spotlight_on.htm

The "IAHBE Spotlight on type of business" articles are a series based on requests from our IAHBE Members’ Survey to feature information about specific businesses that could be operated from a home-based office. The “Spotlight” series is meant to offer a snapshot that will provide information pertaining to the featured business and cover a range of issues such as Description, Requirements, Start-Up Costs, Income Potential, and other issues from franchising, employees, space needed, and any relevant special considerations. It will also include resources for any reader who wishes to learn more about that particular type of business.

Disclaimer: Information about Start-Up Costs and Income Potential given in this series is only an estimate. In no way is it meant to represent actual figures which will vary by location, individual effort, and resources. We offer this information to assist you in better understanding the unique features of the spotlighted business so you can make an informed decision on whether it is something you might want to pursue. Before launching any business, you should put together a detailed Business Plan that incorporates financial and economic conditions in your specific area.

Mary West, one of nine self-made BILLIONAIRES on the recent Forbes list, pioneered the use of telephones for customer service of all kinds. She recently retired from her last business, West Corporation, the operator of 30 call centers worldwide and employer of some 28,000 employees. The importance of her ideas led to the development of a home-based business opportunity, West at Home.

This program has been so successful, it received an award from Frost & Sullivan which is given annually to the company that has demonstrated an ability to develop and use services with more innovative capabilities than competing vendors.

A recent Wall Street Journal article says that companies like West are fueling a new trend which counters off shoring call centers to places like India, the Philippines, or some other cheap labor location. Major companies like Office Depot, J. Crew, Wyndham Hotels, and Sears Holdings are using these services, many of which are conducted through home-based call centers. This relatively new at home business opportunity has been enabled by expanded broadband access, less expensive technology, and better routing systems. So now we have an entirely new opportunity for at-home workers.

Some of these new workers would never have dreamed of working in a brick and mortar atmosphere, but they are willing to work part time from home on their schedule. Research indicates as many as 80% have college degrees compared to 40% or less in standard call centers. They are older than average people in call centers and many have management experience.

These new trends open doors for the disabled, including veterans returning from Iraq and other places. West Corporation has announced a work at home partnership with CORA (Creating Opportunities by Recognizing Abilities), a not-for-profit organization specializing in providing career opportunities for disabled American veterans and their families. This program will begin as a small pilot program using the West at Home platform. The pilot program will allow disabled veterans to operate as certified customer service representatives. Some potential at-home call center entrepreneurs may be concerned with long distance training and security.

Here’s how West handles these potential problems:

Training. Can a three-week training process be developed and implemented remotely in a satisfactory manner?. West says, “The e-training tools we have developed have exceeded our expectations in all areas.” This is self-paced training and progress is no longer dependant on the "slowest common denominator" as it would be in a traditional classroom session. Each applicant must complete and successfully "test out" of each training module before moving on to the next one. Training times are frequently cut in half for those trainees who are highly motivated. It isn’t surprising these trainees often become top performers.

Security. This is a large concern for many companies, especially those with regulatory issues such as financial services and insurance. West uses SSL encryption in all transactions. There are multiple firewalls to ensure that agents can never access or manipulate databases at West or a client location, and all of these security measures have been extended to the home agent system. All this makes at home operations as secure as traditional call center operations.

Volume. An ongoing issue for every customer service company is how to handle sporadic, unexpected, and large volumes of inquiries at all hours of day or night and on weekends and holidays. It is difficult to handle these situations in a standard call center because of the simple requirement of finding people to work during these peak times. It would be very hard, for example, to call in large numbers of employees at 9 PM on Christmas Eve to deal with a huge anticipated service load, wouldn’t it? And think of overtime, triple time, and whatever other benefits may be required for such an emergency crew.

Over the years West has developed a way around these issues. First is their ability to monitor all at home calls to determine the response time as well as the quality provided by the at home employee. From this information they are able to see which person will be best to handle a specific customer request; the speed of handling, and the quality (which should reduce repeat calls for the same situation), all of which reduces cost for West. How do they use all this information to help clients and their customers?

West uses a Virtual ACD (automatic call distributor) which is a call-routing platform. It is used to get around traditional geographic limitations on call centers so as to use an extensive call agent network located throughout the entire world. This VACD capability uses a VRU (voice response unit) to allow communication with any agent anywhere in the world without regard to location. West has many communication hubs in the US including four data centers using VACD technology. This means the entire network of traditional call center agents,. offshore agents, nearshore agents, and home agents are all linked together and may be used as if they were a single unit since overflow volume during peak periods can be instantly directed to an agent who can solve the problem. This infrastructure provides customers with increased flexibility and an unlimited pool of labor; it also offers at-home workers many opportunities for pay they otherwise would not have.

This looks like a very good opportunity for many people. Requirements would be patience, common sense, ability to work in a very flexible schedule, and resistance to pressure. However, you know I tried to find something negative and I did have a small amount of success. Here are some comments about West as well as a few other call center opportunities. The five or six negatives seemed to be from some who did not like the work, who felt underpaid (what a surprise), or who resisted the required training and investigation. To me most of the posts were positive, though few of them were from long-term employees. See for yourself.

So, how you can begin? Here’s what to do:

You may easily register online.

You will be asked to verify that you are at least 18 years old; you must have some proof to back this.

You have to agree to a complete background check based on information asked during registration.

Be prepared to furnish your Social Security Number; they need this to aid their background check because agents work with other people’s credit cards. West has very high security on all sites so you should not have to be concerned about identity theft.

Be prepared for a personal telephone interview.

You will receive several weeks’ remote training on your computer.

They will schedule some minimum amount of time for you to work.

Pay varies by client and kind of work (should be $8 to $17 per hour).

At-home agents are individual contractors with no benefits.

All calls are closely monitored for quality.

What facilities do you need?

Suitable space in your home where you will be uninterrupted.

Telephone with a land line.

A computer with DSL or cable connection.

Two sets of headphones with a mouthpiece in case one goes out in the middle of a job.
Be sure you are set up in a professional manner; every call is monitored and children or pets who make noise will be instantly noticed. There is a good reason for this as I can personally attest: A service call to my ISPhooked me to a very nice lady at about 7 a.m. Only problem was she was obviously feeding a newborn. She must have become confused (and I didn’t have enough sense to know better). The solution she gave for my problem crashed my hard drive and destroyed it! So this kind of request is reasonable, as the company is trying to provide excellent service.

I do believe this is a good business for many people. Check it out!

Yank is a home-based entrepreneur and freelance business writer living in Hurricane Alley, North Carolina, USA. His Website is http://www.furriwhalesworld.com/. Contact Yank at globalbiz@furriwhalesworld.com.