Do you have an affinity for making people happy? Are you great at diffusing tense situations? More importantly do you want to work from the comfort of your own home, and make decent money doing it?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then the work from home world of customer service might very well be for you. Then again, it also very well might not. Today we will explore the ins and outs of this interesting career path to see if it is right for your situation.
Who This Job is For
One of the things that you should really keep in mind is that the world of customer service definitely is not for everyone.
While this work is not necessarily extremely difficult in the most traditional sense of the world it can be very hard emotionally.
Why?
People be mean, man. Keep in mind that most of the time the customer service representative is dealing with people at their most irritated.
The entire point of this work is usually to address the problems of an agitated customer and try and make their experience a little bit better.
The worst part is that the only tool that you have at your disposal to mitigate these situations is a tired old corporate transcript that ostensibly outlines what you can and can’t say.
In other words if you take this job you are going to get yelled at a lot.
It’s not easy work but if you have thick skin and excellent people skills, you can definitely make it work and end your work day with a smile on your face.
Bottom line if you are really good at talking things out with people you are probably going to do alright with this job.
It will also definitely help quite a bit if you are able to actually empathize with people and care about their situations.
We’ve all called into a customer service representative for a question or problem, and chances are we have all had mixed results.
Be the customer service representative that you would hope to reach on the phone, and you should do just fine at this work.
Requirements
The requirements of each individual company or firm are of course going to be varied.
You might need experience or the ability to pass a proficiency test, or simply make it through an interview screening process.
Now that said, there are some things that you will be able to count on.
For example if you want to get into the work from home world of customer service you are going to need a home that is capable of handling the burdens of the job.
What exactly does that look like?
Well, as a remote position you are going to need to be reachable.
This means a good computer with uninterrupted access to high speed internet.
While we all have internet problems, your new employer might not be sympathetic if your issues end up keeping you from doing your job.
You also may need a phone line or service that is used exclusively for the purposes of this job.
Naturally, you aren’t going to be able to take personal calls and texts while you work and of course, that’s a no brainer, right?
The job might not actually even involve phone calls depending on the nature of the work.
Plenty of work at home representative positions just involve being available to hand instant messages or even video chats.
Penultimately, you are also probably going to want to have a designated work space in your home.
While your employer probably won’t be able to monitor this component of the job (given that we are talking about remote positions here) it is definitely going to make things a lot easier for you if only because it will help you to get in the right head space.
It’s a whole lot easier to feel like you are at work from an awesome office than from your couch, right?
And last but not least, you are going to need a positive attitude.
I know that we talked about this earlier, but it really can’t be overstated.
If you can’t keep smiling in tense situations this job will eat you alive.
How To Get This Job
It’s going to sound overly simple, but the way that you get this job is by applying.
Remote positions are typically just like any work, with the exception that you get to do it from your own home.
There are currently plenty of sites, services, and businesses dedicated to filling remote customer service positions.
For example, AriseWorkFromHome, American Express, and Sykes Enterprises are all sites known to sometimes have jobs of this nature available.
Even bigger companies like Xerox are known to have jobs like this available, with great hours and benefits as well.
Of course the bigger the company, the quicker the position gets filled.
If you really want to get hired for a job of this nature, just start searching for available opportunities.
You should find that the process of placing yourself in a job is similar to that of any other career hunt.
The Pay
The amount of money you bring home is ultimately going to depend entirely on how much you work and where you get hired.
However, it is not uncommon for these jobs to actually be pretty well paying. There are plenty of full time positions out there that pay upwards of $15 an hour.
While this rate of pay won’t make you wealthy, it will equate to a modest yearly salary of about $31,000, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Conclusion
While this work is not going to be easy it will be rewarding for the right candidate.
If you have thick skin and an unshakably positive attitude than the lucrative and flexible world of customer service representation might be right for you.
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