Many companies now employ home workers to handle either their own customer service duties, either directly or through a third party contract. Working Solutions is one of the larger employers of customer service agents. This particular article was written by a woman who has worked for Working Solutions.
Working Solutions offers you a chance to provide for your family without ever having to leave home. Whether you have a physical impairment that keeps you from going out to work, daycare issues for your children, or other commitments that keep you from being able to schedule work, Working Solutions can fit right in.
The majority of work for them is done on the telephone. Calls are routed right to your home phone. All you need is a computer with high speed internet and a dedicated landline to take the calls, and you are on your way to having a call center job.
A Day in the Life
Unlike some other virtual call centers, Working Solutions assigns their independent contractors to different projects. When you set your schedule you know exactly what kind of calls you will be taking for that time frame. Since you schedule your time yourself, and there are projects that operate 24 hours a day, you can set your schedule around your life. You claim the times you want to work in 15 minute increments. Once you have been working with them for a while, and have more than one project, you can schedule the projects to avoid having to say the same thing over and over and over for your whole day of customer service.
Each project has a supervisor that will be available to you at all times during your work should you have a question or issue. You will use an instant messaging program that you must have open at all times while working. You are given training specific to each project, and training on how Working Solutions works. Because of the messaging program you also have the ability to socialize with others working on your project should the calls be slow.
The Pay
One of the nice things about Working Solutions is that they will pay you for every fraction of a minute you are on the phone with a customer and they also guarantee to pay you for half the time you are logged into the system if call volume is slow. Many other companies do not do this; you are only paid for actual talk time. If you are only on the phone for 15 minutes out of a two hour shift, you are only paid for the 15 minutes. Working Solutions will pay you for 60 minutes in that scenario, as long as you are logged into the system.
Working Solutions offers biweekly pay, and you can have your money direct deposited, or sent to you in a check through the mail. They are very good at keeping their pay dates. Working Solutions also has a data entry department. This can give you a break from being on the phone if you are lucky enough to get into the project.
Openings Can Be Limited
The biggest downfall to Working Solutions is the time it takes to get in with them. Many people have put in an application, and waited 6 months to a year to be contacted and interviewed. Then it can take even more time to get assigned a project. It isn’t that there isn’t work; the fact is that many of their operators take on many projects, and they do not quit their jobs often. Some projects may limit the number of hours you can work to give everyone a fair chance. They may limit how many hours you can schedule initially and then allow you to go and get more hours as the week goes on and people cancel times.
If you are just starting out at working from home, go ahead and apply with Working Solutions, but be prepared for a long wait to get a job with them unless you are bilingual. Put in applications for other companies, and take any offers that you get. The great thing about working from home is that you can work for multiple companies at the same time. This lets you make the money you need even if one company is slow.
Learn more about becoming a call center agent with Working Solutions
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