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The past few months have presented huge challenges for businesses and employees around the world, including the disruption for many to a work-from-home environment. While the majority of contact centers are well past the initial hurdle of providing agents access to work from, it was no easy feat as many didn’t have an agile infrastructure that supported a seamless transition.

‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,’ once said Benjamin Franklin. Without proper strategic planning, companies can’t prioritize which resources they must gather and how they should be allocated to achieve their goals.

What is new is the impact that rapid digital technology advances have had on younger age groups. "Digital native" Millennials and Generation Z have grown up in an ever-connected world of online shopping, social media, and all the world's information at their fingertips. Some don't know any other way.

With more employees working from home than ever before, contact center leaders have had to rethink how they maintain business as usual and continue driving toward organizational goals.

Most state a federal government agencies are struggling with exponential increases in call volumes as a result of the pandemic. One unnamed agency experienced an over 3000% jump in call volume. The scariest part of that data point is that agency had not yet begun executing contact tracing efforts.

One of the lasting impacts of Covid-19 related “lockdowns” is a fundamental change in the role of contact centers that emphasizes the need both for speedy authentication and stronger methods to combat fraud.

It's important to be purposeful when cutting costs. Using benchmarks can help. Use internal benchmarks to make cuts relative to past performance. Use industry benchmarks to make cuts that will put you in line with other contact centers like yours. Using both sets of benchmarks in combination may yield the best results.