If you’re a mom (or dad) who would rather stay home or need to stay home and want to work from home, either part-time or full-time, one solution is to get a job as a call center agent.

Dozens of companies outsource customer service operations to third-party companies who then hire home-based workers or “agents” to take calls and orders.

Some companies are also using work-at-home agents to support customers via email and live chat. If you’ve had any experience, education, or training in customer service, this will further your chances of snagging an online customer service or call center job.

Most at-home call center jobs require an up-to-date computer, a high-speed internet connection, a phone with a dedicated land line, a quality headset, and a quiet place to work. We will further examine how you can make money from home as a call center agent.

• Online Agencies Who Hire at-home Agents
• Qualities of a Professional Call Center Agent
• How do Call Centers Make Money
• How Much Can You Earn as a Home-Based Call Center Agent
• 6 Extra Income Ideas for Call Center Agents

Online Agencies Who Hire at-home Agents

LiveOps

As an independent contractor providing services to LiveOps’ clients, you are your own boss. You have the freedom and flexibility to set your own schedule and work on your own terms.

Positions with LiveOps include customer service, inbound sales, financial services, and licensed insurance sales. Most of the clients’ calls are inbound sales calls, where a caller is responding to an attractive offer on TV or in an advertisement.

Read Also: How do Technical Support Call Centers Earn Their Money

Due to the sensitive information that agents handle, LiveOps does require a background check that you have to pay for in order to become an agent.

Normally, having to pay for anything upfront smacks of a work-at-home scam, however, LiveOps is a legit company. They pay an average of $10-12 hr. and up to $30 for independent licensed insurance agents.LiveOps rated a 2.8 out of 5 from 131 reviews according to Glassdoor.com.

Alorica (formerly West at Home)

All Alorica agents are fully trained before starting their jobs and are paid an hourly wage for training. According to their Benefit FAQ’s, Alorica offers pay schedules based on a per minute, per call OR guaranteed hourly rate.

Since agents are employees, they must receive the minimum wage in their state. When not enough calls come in for an agent to earn minimum wage on a per-call or per-minute rate, the agent receives the state’s minimum wage.

Tasks range from customer care, live chat, email, and incoming sales calls. You’ll be assisting a number of companies by handling their customer support.

Just like LiveOps, Alorica requires a background check that you have to pay for. When starting out with a job requiring a background check (generally around $35), it may take a little time to get to a “˜break-even’ point and start earning.

Working Solutions

Working Solutions says it was the first company to utilize an entire workforce of home-based customer sales and service agents. Jobs include customer service, technical support, sales, and specialized skills such as corporate travel bookings and bilingual services. All agents are independent contractors, which once again affords you flexibility. The average agents earn anywhere from $8 – $18 an hour or more. This company had the highest rating of 4.2 stars out of 5 and 98 reviews on Glassdoor.

If you’re wondering whether or not you would be a good candidate as a call center agent, think back to a time when you’ve experienced really good customer service over the phone. Would you have been able to deliver that same kind of service?

Qualities of a Professional Call Center Agent

Hiring an excellent call center agent is just as important as having the right call center software. Candidates can be screened based on a variety of criteria, such as personality, skill, fit and motivation, during the hiring process. Regardless of your list of prerequisites, it’s helpful to know exactly what makes a successful agent.

Here are some of the top qualities of a successful call center agent:

1. Knowledge Retention

An agent’s mission is to provide the highest quality support to customers. To accomplish this, they need to be able to learn and memorize a good amount of information about your company.

By the time they get up and running, they should at least know the ins and outs of your product or service and be on board with your brand’s philosophy.

Call center agents should know when they can’t resolve the issue and who to transfer the call to if this is the case. As time progresses, they should be able to remember answers to frequently asked questions and troubleshoot with ease.

If your candidates do not appear to be the type to be able to quickly learn and retain information, hiring them could ultimately have a negative impact on your provision of support.

2. Attention to Detail

Being a call center agent can sometimes be monotonous. Agents often answer the same questions and receive the same complaints day after day. The danger with this is that agents can become complacent as a result.

