If you have excellent communication skills and want to do a work from home job, at-home customer service jobs would be a perfect fit for you.
Duties of a customer service agent typically include helping customers via phone, mail, or chat with complaints and questions, giving additional information about products and services, taking orders, processing returns, and a lot more.
Customer service jobs are the first one that comes in mind when people think of work from home jobs.
For many, customer service jobs become the first choice, as these are relatively easy to hunt because of a low barrier to entry compared to any other online jobs.
These also only demand minimum or no work experience. You even don’t need a college degree, and the skill-set is pretty straightforward; good verbal and written communication.
As employers realize the benefits of a remote workforce, the number of customer service jobs are growing at a rapid pace. Many of them contract out their customer service jobs to large companies that specialize in finding workers for these positions.
In fact, the sheer number of customer service remote jobs available may surprise you. We will see the list of companies offering at home customer service jobs later in this article.
As a customer service agent, you can work in a traditional office going job or work remotely from the comforts of your home. This article mainly focuses on the work from home customer service jobs.
You will also learn the skills and requirements, benefits, and earning potential to work as a customer service agent remotely.
Requirements For At Home Customer Service Jobs
The requirements for online customer service jobs are usually less rigid than other online jobs. However, you cant be a customer service rep unless you meet some standards.
The basic requirements may differ from company to company and the nature of the job. However, there are a few key things that you must consider before hunting for at home customer service jobs.
- Must have a high school diploma
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
- Ability to commit to a schedule and complete required training
To succeed in your career as a work-at-home customer service agent, you must also possess a few soft skills.
- Possess a pleasing and easy-to-understand voice.
- Have a liking of interaction with people
- Ability to handle demanding conversations without getting annoyed
- Desire to be helpful and find a positive solution to customers’ queries
- Minimal typos for clear communication with customers
- Friendly, professional, and positive attitude
- Self-discipline to work from home
- Ability to multitask – Handle multiple conversations from different channels at once
- Must be able to pass a background check
Besides, you must also have a home office setup that includes:
- Basic computer knowledge and skills
- Good headphones with mic
- The company-specific operating system on your computer or laptop
- High-speed internet connection
- A fixed dial phone connection
- A quiet work environment
Besides, some organizations may require a minimum of 6 months to 1 year of previous CS experience.
Some companies may ask you to work full time and also be available during nights and weekends. However, many companies offer part-time positions with flexible working hours.
How Much Can You Earn As A At Home Customer Service Rep?
Customer service jobs pay reasonably well. In most cases, you can expect $15 to $20 per hour.
Some companies may pay for only the time you are actually on the phone or log onto your system. Some sales positions may also include commissions. Most companies pay weekly through PayPal or direct deposit.
Please note: The companies can hire you as an employee or an independent contractor. There are a few differences between the two.
As an independent contractor, you must manage your taxes. As an employee, you will receive W2 benefits at the end of every year, but if you work as a contractor, you can expect 1099.
So, be careful and read all the terms and conditions or any other information you receive before going onboard with any company.
How Flexible Is Your Work As A At Home Customer Service Rep?
With customer service jobs, you enjoy little flexibility as compared to some other online work from home jobs. Most companies have a defined work schedule, and you must comply with that.
These companies usually offer you shifts that can be during the day, evening, or night, and you can choose as per your availability. However, most of the time, you must declare your shift timings a few weeks in advance.
Companies refer to shift allocations as shift bids. These may happen after every few weeks or months, depending on the company. With each shift bid, the company allows you to set a new schedule for yourself, which means you will have the chance to change your working hours.
So, with customer service jobs, you may not get the liberty to log in or out the way you wish. However, the shift bids make the work flexible. You choose a shift and must stick to it till the next bid comes.
As a rule, the longer you work for a particular company, the higher your priority level goes, and the more likely you will have a favorable shift.
Most companies that hire a lot of remote customer service reps have a customer service operation that’s open 18-24 hours every day. It gives an excellent opportunity to those looking for late-night, evening, or weekend hours.
Late nights, early mornings, weekends, and holidays are the busiest hours for any company that offers customer services. Therefore most companies have set hours, and you must abide by your availability during these hours.
