Handling Calls In-House

If you’re dialing into a call center from home, chances are you may be relaxing in pajamas and slippers. And chances are the reps you talk to may be in their PJs too.

Working Solutions is one of several contact centers — among them Alpine Access, Arise Virtual Solutions and LiveOps — that use home-based agents. The Plano, TX firm pioneered this business model in 1996, says marketing manager Jeff Schmitt, and today it has more than 28,000 of these agents, who handle a wide range of duties for Working Solutions’ customers.

Schmitt says one major benefit is that the entire nation becomes a recruiting area for Working Solutions reps. The company segments agents by specific skills, such as nursing, foreign language proficiency, travel industry expertise or familiarity with certain software packages.

Agents work in a number of areas, including technical support, customer service, travel, hospitality, sales and healthcare. For example, Working Solutions has helped several pharmaceutical firms increase enrollment in Medicaid discount drug programs, a task that requires reps to know legal regulations and medical terminology.

“That’s not something we could find a lot of in a 60- to 90-mile radius [of our offices],” says Schmitt. “We could find a couple of people who could do that well, but if you need 20, 40 or 100 people who can do that, this is where being able to recruit nationally can be beneficial.”

RECRUITING

Recruiting isn’t difficult, he says, noting that potential agents usually come to the company themselves after learning about Working Solutions either online or via PR efforts, such as an HR director’s appearance on “Dr. Phil” a few years ago in a feature about women re-entering the workplace.

“People are looking for an opportunity to work from home,” he says, adding that many reps value not only the salary but the flexibility of setting their own hours.

Some are registered nurses who work only 10 or 20 hours a week to pick up extra income. Not surprisingly, there are also those who are elderly, disabled, stay-at-home moms or military spouses.

“We’re able to corner the market on this tremendous talent that isn’t being utilized,” says Schmitt. “They can handle complex transactions and have depth of experience.”

Working Solutions’ clients include healthcare services provider McKesson, shoe retailer Nine West, the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association.

“I have to be honest,” he says. “If you have a simple project that may just involve gathering information, that probably is not for us. Our agents like a challenge.”

Getting the right people during the recruiting process is essential to making the at-home model work. Schmitt says Working Solutions’ annual turnover is about 10%, below the industry average.

While the training process is intensive, Schmitt says Working Solutions has been able to cut training time by almost 30% because it tries to recruit people who already have strong customer service and sales experience. “A lot of the training is more client-oriented and geared toward understanding our applications.”

Individuals with specific industry experience also are recruited, he adds. “We had a situation where we needed to provide licensed travel agents to a travel management company that was working on behalf of the American Red Cross. This travel company used Sabre, a travel software package. When we queried our employee database, we were able to identify individuals who had experience with this software.”

WORKPLACE SKILLS

To thrive in the home environment, workers need to be self-starters, disciplined, mature and not require much personal interaction with management. The average Working Solutions agent is in his or her 30s.

“Sometimes you’re working alone in your den for six to eight hours and that can be difficult,” concedes Schmitt, but he’s quick to add that the company has a zero-tolerance policy on background noise. “Some people don’t do well in this type of environment, so it’s critical for us to carefully choose who we recruit.”

At-home reps are monitored several times a week, depending on their skills. Schmitt says the company focuses on positive reinforcement. “We want to understand every agent as a person, and try to find ways to motivate them based on their interests and skills,” he says. “We like to give immediate feedback. If they’re being monitored, they might get [instant-messaged] with ideas, or receive an e-mail or personal call.”

Working Solutions tries to make the solitude a little more bearable by providing an online bulletin board sometimes called “the water cooler,” where reps can communicate with each other and share ideas. There also are special bulletin boards for technical issues or work-at-home moms.