Agents that fall into this tend to assume that they understand customer issues without seeking clarification and are prone to offering a quick, canned response.

This recipe for disaster is unfortunately incredibly common. In fact, consumers say that on average agents only answer their questions 50 percent of the time. Make sure your agents stand above the rest by checking in with customers to make sure their issues are resolved to their satisfaction before ending the call.

Also, during the hiring process, if a candidate has errors in their resume, isn’t well groomed, or appears sloppy in some other way, pass them up for someone that appears to pay more attention to detail.

3. Organization

Agents that work in a busy call center should be incredibly organized. They need to be able to juggle multiple tasks at once (i.e., checking the knowledge base, updating the CRM and taking notes in your helpdesk), all while attending to the customer’s needs.

Staying organized will help reduce errors during this process, ensuring that they are completing after call work efficiently and allowing them to address customer needs more effectively.

To make sure your call center agents are organized, hire people who met all application process deadlines (i.e., arriving to the meeting on time, submitting requested materials, etc.) and have a track record of being organized.

Once they are on the team, make sure they have the tools (i.e., call center software that integrates with your business tools and an effective CRM and helpdesk solution) and the environment they need to stay organized. These things can make all the difference in customer satisfaction and your bottom line.

4. Flexibility

Not only do call center agents in a busy call center handle dozens of calls per day, but they also interact with customers with challenging personalities. To make sure your agents are flexible enough to meet the needs of your diverse customer base, hire agents that can go with the flow.

They should be able to handle a chatty customer one moment and an angry customer the next. They should be able to roll with the punches and let the bad stuff slide off of them with ease (after providing a solution, of course).

In addition, you may also need to have some of your agents work challenging hours: holidays, nights and weekends. Make sure that you remember this when scouting out new agents. Flexibility is key.

5. Friendly

Agents are the frontline of your company. Make sure they are projecting a warm and friendly image and your customers will rave about their experience. Agents should be able to consistently maintain a positive demeanor and keep a smile on their face day in and day out.

When hiring, make sure that your agents can go the distance with a friendly attitude. Once you have hired your team, make sure you cultivate a culture that encourages friendliness and discourages burnout. Your customers will thank you for it.

6. Calm Under Pressure

A high quality call center agent isn’t easily flustered. Some would argue that this is one of the toughest jobs to maintain, due to the number of frustrated callers agents interact with on a daily basis.

A good agent will remain calm when someone is yelling at them over the phone or when they have a Chatty Cathy on the other end of the line who simply won’t let them get a word in edgewise.

Keeping their cool throughout all of these situations and not letting the frustrated callers get to them personally will get any call center agent far in the industry. During the hiring process, ask them how they handle pressure and check in with their previous employers to see if what they say matches up.

7. Effective Communication Skills

This one is a given, but it’s still worth mentioning. Because a call center agent’s job is to communicate with callers, they should have top-notch communication skills. But communication doesn’t just mean speaking.

Effective communication also involves listening to the caller, digesting the information and conveying a solution quickly and effectively. The agent should speak clearly, using basic vocabulary. If they can communicate effectively, this will bode well for the quality of your service.

In fact, seventy-eight percent of consumers say that a competent service agent is the most important part of a happy customer experience. You simply can’t have competence without clear communication skills.

8. Speed

Quality agents should be fast and efficient. They should work quickly without sacrificing the quality of their work. This is important to your bottom line because the more callers an agent can handle, the fewer agents you need to keep your call center running smoothly.

It’s also important to the callers themselves. They don’t want to wait around for a live agent (after all, 75 percent think it takes too long to reach a live agent). They want their call answered as soon as possible. A fast-working call center agent can reduce average speed to answer and service level for your entire team so your customers are more satisfied.

9. Creativity

Finally, a strong agent needs to be creative. He or she should be able to come up with workable solutions for any problems thrown their way. It’s important that they’re creative because it’ll help them meet caller’s needs in the best way possible for both the company and the customer.

This can also increase customer satisfaction. When agents resolve an issue effectively, 70 percent of the time, that customer will return and do business with the company again.

