CUSTOMER PROFILE
THE CHALLENGE
As a frontline resource for the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County, 211 LA played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Calls to its disaster hotline increased in February 2020 and were escalating dramatically in early March when agents were being moved to working from home.
“We had two issues to deal with simultaneously,” said Amy Latzer, Chief Operating Officer, 211 LA County. “It was urgent that we get our agents home to keep them safe. At the same time, the county officially activated us, which means residents were calling 211 for more information on COVID-19, such as testing locations, health concerns and more.”
“Our call volumes jumped 150% in a very short amount of time. There was no way our 50 agents could service that enormous increase. We needed a partner who could bring on additional agents and get them up to speed quickly,” she said.
“We also needed a company that was using NICE CXone™. Having the other agents log in to our CXone system would reduce training time and give us greater visibility into their activities, so we could offer coaching and support,” Amy said.
THE SOLUTION
Amy put out a call to a few businesses that also use CXone, and Tom Laird, CEO of Expivia Interaction Marketing, quickly responded.
Since Expivia also uses CXone with a wide range of clients, it could satisfy 211 LA’s requirements to swiftly bring on more agents as call volumes continued to rise.
“Our staff was trained within 48 hours and ready to start taking calls,” Tom said. “As 211 LA’s volumes escalated, Amy would request additional help. Eventually, we had a team of about 200 agents supporting 211 LA’s staff. Both teams were totally virtual because all of our agents were working from home, too.”
“CXone helped all the moving parts fall into place as smoothly as possible,” Tom said. “It was an immense relief, because we didn’t have to worry about the technology during this crisis. CXone’s cloud platform made it all possible.”
OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED
Transitioning both contact center workforces home was new for 211 LA and Expivia. Tom explains that he was previously leery of the work-from-home model, because of security concerns in servicing Expivia’s financial customers. However, when Expivia’s clients started asking about the company’s plan for business continuity and disaster recovery, he began to rethink his position.
“Since CXone runs in the cloud, our agents can easily work from any location. We transitioned our entire team to working from home within 72 hours,” Tom said.
“The telephony aspect of CXone’s integrated softphone also made it extremely easy for our agents to start taking calls quickly. They didn’t need to download or configure anything,” he said.
Amy explained that 211 LA already had a business continuity plan in place in case of natural disasters like earthquakes. The plan also proved to be beneficial in moving all the agents home during COVID-19.
“We already had some agents working from home,” Amy said. “With CXone, it was easy to move everyone else home, too. We just needed to be sure they had the appropriate hardware and Internet connection to keep taking calls.”
Advice to other contact centers on navigating a pandemic
Amy and Tom shared best practices and advice for other contact centers that need to ensure business continuity during a disaster like COVID-19.
“CXone’s dashboards are critical when agents are working remotely,” Tom said. “We can analyze KPIs for each agent and make sure they’re hitting their metrics.”
“It’s also vital to keep your agents engaged, especially when they’re no longer in the office,” he said. “CXone’s gamification has taken on a whole new level of importance. We’re trying to implement games that are fun, so agents feel like they’re part of a company that cares,” he said.
Amy advises other contact centers to communicate “even more than you think you need to, in multiple ways, whether it’s through phone, IM, texting, video chats — any method necessary to be effective.”
“It’s also important to be flexible, creative and willing to course-correct as a team. I think you need to be honest with your employees that you won’t get everything right the first time and that’s OK. None of us have experience keeping an organization up and running during a pandemic. So it’s important to have a learning mindset and reinforce that to your team,” she said.
Working as partners to ensure business continuity has been a game-changing experience for both 211 LA and Expivia. Since both organizations use CXone, it was an easy process to quickly expand 211 LA’s workforce to include Expivia’s agents.
The experience has had a lasting impact on both Tom and Amy. “It’s been very meaningful to work with 211 LA and assist their customers in a great time of need,” Tom said. “I give so much credit to Amy and her staff for what they do every single day.”
Amy echoed Tom’s sentiments: “It’s an honor to help people in their most vulnerable time. This pandemic will change how we all conduct business forever.”
