Microsoft shut down its physical stores around the world on March 16th. As much of the workforce has shifted suddenly to remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic, so too have some 2,000 Microsoft Store employees who have transitioned to serving customers remotely as part of the Microsoft’s Emergency Remote Operations plan, according to a Microsoft blog post.
The remote customer support program is optional for employees, and not all are eligible to participate, but Microsoft corporate vice president of stores, David Porter, said in a LinkedIn post that 80 percent of eligible workers signed up.
Store employees have virtually trained 65,000. The demand for the virtual training program, known as Customer Success Training, has surged as many customers want to improve and transform their remote work capabilities and for store employees who participate, they are continuing to receive regular pay but also weekly bonuses as part of the program. Some early training successes of the program include training school district personnel to teach remotely using Microsoft 365, how to support virtual coding workshops for kids, as well as business training for companies like the Cleveland Clinic, accounting firm Ernst & Young, and transportation and logistics company CN (Canadian National Railway).
Microsoft Teams has seen a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes per day since March 31st. As a comparison, that is up more than 200 percent since mid-march. You can check out our Teams Hub to learn more about upcoming updates, news stories and more.