Truly successful call center agents can be challenging to find. But it helps to know what makes a good one when you’re looking to hire. Also, just because some of your current agents don’t possess all of the skills of a successful call center agent, doesn’t mean they won’t one day.

Remember, most of these qualities can be taught and fostered over time. You can even hold a training session to teach these skills to your existing agents to get everyone on the same page.

How do Call Centers Make Money

Call centers provide services to their clients like Amazon, AT&T, Vodafone, to name a few and get paid for the same. Here is an example of how it works:

Let’s say, Amazon gets 10000 calls per day from customers and sellers. To handle these calls Amazon has to hire employees at various levels to handle such a big task. Amazon has to spend say, $ 100,000 per day to accomplish this.

Amz looks to a call center which asks AMZ to pay $70,000 to accomplish this task. The call center already has resources which it can use to serve AMZ’s customers. This call center also knows the tricks and trade of customer service and how to optimize cost ( the salary it offers could also be less than AMZ standards ). AMZ saves $30,000 in operational cost.

This was if the call centre was in the US. Maybe a call center in India or the Philippines can do this for $50,000. This will mean further savings. Needless to say, AMZ will check the quality before signing someone. AMZ and the call centre will sign a contract. AMZ can penalize the call centre on few metrics. So far it was from a client perspective.

Now, the call centre quotes $50,000 however it’s operational cost could be $40,000. If the centre is able to perform well and is paid $50k by AMZ they’ll make a 10k profit. So it is important for the call centre to abide by AMZs quality standards and deliver it’s committments.

How Much Can You Earn as a Home-Based Call Center Agent

The question everyone wants to be answered about a new job is “How much does it pay?” However, when considering an at-home call-center salary, another question is “How does it pay?” Virtual call centers have varying methods of calculating pay. 

Call center jobs may pay an hourly wage, a per-call, or a per-minute rate, or one of these rates plus an incentive. If a job is an employment position in the U.S., it must pay minimum wage in the state where the agent lives. However, independent contractors do not necessarily receive minimum wage.

Pay Calculation

No matter the pay structure used, home-based call center agents should evaluate whether they are receiving a competitive pay rate by calculating the true hourly wage. This is figuring how much you earn per hour in an average week while also accounting for the costs you incur. 

When calculating their true hourly wage, independent contractors should figure in any training fees, unpaid training time, or other pay deductions that companies may charge, and they should consider the portion of the self-employment taxes that they incur, but employees don’t.

And both employees and contractors should calculate the ongoing and one-time external costs, such as Internet/phone service, headsets, computer equipment, and virus scan subscriptions when calculating their hourly rate. (Plus, these things may be tax deductions, so keep good records.)

Call Center Hourly Rates

Both independent contracting and employment call centers may pay an hourly rate, but it is more common in employment positions. Basic pay rates (not including incentives) range from the U.S. minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Bilingual agents may be paid at the upper end of the scale because there is often a pay differential of $1 or more per hour for bilingual call center jobs.

Any call center job that advertises that it pays more than $12 per hour is likely including the incentive in its average pay, looking for very specialized skills and experience (such as telehealth nursing jobs) or charging fees to its workers.

As with a brick-and-mortar job, the pay is often based on the average wage in the geographic area of the worker, so the same company may pay remote employees in different states different hourly wages.

Per-Call and Per-Minute Rates

Agents compensated on a per-call and per-minute basis (or for “talk time”) are paid only for time on the phone—not for time waiting for calls to come in. The agent may have no way to know if calls will come in a steady flow.

Per-call pay rates might be anywhere from $.10 to $.25 per minute, but there is no way to know in advance what this might work out to as an hourly rate. After some time on the job, it is possible to calculate an average hourly wage, which then can be adjusted for the expenses incurred.

For those paid per call, moving quickly through calls means more money. Employment positions will pay a minimum hourly wage—usually minimum wage—if too few calls come for an agent to earn the basic wage.

