Strength in Numbers is a blog series looking at the ways Covid-19 has impacted New Relic customers, and how they’ve been adapting to the disruption.

Like so many other businesses, in the wake of COVID-19, many contact centers had to quickly embrace a work-from-home model. One unique aspect about contact centers in the United States, as Forrester points out, is that there are a lot of gray zones as to whether or not they’re considered an “essential business.” And that initially caused some confusion in certain states, as many contact centers were simultaneously flooded with questions and requests from customers seeking answers in uncertain times.

Contact centers are vital to providing rapid critical information to customers of many organizations, and they really can’t afford to be offline. Genesys, the leader in cloud contact center solutions that delivers more than 70 billion remarkable experiences for organizations in over 100 countries, knows this better than anyone.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 700 organizations across the world turned to Genesys for help supporting remote capabilities, shifting geographic operations, or managing unanticipated spikes in customer inquiries. In addition, the company enabled any organization to access Genesys Cloud™, an all-in-one solution and the world’s leading public cloud contact center platform, for free through April. As a result, more than 120 companies were onboarded to Genesys Cloud so they could provide mission-critical support and enable remote teams fast, with deployment in 48 hours or less.

Some Genesys customers also got creative in adjusting to the pandemic. For instance, TechStyle Fashion Group is an e-commerce company with contact centers around the world. The company rented a block of hotel rooms so agents based in the Philippines who lacked Wi-F, data, and cell service at home, could live and work safely. TechStyle also encouraged employees’ families to join them until the local lockdown ends.

Alternatively in the US, as job losses mounted and many became fearful to leave their homes, Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana saw the number of households it was feeding triple. Part of that surge was driven by requests for food delivery—a service the organization was not set up to provide. Within a week, the food bank was handling a flood of calls and organizing deliveries effectively using Genesys technology.

“In the midst of this pandemic, it's important to find a silver lining. In our case, working with New Relic and other Genesys partners to help so many organizations weather this storm is certainly at the top of our list,” said Olivier Jouve, executive vice president and general manager of Genesys Cloud. “The flexibility and born-in-the-cloud architecture of Genesys Cloud has made it possible for hundreds of businesses to enable their agents to work safely from home with very little–if any–assistance. As the pandemic continues to challenge us, we’ll provide organizations with the ongoing support and innovative solutions they need to care for their customers.”

Check out more New Relic customer stories.