Alpine Access, a provider of virtual contact center solutions and services including call center workforce management has been selected by a leading beauty and health retailer to handle a variety of support calls from hundreds of store locations and the company's e-commerce website.

The call center workforce management service will enable the company to gain access to Alpine Access' home-based agents to manage customer communications through e-mail and chat channels. The flexibility and scalability of a home-based workforce is especially important in the retail industry where companies need to ramp-up for the holidays or adjust staffing levels in real-time to ensure calls are answered quickly, according to Alpine Access officals.

Alpine Access’ service has a unique ability to efficiently and effectively increase staffing to handle high seasonal call volumes, while also maintaining staffing and high-quality service levels year-round. The company has a dedicated team of agents with a strong affinity to and knowledge about the client’s products.

"The virtual at-home model is well-suited for retail heavyweights because of our combined abilities to hand-select agents and easily adjust staffing levels to mirror actual call volume patterns," said Christopher M. Carrington, president and CEO of Alpine Access, in a statement.

"These advantages are important at a time when economics and competition are forcing retailers to operate more efficiently while preserving consumer satisfaction and brand reputation," Carrington added.

Call centers can see multiple benefits associated with transitioning to a fully hosted call center from premises-based services. In fact, a recent 2011 Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) report revealed that implementing cloud-based applications instead of installing and maintaining equipment at the actual call center site can significantly cut costs by around 43 percent in a five-year period.