However, independent contractors rarely get such protections and can easily make less than the minimum wage. Because taxes aren’t taken out of independent contractors’ wages (though contractors pay these later at tax time), it can appear that they are making more money than their hourly-wage counterparts.

However, in reality, independent contractors pay more taxes because they are responsible for the employer and employee portions of Medicare and Social Security taxes.

Agents paid on a per-call or per-minute basis should make a habit of calculating their pay on an hourly basis for their records so they can project paychecks, compare their current jobs with potential jobs, and be sure they are getting the going rate for call center work.

Also, as with those paid on an hourly basis, it’s a good idea to figure in any costs associated with working at a company.

Incentive Pay

In the majority of cases, incentives for both employees and contractors are in addition to one of the base pay systems above. There could be a few independent contractor sales jobs that are incentive only.

Incentives could simply mean commissions on sales (a percent of the amount sold), but call center companies use many other types of incentive pay programs. Companies might offer cash bonuses for sales of a certain product, for sales above a certain amount, or for the top seller of the day, week, or month. Incentives can be offered in non-sales jobs too.

Companies might offer a higher rate for those who complete a certain number of calls per hour, a bonus for those with good customer service feedback or a certain number of calls or surveys completed.

Regardless of how a company calculates incentives, agents starting a new job will not be able to project incentive pay until they’ve been on the job for a while. And even then, it will fluctuate.

6 Extra Income Ideas for Call Center Agents

If you want to start setting up a business or any type of income online or offline as an Home-Based call center, here are 6 extra income ideas for call center agents.

1. Call center referrals

Well, it’s rather obvious, isn’t it? Most contact center companies (if not all) offer referral bonus to employees who can refer qualified and passing applicants to them. The highest referral I’ve seen a call center company give their employees was 25 thousand pesos and 4k pesos as the lowest. So why aren’t you doing it?

If you’re not comfortable approaching people on the street to convince them to apply to your company, you can totally do it online and you don’t have to talk to them face to face. Here are my tips when headhunting for applicants to refer:

1. Join call center job hunting groups on Facebook.
2. Post your company’s job hiring details, with the qualifications, salary package and location.
3. When people comment to ask for information, message them, see if they’re qualified and interested to apply.
4. Send them to this link for interview tips.
5. Or if there’s any specific process in your company’s hiring process they should know about, inform them about it. Increase their chances of passing the interview to increase your chances of earning your referral bonus.

The world is going digital. Wherever you live, we’re all going digital. Nothing can stop it. It’s the internet age!

Once you start adding the internet into the equation of whatever it is you’re doing, your profit multiplies exponentially. Instead of renting a space in a mall and only being able to sell to the passersby, suddenly, you expand your territory and sell nationwide, even worldwide!

Therefore, if you are to earn good money nowadays, make no mistake of ignoring the money making potential of the internet. Internet is where opportunities sprout the most, simply because that’s where everybody is—customers waiting for you to take their money in exchange for your service. Without further ado, here are several online income and business ideas you can start building now to earn extra income.

2. Online selling

Instead of being the consumer you used to be and giving your money away to buy stuffs you probably don’t need, why not become the seller who profits from them? It’s not rocket science. It’s simple, really. Instead of buy and lose money, why not sell and make money?

Skills:

• basic knowledge in computer and internet (to post, list, and advertise your products in social media)

Online selling steps:

1. Decide what kind of products to sell and look for a reliable supplier.

For example, if you want to sell clothing and you live in Manila, then you’re lucky. Go to Divisoria, Baclaran, and Tiangge in Taytay Rizal and you’ll find an unlimited supply of apparel products. You can also choose a niche where you only sell to a specific group of buyers.

If you’re a man who doesn’t know a thing about women’s clothing but an expert of men’s, or a mother who only wants to sell mother and children’s clothing, then that isn’t going to be an issue. The clothing suppliers I mentioned manufacture clothing of all ages, sizes, and gender.

2. Decide which shopping platform you want to sell in.

We recommend selling in Shopee for complete beginners, because the sales are commission-free. Unlike Lazada and Zalora who charge a certain percentage of their sellers’ sales, Shopee only earns from the shipping fees that buyers pay.

