Hiring remote employees or freelancers is becoming a hot topic among business owners today. This increasing trend in the workplace is attracting more businesses positively.
For growing companies, hiring remote customer support surely has its benefits and positive impact on the business. With the list of its benefits, the possible difficulties, and challenges that come along it should not be overlooked.
Here are the pros and cons of hiring remote customer support agents:
The Pros
- Low Cost
One of the main concerns of most business owners in hiring new employees is the possible additional expenses it may incur. Hiring remote customer support agents instead of in-house agents saves more money in the process. Not just the process itself but even the after-cost such as additional office supplies and other miscellaneous expenses in-house employees may incur.
- Bigger Talent Pool
As business owners looking for the right people to do the job for you and for your business, geographical constraints are no longer an issue. Thus, the position will be more accessible for anyone who is qualified for the job regardless of the applicant’s location.
- More Efficient
Hiring remote customer support agents will be more efficient in doing their tasks than in-house employees. This is because working remotely won’t require the agents to travel from home to working place. This act alone saves time. The time which can be spent on other things can be done on doing the job instead.
- Happier Workplace
Remote customer support agents working from anywhere they can be freer in setting up their desired work station. This entails more freedom in doing the job their own way and keeping themselves motivated. Happy workers are motivated and motivated workers are more efficient in doing their jobs.
- Less Sick or Leave Days
Compared with in-house employees, remote customer support agents no longer need to file a leave to cater to other necessities. Working remotely allows employees or freelancers to take care of their sick kids or spouses without losing the entire day.
- More Flexible
Working from anywhere allows employees such as remote customer support agents to work with freedom and desired flexibility.
- Flexible Hours
Depending on their time zones or the required time of operation, some remote customer support agents have more flexibility in choosing their desired schedules. With this advantage, employees working remotely are less likely to come late or suffer tardiness in attending with their respective tasks.
Moreover, depending on demand, there will be seasons when you will need a boost in the number of agents needed. Hiring contractual remote customer support agents is much more convenient than hiring regular in-house employees all at once.
- Work From Anywhere
Most Millenials value their freedom and time. Hiring employees remotely gives them such freedom to choose wherever they want. As a result, this will boost their work satisfaction and most likely to stick around.
- Environmentally Friendly
As ethical business owners, the responsibility to ensure the welfare of society and the environment are being practised should never be overlooked. Hiring remote customer support agents allows you to set-up virtual teams which in return lessens power consumption. This way, even small businesses can contribute to this advocacy in their own simple ways.
The Cons
- Difficulty In Monitoring and Managing Remote Workers
One of the major disadvantages of hiring remote customer support agents is the difficulty in monitoring and managing them. Random check-ups of calls will not be immediately entertained. Concurrent with the freedom they possess in working remotely comes along the dangers it may possibly cause. This is specially true mostly for inexperienced or novice agents.
- Tracking
Remote customer support agents altho working remotely should focus on giving excellent support for customers looking for assistance with the product. However, tracking the performance of your employees working remotely can be a difficult task to do. It will also be hard to ensure that the service they are providing will be consistent.
- Training
Hiring remote employees does not mean it saves you the training process. Remote customer support agents may already be equipped with their past experiences, but they still need to be trained. Unlike in-house trainees who are easier to guide, remote agents only rely on the supplied information. But there are instances wherein the supplied information is not enough to address a certain support issue.
- Security
With the wide access of customer information including their address, financial statuses, spending records, and other more comes great responsibility. Thus, it is important that customer support agents working remotely fully understand the sensitivity and confidentiality of this information. Furthermore, remote customer support systems may not be as secure as the business’ in-house systems which is a major pitfall.
The Bottomline
The ultimate goal of providing customer support is to provide excellent assistance to customers and helping them resolve issues they come across in using the product. Therefore, it does matter whether it is an on-site agent or a remote customer support agent who does the task. As long as the service will be excellently delivered, then nothing actually matters.
However, as business owners, it is vital to take a closer look at the list of pros and cons of hiring remote customer support agents. This is necessary to deeply understand the benefits and risks of hiring remote agents. This will also help business owners to contemplate whether or not it is tolerable for the business to pursue.
Aileen Artiaga is a part-time writer, SMO specialist, and travel enthusiast. She is a curating content, analyzing posts performance, and delivering information to content marketing portals. She also manages her own YouTube channel.
