Here’s a number for you: 70% of mobile professionals will conduct their work on personal devices by 2017. BYOD, or bring your own device, can be defined as the practice of requiring the employees of an organization to use their own computers, smartphones, or other devices for work purposes, and is part of the foundation for our new, 21st-century mobile office.
The concept of a mobile office has in part emerged in response to the ideas, experiences, and practices that stem from a new generation – Gen Y. Their growing level of technology sophistication and outlook on the workplace have helped shape the mobile office and expanded BYOD. And now, as sales practices continue to evolve, we’ve seen greater success of inside sales, and businesses have shifted to support that success by implementing cost-saving practices such as BYOD.
The flexibility of this new generation and the evolution of business structures to include remote workers are bringing BYOD to the forefront of the workplace.
A Flexible Workplace for a Flexible Generation
Generation Y has helped spur the transformation of the workplace from a place where they are paid, to a place where they can build personal experiences. And because they identify themselves as digital natives, they easily adapt to new technologies, making them especially suited for the flexibility and personalized experience that a mobile office offers.
This generation already represents 25% of the workforce in the United States, with that figure expected to reach 50% by 2020. A growing, mobile-first generation that drives a mobile-first work style: 1 in 4 Americans already use a smartphone or tablet as their primary work device. And this number will only grow as Gen Y continues to expand in the workforce.
The Physical Office Is Becoming an Abstract Concept
As more and more companies begin to adopt an office structure that is mobile, establishing it as a business strategy (versus a perk of employment) is key. This will help build respect toward the structure and minimize exploitation of the privilege. And while it can help promote a positive workplace culture, it also has practical cost-saving implications for your business. Take sales structure: inside sales is growing 300% faster than field sales and helps businesses reduce cost-of-sales by 40%-90% (while revenue stays the same or grows). BYOD is becoming a key factor in the growth of inside sales.
The Growing Presence of BYOD
As mentioned above, businesses are seeing a shift in the structure of their sales teams, from field sales to inside sales and now to BYOD. With growing personal technology adoption, and as more companies acknowledge its advantages, we’ll continue to see an increase in BYOD:
- 80% of U.S. businesses with contact centers currently employ work-at-home agents.
- 34% of U.S. businesses with contact centers expanded their work-at-home agent pool in 2014.
- 66% of companies will adopt a BYOD solution by 2017.
- Work-at-home agents in the U.S. are expected to grow from 100,000 to 160,000 by 2017.
How Can You Support Your BYOD Strategy?
Offering flexibility and giving your employees the option to use their own technology to conduct business is all well and good, but how can you effectively manage inbound calls, know they are quickly reaching the right sales and support agents, and ensure service levels are being met? Here are just a few pieces essential to making BYOD work harder for your business:
- Call Routing: Ensure your important calls never go unanswered and are directed to the correct agent based on caller location, time of day, or marketing source and to any type of phone (cell phone, work phone, home phone, Skype).
- IVR (Interactive Voice Response): Automatically filter and qualify callers upfront to ensure high-quality, sales-ready leads are being routed to the best agent to convert.
- Automated Call Distributor: Operate seamlessly as one team regardless of location or device by using a call management system to easily monitor call activity, provide agents with caller information, and integrate with your CRM or help desk systems.
- Call Queuing: Customize the call queue experience (audio, maximum time callers have to wait, number of callers in queue, etc.) to provide a seamless experience for callers you can even let them request a callback without losing their place in line, automatically triggering a call to them when it’s their turn.
To learn more about BYOD and the above tips, check out our on-demand webinar, 7 Ways Inside Sales Teams Optimize Performance in a BYOD World.