Once you get the hang of selling, refunding, dealing with friendly and difficult buyers, you may then expand your online territory by adding Lazada and Zalora in. If you want to expand after that, go create your own store website. The possibilities are endless! All you gotta do is start. Right now.

3. Blogging

When blogging, you need to decide what niche you want to write about. A niche is a fancy way of saying “topic”. What is the scope of topic that, after years and years of writing about it, you won’t run out of topic to write about?

If you have a lot to share about beauty and fashion, that’s another niche. Or maybe you like cooking and even take beautiful photos of foods, start brainstorming the ideas that you might want to write on a blog and see if it’s a niche fit for you.

How do blogs earn?

Advertising

You write an informative article on your blog that really helps people, and when they read it, they’ll see an advertisement inserted on your blog. If a reader clicks on that ad, you earn money. What a very passive way to earn! After writing a post, provided that it does help the readers, that post is going to make you money forever.

After deciding on a niche, you can already set up your blog.

Affiliate marketing

Let’s say you want to buy a new smartphone. You just don’t buy any model you set your eyes on. What’s the first thing you do? You check for reviews from real people who actually used the item.

Once you click on the link they attach to their blog, you’ll be redirected to the page where you can buy it. Once you buy it, the affiliate blogger gets a commission from your sales.

Read Also: Make Money Online Becoming a Virtual Assistant

The good thing about it is it doesn’t only apply to gadgets, it applies to almost any product you see online. You also don’t have to be in any specific country to earn money. You can write and operate your affiliate blog anywhere in the world and you’d earn just as much money. This is absolutely great if you love to travel but still earn.

4. Virtual Assistant

Essentially, virtual assistants’ basic skills should heavily revolve around clerical skills (answering phones, scheduling appointments, and dealing with administrative tasks.

However, in this busy online world with lots of competition, it’s a big, big plus if you know the following skills:

• writing blog articles
• research
• lead generation
• basic web development (WordPress, usually)
• transcription
• editing videos
• …and many more

In short, the more, the merrier. And again, you can’t be a virtual assistant worthy of a salary if you don’t take the time and invest in order to learn a skill. So go and pay for an online course now. It’ll be worth it.

5. English Tutor

The pay is relatively lower compared to a call center agent’s at the beginning but it goes higher the more your experience grows. Companies like RareJob and 51Talk allows fluent English speakers to work from home while tutoring people who want to speak English all around the world via video chat.

Skills needed:

• Fluency in English
• Patience
• Flexibility: ability to adjust to the student’s learning pace.

The company prepares a lesson plan for each level so you’ll know what to talk about during the chat. No particular online course has to be taken, as you’ll slowly learn the art of teaching as you go along the way and gain experiences with different students. Just make sure your English is impeccable.

6. SEO expert

Search Engine Optimization making sure that your content (video, blog or product page) appears at the first page, preferably at the top of search engines’ search results. If you’re an SEO expert, and I mean an expert, then finding a job online isn’t gonna be a problem for you. This job is one of the most in demand ones since internet was born.

The world is going online. This means that money is going online, too. People who used to buy at the malls now search Google and buy online without leaving their homes. Since buyers are now online, sellers are now online, too. That’s why, getting to the top of the page search result is a big, big accomplishment for every company, because this means, getting the most clicks, and those clicks are going to convert into sales.

Skills you need:

It’s better to pay for online courses if you want to specialize on SEO simply because SEO is a very complicated specialty and it’s one that changes constantly to keep up with Google’s algorithm (the biggest search engine in the whole world.)

If you’re someone who isn’t bothered with updates, little changes here and there to keep up with the SEO trend, then SEO is for you

Conclusion

Working in a call center is a decent job with a decent pay, but not every call center agent can stand the stress for the rest of their working lives.

What you need to do now is to upgrade yourself. Learn a new skill, even pay for an online course, and save to build your capital. It’s an investment. We go to school to land a job, why not pay for something that you know will enable you to reap promising returns in the future?