Telecommuting: Bottom Line Impact

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business K ate Lister, Author of Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home , Principal Researcher at the Telework Research Network Sally Hurley President, Co-founder of VIPdesk Welcome to today’s Webinar! The presentation will start shortly. Today’s presentation is being broadcast through the Internet. Therefore, you do not need a conference dial-in number. To hear today’s webinar, simply turn the volume up on your speakers and you will be able to hear the presentation via your computer. October 27, 2009

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business Our Virtual Experts Kate Lister Telework Researcher & Author of Undress For Success—The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home Sally Hurley President of VIPdesk

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business

Founded in 1997

Originally deployed centralized solution

Quality concerns led to home-based migration in 2000

Represent over 40 leading global brands in financial services, retail, travel and real estate industries

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business Kate Lister • Analyzed 250 Studies • Dozens of Interviews • Telework Savings Calculator Research Quoted By:

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business The Road Home: • What’s in it for You? • Virtual Hiring • Virtual Management • Technology • Staying Legal

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: • Expanded Talent Pool • Lower Turnover / Absenteeism • Increased Productivity • Greater Efficiency • Continuity • Environmental Impact • Reduced Costs

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Expanded Talent Pool • Retiring Boomers • Disabled Workers • Relocated Workers • Second Jobs • Students • Military Spouses • Rural Populations • Caregivers • Part-Timers Other Advantages: • Geographic Matching • Local Licensing Traditional Call Center Agent: 25 years old 3 years in workforce Virtual Call Center Agent: 41 years old 15-20 years in workforce

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Lower Turnover / Absenteeism Turnover: • Turnover is costly • 61% of employees who do not currently work from home say they are willing to give up some pay in exchange for being allowed to do so. • 68% of Shering-Plough Corporation’s telework program say that being able to telework is a factor in their decision to stay with the company • 95% of employers say telework has a high impact on employee retention. • Two-thirds of employees would take another job to ease the commute. Absenteeism: • 78% of employees who call in sick, really aren’t. • Companies with telework programs see, on average a 63% reduction in unscheduled absences. • Teleworkers typically continue to work when they’re sick (without infecting others). • Teleworkers return to work more quickly following surgery or medical issues. • Flexible hours allow teleworkers to run errands or schedule appointments without losing a full day.

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Increased Productivity • 25% to 45% More Productive - Best Buy - British Telecom - Dow Chemical - Sun Microsystems - JD Edwards - VIPdesk

Virtual Customer Care The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Greater Efficiency • Redundant Scheduling • Time Zone Coverage • Traffic Spikes • Seasonality • Supervisor: Agent Ratio

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Continuity of Operations • Flu • Terrorism • Weather • Traffic • Disaster • Oddball

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Environmental Impact • Fuel • Electricity • Paper • Greenhouse Gases Carbon Taxes, City Access Fees, Sanctions

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business What’s In It For You: . . . Save Money

Over 100 Assumptions. 20 Well Respected Sources Contribute to the Model:

ACS (Census), BLS, DOT, EPA, DOE, FHA, GSA, NTSB

Matthews and Williams, Reason Foundation, WorldatWork, AMA, and others

100 Person Call Center Real Estate - $300,000 Electricity - $46,000 Turnover - $450,000 Absenteeism - $82,000 Productivity + $600,0000 Total $1,478,000 $14,780 per person, per year! PLUS: other employee costs, parking, electricity, hardware, office products, management, workers comp, redundancy, etc.

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business Virtual Hiring:

Skills Matching

Be more selective

Establish criteria of soft- and hard-skills

Focus on traits required for working from home with less supervision

Home Office Requirements

Noise-free home-office

Dedicated phone line

Computer requirements

Virtual Customer Care The Bottom Line for Business Virtual Management: • Training / Coaching • Monitoring • Managing

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business Technology:

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business It’s the Law: • Fair Labor Standards Act • Workers Compensation • Contractor vs. Employee • Liability • Licensing • Double Taxation • Zoning • State / Local Overhead

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business Your Turn:

Virtual Customer Care: The Bottom Line for Business Thank You for Stopping By! Want to learn more? Contact us: Sally Hurley [email_address] http://www.vipdesk.com Kate Lister [email_address] http://Undress4Success.com You’ll be receiving an email with a link to this webinar. Feel free to pass it on.