LiveVox Study Finds That Many Contact Center Leaders Do Not Want to Keep Agents Remote Despite Recent Business Benefits

2^nd edition of the study finds that technology, training, and building an agent community are keys to a successful hybrid work model for the future

LiveVox Holdings, Inc. (“LiveVox” or the “Company”), a leading cloud-based provider of customer service and digital engagement tools, has released the second edition of its LiveVox Work from Home Report, entitled, “The Remote Tipping Point.” Overall, this year’s report found that there is a push by management to return to contact centers, but capabilities now found in the cloud and advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence (“AI”), have shown that a hybrid model can accommodate remote agents and improve contact center productivity. For this report, LiveVox interviewed over 300 contact center executives across North America, in more than five industries, to understand the challenges and successes they experienced while working from home. All participants in the survey directly oversaw customer service and contact center operations for their organizations.

As the title of the report suggests, the contact center industry has reached a tipping point when it comes to the future of work. While some organizations have decided to remain remote indefinitely others are leaning toward a full return to the contact center for agents, in spite of demonstrated remote agent performance gains. For example, compared to last year, there was a 50% reduction in the number of contact center decision makers planning to keep at least a quarter of their workforce remote. All organizations can be aided by the many innovative workforce optimization and AI solutions, like LiveVox’s AI-enabled chatbots and speech analytics that can enhance productivity, foster a sense of agent community, and also help mitigate security and compliance risks.

“The global shutdown showed us that a remote workforce is a viable option for many industries and, in the case of contact centers, can improve the employee experience. However, a 100 percent remote future isn’t a viable option for every organization,” said LiveVox CEO Louis Summe. “Technology, however, is the answer to ensure the positives we’ve seen from work from home continue in the future. Our report showed us that the organizations who embraced technology and were prepared with a cloud infrastructure performed better during the shutdown.”

Key takeaways from the report include:

• 75% of respondents experienced increased contact volumes on all channels, with 20% reporting a dramatic increase of over 50% compared to last year
• 30% of contact center decision-makers still plan to keep a percentage of their workforce remote, down from 60% last year
• 49% felt that the biggest benefit to working from home has been the ability to provide agents greater flexibility
• 48% surveyed saw no change to agent attrition as a result of the shift, while 30% experienced a combination of high agent turnover, layoffs, or hiring freezes
• The most commonly adopted new communications channel during work from home was Webchat (24% of respondents adopted the technology)
• 36% of survey participants reported a positive relationship between working remotely and improved speed to answer for agents.

“Beyond the technology implications, our report showed that contact centers should focus on improving coaching and monitoring tools to ensure that both agents and their managers are set up for success, regardless of whether or not agents are remote. eLearning and Speech Analytics proved to be key pieces to reducing agent monitoring issues – a central challenge for managers,” continued Summe. “The right investments in remote coaching and monitoring provide contact centers with flexibility, opening the door to new opportunities for satisfying workforces and improving customer service.”

To download the full study, click here.

About LiveVox

LiveVox (Nasdaq: LVOX) is a next-generation contact center platform that powers more than 14 billion interactions a year. By seamlessly integrating omnichannel communications, CRM, AI, and WFO capabilities, the Company’s technology delivers an exceptional agent and customer experience while reducing compliance risk. With 20 years of cloud experience and expertise, LiveVox’s CCaaS 2.0 platform is at the forefront of cloud contact center innovation. The Company has more than 500 global employees and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Atlanta; Columbus; Denver; New York City; St. Louis; Medellin, Colombia; and Bangalore, India. To stay up to date with everything LiveVox, follow us at @LiveVox or visit livevox.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements may be made directly in this press release. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words. Statements that are not historical in nature, including the words “anticipate,” “expect,” “suggests,” “plan,” “believe,” “intend,” “estimates,” “targets,” “projects,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “may,” “will,” “forecast” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon management estimates and forecasts and reflect the views, assumptions, expectations, and opinions of the Company as of the date of this press release, and may include, without limitation, changes in general economic conditions, including as a result of COVID-19, all of which are accordingly subject to change. Any such estimates, assumptions, expectations, forecasts, views or opinions set forth in this press release constitute the Company’s judgments and should be regarded as indicative, preliminary and for illustrative purposes only. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to a number of factors, risks and uncertainties, some of which are not currently known to the Company, which may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or financial condition to be materially different from the expectations of future results, performance of financial condition. Although such forward-looking statements have been made in good faith and are based on assumptions that the Company believes to be reasonable, there is no assurance that the expected results will be achieved. The Company’s actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake any obligations to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210727005315/en/