Customer service, from your home
If you want to work in your pajamas at odd hours of the day or night, you may be a perfect candidate for remote customer service jobs, which are plentiful as companies become increasingly global and need to staff help centers 24/7.
These jobs generally are not highly paid, but you can often schedule any hours you want. And there are few requirements. Most do not require a college degree. Some expect customer service experience, but other customer-facing work is usually good enough.
There are two ways to hire customer service reps. Freelancers get plenty of freedom but often have unattractive contract terms. Employees, meanwhile, give up some freedom for benefits and better pay.
Freelancers can work part time. Generally, the companies that they work through connect customer service representatives with dozens of large companies. Customer service reps choose the companies they work for and select from the hours offered by the firms.
Many freelance customer service jobs pay by the “productive” or “engaged” minute. That means you’re paid for the time you spend on a call or responding to someone’s chat message, not when you’re waiting for calls or messages. If no one calls, you don’t earn money.
Moreover, customer service jobs require training. And only a handful of the platforms that enlist freelancers for these positions pay for the necessary education.
However, a few of the companies that enlist independent contractors provide a few safeguards in their contracts. These safeguards promise you’ll be paid for at least a portion of the time you’re scheduled to work, even if you are not fully engaged. For instance, the contract might say that you’re paid for “engaged minutes” but that you’d be paid for at least 30 of the 60 minutes in your shift.
Moreover, while few freelance platforms will pay by the hour for training, some offer education “stipends” that compensate workers for at least a portion of the time spent.
If you’re considering a customer service job that pays by the minute, be sure to read the contract and see if it has these safeguards. If it doesn’t, keep looking.
Employees
If you’re willing to take any customer service job, you’ll have no trouble finding work. But the jobs that pay well and offer benefits are a bit harder to find.
By and large, you’ll earn more as an employee. The contract positions are advisable only when flexibility is your primary goal.
Amazon has a wide array of full- and part-time remote customer service jobs available, many of which require only a high school degree. As an employee, you will provide remote customer support by phone and email to help customers solve issues with orders or with Amazon products and services.
Virtual training is provided to the successful candidates. Pay ranges from $16 to $35 per hour.
Full-time work-at-home customer service reps get employee benefits including a 401(k) account; medical, vision, dental and prescription drug coverage; as well as discounts on Amazon purchases. Part-time athome employees get life and disability insurance and vision and dental coverage.
TTEC hires full- and part-time employees to provide customer service and sales. Salary ranges from minimum wage to $20 an hour, plus benefits. If you’re bilingual or willing to go for supervisory positions, you can earn considerably more. Many jobs also qualify for performance bonuses.
United Health Group is offering remote customer service jobs that provide training, decent pay and benefits. The catch is that the healthcare provider wants people to work 40 hours a week, maybe more. Customer service representatives should be available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
If you don’t mind fulltime work at home, there are copious positions available. Moreover, many include full benefits, including health insurance and paid time off, as well as performance bonuses.
Freelancers
Here are the freelance marketplaces from best to worst. If you live in states with strict labor laws, including California, pay-bythe-minute schemes don’t fly. Most of these platforms will reject your application to avoid running afoul of state laws.
WorkingSolutions enlists at-home customer service reps to serve large corporations that need help around the clock. The site says that once an applicant is accepted, they’re matched with potential clients. At that point, the freelancer gets a contract that spells out the terms.
Contracts vary on many important details, says Gail Rigler, the site’s chief marketing officer. These details include pay rates, whether you’re paid by the hour or minute, whether you can receive performance bonuses and whether you’re required to commit to a minimum number of hours.
Reps who are paid by the minute generally get “minimum pay” contracts to assure them that they’ll earn money for at least a portion of the time they’re working during a slow period, says Rigler. You’re also likely to get an “education stipend” here for the time you spend training. Pay range: $10 to $20 per hour.
LiveOps also pays representatives by the minute — and commonly by the productive minute. However, customer service representatives are generally not given any guarantee of minimum pay. The site also does not provide education stipends to complete required training. Pay rates range from 25 cents to 45 cents per minute, which theoretically pushes top pay to $27 hourly. However, because of the potential for significant unpaid time, you should view the hourly pay equivalents as an estimate.
Arise presents its workat-home customer service jobs as a way of becoming your own boss. The site requires anyone who registers here to have a Taxpayer Identification Number and a business license. Once you’re signed up, it will present the chance to work with a number of companies that need customer service representatives.
However, most of these jobs require training, and you will need to pay Arise about $50 to $250 to provide it. The site also charges “business owners” $40 a month for access to its platform that users say is riddled with bugs. This is semi-flexible work, but it is the worst of its breed.