To sum it up, if you have little availability or flexibility during peak hours, this may not be a career option for you.
Types Of Online Customer Service Jobs From Home
If you want to have a career in online customer service, there are several opportunities to find remote jobs. Here are some of the most common types of customer service jobs that you can pick depending upon your skills and experience.
Some positions may require you to have a college degree, while others may demand previous customer service experience to qualify. Also, some companies may prefer you to reside within a driving distance of their local office for routine office visits.
1- On-Call Customer Service Agent
With these jobs, you will address customers’ queries mainly over the phone. You must fulfill a variety of qualifications, such as being fluent in the language and having access to a phone line and internet connection.
These jobs can be full-time or part-time, and depending on your time zone, you may find work during days, nights, and weekends.
2- Online Chat Agent
Chat agent jobs are excellent for those that want to work at home but prefer a job that doesn’t require calling. You may do tech support, answer billing questions, or sell products via email, text, and chat.
Chat jobs can be full-time or part-time, and many companies offer flexible scheduling, including days, nights, and weekends.
3- Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant works remotely to assist with a variety of tasks, including research, scheduling, email management, booking travel, and more. Often the larger companies may align you to work for multiple clients.
As a VA, you can work as a freelancer and run your own businesses. When looking for VA work, be aware that some companies will advertise call center jobs as “virtual assistant” jobs.
4- Technical Support
Technical support jobs combine the communication skills of an on-call customer service agent with specialized technical support. Though most companies will train employees to provide support for their specific products, you must still possess advanced computer skills when you apply.
You can do these jobs via phone, email, or chat. It can a full-time or part-time and offer flexible schedules.
5- Travel Agent
Working as a travel agent, you are more likely to use discount travel websites to arrange your customers’ travel requirements, like booking tickets, arranging for hotel stays, settling bills, etc.
You can work as a freelancer and have your own business. You can also work for companies such as Disney vacation planners or as American Express agents.
Companies Hiring At Home Customer Service Agents
Since online customer service jobs are in great demand, there are a lot of companies that post openings regularly. However, not all of them are legit.
So, I have researched and picked out the best ones to make your job hunt easier.
Not all companies may have open positions for at-home customer service reps all the time, but I advise you to visit them regularly as these the best places to start a career in customer service.
Requirements may vary from company to company and the nature of the job. Always check on the company’s website for the latest information regarding the prerequisites and other details.
1- Capital Typing
Capital Typing hires online customer service support reps for Email Response Support, Ticket Management, Mailing List Compilation, Live Chat, Lead Generation, Foreign Language Customer Support, and more.
They also offer clients services transcription and translation, data entry, bookkeeping, web design, programming, other administrative support, and much more.
2- Amazon
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. This company regularly offers several online positions, and online customer service jobs are one of the favorites among job seekers. These positions are location specific and usually pay around $15 per hour.
The jobs are more frequent during festive seasons, particularly around Christmas, and may last up to six months.
3- Apple
If you are crazy about Apple devices, you must try your hands with Apple.
The company offers Apple At Home Advisor positions, where you provide customer service and technical support to Apple customers.
4- Liveops
Liveops serves over 200 global companies with cloud contact center and customer service solutions.
It connects over 20,000 independent call center agents with organizations around the world. The company regularly hires online customer service agents.
5- Live Person
Live Person serves many large companies in multiple niches. Besides chat and phone support, you might even communicate through text messages or Facebook Messenger.
Live Person also provides opportunities that require more expertise beyond regular customer service duties.
6- LiveWorld
If you love social media, consider LiveWorld. With the company, you might respond to social media comments or answer questions through online chat or messaging apps.
If you enjoy having a conversation while helping people, LiveWorld can be more rewarding.
7- UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group is one of the leading healthcare companies. They provide benefits services and healthcare coverage to clients and consumers in all 50 states and 125 countries worldwide.
The company regularly posts openings for customer service agents.
8- Humana
Humana is a leading healthcare company that offers a variety of health, wellness, and insurance products and services.
The company regularly hires for remote customer service jobs.
9- Sutherland Global
Sutherland Global offers its clients full customer support services. Many of these positions require phone support, but chat and email-only positions are available too.
