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Everything you ever wanted to know about telecommuting!

July 17, 2007 | Author: Eve Lester | Filed under: Working at Home

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Telecommuting is one of my favorite ways to work from home. It is simple, sometimes fun, and you always get paid if you choose a reputable company. Telecommuting is best described as a job that you preform at home, using either the phone or the internet, sometimes (usually) both. It is much easier to find a position now than it was 5 years ago. As many of the companies are now deciding to either ‘outsource’ or ‘homesource’ as some of us like to call it. Either option is cheaper than using a call center, but the ‘homesource’ option is better for the company in the sense that the customers will not get upset about talking to someone that can not understand them. There is a great description on Wikipedia about telecommuting.

InBound or OutBound

The choice to do InBound or Outbound is completely up to you, the difference between the two are this; inbound calls are when a customer picks up the phone and dials the company number, then that call is routed (or directed) to your phone. You then answer it just as if you were in the companies office. Most companies do not want you to tell the customer you are a home based employee, as a matter of fact, some forbid it. (So be sure you have a comfortable quiet space to work in.)

Outbound calls are where you dial a persons number from your phone (depending on the company, they may use an automated computer program, or some other way, virtually all of them will train you on the ‘how to’ I am just letting you know ‘what outbound is’. Outbound can be difficult for some people, depending on what you are doing outbound, some companies you will be selling something (telemarketer) others you may be calling to remind someone of an appointment or following up after a call. You can see the differences in possible reactions there, if you will be selling things, go for it, but be sure you have a tough skin.

One phone Line or two?

There are some companies that are just fine with you having one phone line; others however will require that you get a second phone line for ‘business’ with NO features on it, no caller ID, no call waiting, voicemail, etc. Even those companies that will let you by with one phone line will want you to turn off all the features. I personally use Vonage for my phone service, and you can log in to the site and disable the features before your shift if needed. Check with your phone company to see how much a second line would cost- with no features, they are usually very cheap.

To Pay or Not to Pay?

Normally my stance is to NEVER pay to get a job, however, there are a *few* companies that have a fee, for the background check. One such company is extremely well known in the telecommuting circle, LiveOps. They charge a one time $30 fee after your application is approved to be sure you are not a criminal, as you will be handling peoples credit card information, medical information, etc. Depending on the line. Do not let bad credit stop you, they do not care- trust me! They are only looking for fraud charges, bank robberies, etc.

By the minute, by the hour, or by the call?

This is another one of those questions where the answer varies just as much as the pay does. However knowing your options will help you make a better decision when it comes time to choose a company.

Let’s start with by the minute; if you work at a company like west, who pays a minimum of 17¢ a minute, 17¢ may seem low, but it can add up. For example if you work four hours, and you were on the phone with a customer for 3 hours and 27 minutes you would make $35.19, which is right around $10.00 an hour. It is easy to get discouraged when you are getting paid by the minute, because unless you look at the big picture working for $3.00 an hour on a Sunday morning seems like a ripoff. But if you look at the week’s total, say you worked on Friday and on Friday you had back to back calls and went over so on that day you made more than the maximum amount per hour. As long as you work your full schedule be it 20 hours a week, or more or less it will average out. When I was working with west I averaged $9.00 an hour, even though on some days I only made $10.00 the whole day.
By the hour is a great place to be, that is if they pay you a decent amount per hour. By the hour positions are a lot harder to come by, mainly because the company would lose out if there is slow call volume. However if you find a good paying by the hour position keep that at the top of your list. Just make sure they can guarantee you a certain number of hours per week.

The by the call payments can be very good. This method of course requires some research, as it all depends on the number of calls you will receive per that hour. For instance, using my experience at west again, there was a line that we worked where the calls were very short and close together so when west offered to pay us by the call instead of by the minute it worked out very good for me as I was able to process each call very quickly because I had experience. If you were new to a line and it is still taking a little while to process each call try to avoid the buy the call payment plan, as you will not be taking as many calls an hour as you will be talking by the minute.
Another option that some companies offer is the guaranteed rate usually set at $8.00 an hour or close to it. They use this incentive on days that are normally slow we don’t get many calls so without the $8.00 an hour would only be making $3.00 an hour. But the company entices us to go ahead and sign up for those days that we now are to be slow, by offering us and guaranteed rate if we just show up and work the entire shift. Remember also that that $8.00 an hour is a minimum if you happen to talk more than $8.00 worth of minutes you’ll get that amount said even though you’re guaranteed $8.00 you can make more than that if the volume is high.

What questions to Ask

With all of that covered you should now have an idea of what to look for while researching these companies. Just as a reminder you will want to note the following; inbound or outbound calling, if you will need another phone line, if there is a charge for background checks or any other fees, what is their pay scale? Do they pay by the minute, by the hour, or by the call? You also want to note what that company does, are they an outlet for several other companies like west? Or are they there own company like the UHaul Company?

You should also ask about their training, normally is unpaid but I’m sure there’s a company out there that will pay you for training even if there’s not it’s worth it to go through the training unpaid say you’re better prepared to take calls when you are being paid. I’ve listed most of the company’s below that I know to be legit I’m sure there are many many more online, however these are the ones that either I or someone I know have worked for and then paid.

Another source of information

I also highly recommend going to and joining the free work place like home message boards, they have a section of the board dedicated to each of the companies listed below, or you can see the reactions, problems, and tips of current employees. Message boards are a valuable resource in this field, as you can log on and ask somebody who is now working at the company and ask for help, before you even get the job, and once you’ve secured a position you can logon and help others or ask questions related to the job.
To apply to the jobs below simply click on the link and look for any buttons that say something along the lines of apply, jobs, now hiring, etc. If your having a hard time finding the application then the head on over to the work place like home message boards, and find the section of the board’s that is dedicated to that company inside of that section should be atop it called “how to apply” where they usually post the most recent and up-to-date information on that company’s application process.

List of work at home telecommuting companies

• West
• LiveOps
• ACD Direct
• Working Solutions
• Alpine Access
• Arise…formerly Willow
• Public Opinion Research
• 1800Flowers.com
• U-Haul Under keywords put in E-Hotline Agent, drop down to Job Catagory and click on customer service, hit Find. Will take you to a list of cities available for these positions.
• SCI
• XAct
• VoiceLog
• ContractExchange
• ECallogy
• NTI
• POP-a-Lock
• Cloud 10
• LionBridge
• OnPoint
• WestAt
• CLC
• Ver-A-Fast
• Sterling Testing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 and is filed under Working at Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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