Coronavirus Prompts New Remote Workforce Offers from Talkdesk, Helpshift, Others

As the World Health Organization (WHO) says the coronavirus pandemic continues to accelerate, more companies in the channel are coming forward with solutions to help businesses accommodate remote workers.

Talkdesk has unveiled new offers aimed at enabling a “swift, seamless and secure transition” to its cloud contact center solutions. The Talkdesk Business Continuity program consists of three solutions designed to address new and changing business needs as a result of the outbreak.

Talkdesk Now allows agents to work from home with cloud contact center solutions within 24 hours. Talkdesk Boost, which moves contact centers to the cloud within 15 days, and Talkdesk Mobile Agent, which converts any mobile device into a complete customer support tool, are free for three months when companies sign up before May 1.

Jon Heaps, Talkdesk‘s vice president of channel, tells Channel Partners the business continuity program will create new opportunities for partners to help their customers cope with evolving needs brought on by the pandemic.

Talkdesk’s Jon Heaps

“Companies are scrambling to shift employees to working from home,” he said. “Contact centers are no different; in fact, with the close-quarters nature of contact centers (agents sharing desks, headsets, etc.), traditional contact centers have a higher potential to be hit hard by the spread of a health crisis or other natural disasters. Talkdesk cloud contact center solutions offer the flexibility companies need to quickly transition agents into a work-from-home environment.”

Due to shelter-in-place orders and social distancing requirements, contact centers suddenly face something that was a luxury less than two weeks ago, with allowing agents working from home becoming a necessity, Heaps said. Fortunately, Talkdesk has the “solutions needed for this brand new and evolving situation,” he said.

Helpshift, which provides a digital customer satisfaction platform, will offer its technology at no cost to community, government and health care organizations on the front lines of the COVID-19 response. Helpshift said its technology can assist in rapidly scaling contact centers to provide virtual assistance to communities, particularly as the WHO continues to recommend social distancing.

Implementing digital tools also can allow call-center agents to work remotely and to ensure appropriate preventative measures are taken for their own health and safety, according to the company.

Helpshift‘s technology features a messaging model that works with automation to connect customers to the critical information and care they need. Customers can self-resolve their inquiries before being transferred to a contact center agent — freeing up human agents to work on only the most critical cases, the company said.

Jeff Saenger, Helpshift’s vice president of customer success, tells Channel Partners that online gaming, e-commerce and hybrid retailers, in particular, are seeing a “tremendous uptick” in demand and are having issues keeping up with new business. Insurance companies also are getting swamped by clients inquiring about COVID-19 coverage, he said.

Helpshift’s Jeff Saenger

“Most contact centers rely upon armies of outsourced agents to staff their operations,” he said. “These business process outsourcers employ thousands of people based in centralized contact centers throughout the world. All of these centers have been shut down and agents have been asked to work from home for the first time ever. Most agents lack fast internet access, equipment and software to deliver these services remotely. We expect that companies will lose at least 25% of their agent capacity over the next one to two months as they transition to remote support.”

Align Technologies is making its Huddle Tools available for free to any SMB looking to improve organizational communication and manage remote employees during the pandemic. At this time of unprecedented disruption, consistent team communication is more critical than ever, it said.

Align’s tools manage team member updates and associated tasks. The tools include …