted platform that eliminates the need for a physical building, the organization will then save funds, will trim down power consumption and will force an improved overall experience for everyone concerned. According to a survey conducted by Softlab, 44 percent of those surveyed, senior managers and executives, plan to go green in their contact center within the next 12 months and a further 20 percent in the next three years, indicating that green issues will likely have an impact on purchasing decisions in the near future.