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The Definition of a Work at Home
Call Center Agent
By: Charissa Bear
At the present time there is an estimated
"100,000 home-based phone representatives" employed
throughout the United States. According to predictions made
by the Gartner Group, it is believed that by the end of 2006
approximately ten percent of all call centers scattered throughout
the United States will be relying on the skills and services
of work at home call center agents for the widespread success
of their businesses.
Call centers are becoming a bigger and better industry
all of the time. They comprise a large percentage of the
customer service work that many companies engage in. In
a general way a call center refers to "a variety of
actual business functions, ranging from call centers designed
to handle customer calls, tech support systems, help desks,
or even outbound customer call agents." Call center
agents (work at home or on site employees) are trained to
manage many 'call'-types, including regular telephone inquiries,
faxes, e-mails and web requests.
Many call centers find that costs are lowered and the overall
efficiency of a business is increased when work is "home
sourced" out to work at home call center agents. Also
referred to as "working remotely" these at home
or remote agents often are more productive and happier and
also report greater levels of job satisfaction than those
who work in other capacities. Walking hand in hand with
these positive characteristics is the fact that work at
home call center agents tend to be loyal to their companies
and not as likely to be jumping from job to job. In a lot
of ways these agents get the best of both worlds- they get
to have their cake and eat it too.
A remote agent is loosely defined as a "call center
or help desk employee working away from the main office,
either occasionally or full-time." Some people simply
think of work at home call center agents as telecommuters
who do their work from their own home instead of in the
office.
Call centers that make the decision to institute a remote
agent program experience many benefits from giving their
employees the opportunity to be work at home call center
agents. These benefits include the necessity for less office
space (which is a definite money saver); the ability to
both bring in and hold onto key agents; voice communication
via the telephone when a work emergency should arise; constant
support and feedback between employer and agent; a link
from office to office and the ability for the company to
hire temporary and seasonal staff as well as disabled individuals.
Finally working from home has been shown through a variety
of studies to increase levels of productivity and to allow
for easier flexibility for scheduling work hours for agents.
Article by:
Charissa Bear is the owner of www.momsinc.biz, a work at
home resource. Stop by today and sign up for her 5 day ecourse,
Starting and Choosing a Work a Home Business, or get your
free ecourse by sending a blank email to: mailto: wahguide@aweber.com
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