As the company supports many clients, there are frequent new positions available that let you work part-time or full-time with flexible hours.
10- Transcom
Transcom is a company that offers customer care, sales, technical support, and credit management services. It serves over 350 international brands through its many contact centers and home-based agents.
The company regularly hires technical support reps.
11- TTEC
TTEC is a global business process outsourcing company. They have nearly 20,000 home-based associates worldwide.
The company looks for Bilingual Healthcare Customer Services and Sales Representatives, and Technical Support Representatives.
12- Arise
Arise hires online customer service agents for various Fortune 500 brands from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
You can begin your work in five days from your application date and set your flexible schedule.
13- Working Solutions
Working Solutions is one of the leading customer service provider company. The company has over 120,000 registered agents that work to help clients improve customer satisfaction, create better customer experiences, and improve efficiency.
You can expect frequent online customer services and chat jobs from this company.
14- Needle
Needle offers online chat customer support jobs, and you have flexible working hours. The initial application process only takes 30 minutes to complete, and the company takes up to two days to review your profile information.
Besides your regular perk, you can also earn products and rewards from the brands you represent.
15- ModSquad
With ModSquad, you get to pick the projects you want based on your passion. Each client and project requires different responsibilities. You can also moderate forums and interact on social media.
You can work from any private location with a high-speed internet connection, which also makes ModSquad more flexible than other customer support companies.
16- Best Buy
Best Buy periodically hires remote customer service agents.
Your primary duties will be to help customers with completing an order, answering retail-related questions, and provide essential technical support.
17- Sedgwick
Sedgwick handles insurance and compensation claims for its clients. Some customer service positions may require you to commute, but Sedgwick will make reasonable accommodations.
The company represents clients in over 65 countries, and you might find a position outside the United States too.
18- Operator
The Operator is a shopping app where you recommend and facilitate online shoppers with their shopping. You will guide shoppers through the process and even share your personal experience with the product.
As you help the company encourage sales, you even earn a small commission for each completed sale.
19- Concentrix
With Concentrix, you will provide technical support and other customer services.
As Concentrix partners with many renowned companies, you must be available during your assigned and company’s regular business hours.
20- Paperless Pipeline
Paperless Pipeline occasionally hires online chat agents to help their business customers with digital documents.
When a customer can’t figure out how to complete a particular task, you will walk them through the process and also help answer the questions they have.
21- DocuSign
DocuSign provides technical support to its clients regarding data storing capabilities.
You can expect customer service jobs in technical support.
22- Nordstrom
Nordstrom is a leading fashion retailer offering a wide assortment of clothing, shoes, and accessories for women, men, and children.
The company occasionally posts customer care rep openings.
23- State Farm
State Farm is an insurance company that is one of the largest providers of auto insurance.
If you love the insurance and finance sectors, this company is worth trying for at-home customer service jobs.
24- Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma is a retail company known for its quality of home products.
The company occasionally offers positions for online Customer Service Associates and Customer Service Agents.
25- Fancy Hands
One of the great places to try your hand is Fancy Hands, which specializes in micro-tasks.
This platform is mostly onetime gigs, but occasionally you can also see at home customer service jobs posted by the company.
Other Places To Look For At Home Customer Service Jobs
There are a few job boards and freelance websites that regularly list at-home customer service opportunities.
If you do not get lucky with the above companies, definitely check these places to increase your chances of getting hired. Many of the above websites post their opening of these job boards.
FlexJobs
Indeed
Fiverr
Upwork
Freelancer
In Conclusion
Customer service brings value to any company or brand. Not only does it facilitate the existing customers but adds new ones. That is the reason online customer service jobs are in tremendous demand.
When you hunt for a work-at-home customer service job, be careful. Though there are lots of legitimate jobs available, there are also some scams. So be smart to weed out those.
If you ever doubt about an offer, never hesitate to reach out to the company to verify it’s coming from the actual company and not from any third-party scammer.
That’s it from me. Now, it’s your turn to try these at home customer service jobs and share your feedback comments.
If you have questions, please reach out. I am glad to answer your queries!
Best of luck!
