Work from home customer service jobs are more popular than ever before. That is mainly because these jobs can easily be done remotely and the requirements are usually not too high. That makes working as a customer service agent the perfect entry-level remote job or even great part-time work.
This article explains everything you need to know before starting this career and shows you where you can find well-paying remote customer service jobs.
What Are the Tasks of a Customer Service Agent?
As a customer service agent, you work for a company and deal with all sorts of requests that current or potential customers have regarding products or services, as well as general inquiries.
The company provides you with all the information you need to know to be able to answer incoming questions. You may also get some standard replies that only need to be copied and pasted if a certain inquiry comes up.
Examples of potential customer service tasks could be:
- You work for an internet provider and help customers who have questions regarding their contract, who want to upgrade or downgrade their plans, or want to cancel their contract.
- You work for an online shop and help customers deal with orders, issues during the payment process, delivery tracking, or returns.
- You work for an electronic company and help customers who are struggling to operate the device they’ve just bought and do trouble-shooting.
There are three ways how you can interact with customers:
- Via calls,
- Via emails, or
- Via live chat.
It depends on your preferences what type of interactions you chose and what the company you are working for offers. Some customer service agents also switch regularly between the communication media to keep things interesting.
Can You Still Make Money with Remote Customer Service Jobs?
In the past few years, automated chatbots are getting more and more popular. They answer the most common questions customers have, which reduces the work for customer service agents.
However, these bots are only able to answer standard inquires, e.g. “What are your opening hours?” Many inquiries are too complex and need the attention of a real human being. So we are still far away from replacing agents with robots.
Plus, there will always be a demand for work from home customer service agents. Here are a few reasons:
- Hundreds if not thousands of new products are thrown out on the market on a daily basis. That means more and more people have questions about their order which results in more work for customer service agents.
- Your product can be super awesome but if your customer support is terrible, people will leave a negative review pretty much anywhere on the internet which can scare potential new customers off. Therefore, companies need excellent customer service agents for customer happiness, good reviews, and future sales.
- Customer service support can easily be done from home. That means companies can save a huge amount of money on office space by employing agents who work from home.
What Education Do You Need as a Customer Service Representative?
Customer service jobs are often great entry-level remote job opportunities. For many positions, all you need is a high-school diploma. Experience in similar positions is always a bonus. But you will find many positions that don’t require a customer service background at all.
The inquiries you have to deal with strongly depend on the industry and even the company you work for. That’s why you need some sort of training or introduction to the products or services anyway.
As everywhere, your income will be lower if you start a junior position without any experience. But on the plus side, you gain experience quickly and can get promoted to senior-level fairly quickly in comparison to other remote jobs.
Exception: If you want to work as a customer service agent in a particular field, e.g. web design, then you need to have a degree and some level of knowledge and experience. For instance, you want to start a position as a customer service agent for a website development software where you need to solve technical issues for customers.
Here you might be required to write code on your own or deal with very complex programming issues. Since it is hard to provide you with standard solutions for these issues, you should have enough knowledge and skills to deal with this on your own.
These specific customer service positions are also better paid than general ones.
What are the Requirements to Work from Home in Customer Service?
Luckily, the requirements to work as a customer service agent from home are not too big:
Internet
If you want to work from home as a customer service representative, you need to have fast and reliable internet. For most positions, you need to be able to access customer data from online databases all the time.
Especially, if you do work from home chat jobs, you need to receive and reply to messages instantly. If your internet is too slow or your connection breaks all the time, you won’t be able to get the job done.
It’s also always a good idea to have a backup plan in case your internet provider has sudden technical issues. I recommend an external hotspot, e.g. Skyroam. Here you can get unlimited WIFI on multiple devices and you only have to pay for the days you use it.
Check out my Skyroam review to learn more about the benefits of this awesome device!
Phone
A phone is only a requirement if you want to do work from home call center jobs. That means you reply to customer inquiries via phone calls.
However, many companies will provide you with a phone that has all the necessary software installed.
(Secured) Workspace
As with any remote job, you need to have a proper home office set up to be most productive. This includes an ergonomic chair, preferably a high-adjustable desk, and a decent-sized monitor.
Since you are dealing with customer data, it is also important that you protect your computer and phone from all kinds of malicious attacks, such as hacking or phishing. A simple yet extremely effective way to do so is by using a VPN. This “virtual private network” secures your internet connection and therefore keeps your data safe.
I’ve been using NordVPN for years now and it never let me down a single time. It is also super-fast and comes with a couple of awesome additional features. Check out my NordVPN review to learn more about it.
Personal Requirements
Now let’s talk about the customer service skills you need:
- You need to be very patient and be able to explain certain things over and over again.
- The willingness to help others is one of the key skills you should have.
- The customers you deal with are sometimes upset and not exactly nice and understanding. You need to be able to stay friendly and accommodating in any situation.
- Many companies have a given time frame for inquiries. For instance, a phone call with a customer who has moved houses and only wants to change the address shouldn’t take longer than 2 minutes. That means you need to be able to solve issues efficiently and work well under pressure.
How much Money Can You Make as a Customer Service Agent?
As with every other job: it depends!
It depends on the company you work for, the experience you have, and the kind of inquiries you are dealing with. As mentioned before, if you are specialized in a particular field, you can get paid more. Being a technical customer support agent can be a well-paying remote job!
According to Helpscout you can make about USD 58,000 per year on average.
But even if you are not specialized, you can make a nice income with work-from-home customer service jobs. A quick search on Indeed shows that Computershare, for instance, pays USD 17 per hour. Omni Interactions pays USD 14-16 per hour, and with ADT Security Services you can make USD 15-18 per hour.
That’s definitely not too bad!
Where Can I Find Work from Home Customer Service Jobs?
If you like what you’ve read so far you are probably wondering, where you can find work from home customer service jobs. This depends a bit on what type of contract you are looking for – getting employed or working as a freelancer?
If you want to get permanent employment with benefits and a long-term contract, your best bet by far is FlexJobs. This is an online job board that only publishes legit and hand-screened job offers. That means you can be 100% sure that you are not falling for a work-from-home scam.
It also shows you jobs with reputable companies, such as Apple, Dell, The American Red Cross, or Hilton. On top of that, this platform has many other advantages, like career coaches or skill tests. If you want to learn more about these features, check out this FlexJobs analysis.
Of course, you could also check on normal job boards, such as Indeed, if you want to find a remote customer service position. Just watch out for potential scams!
If you want to work on a freelance basis, you have several options to find clients online. The most popular method is checking freelance platforms, such as Upwork or Fiverr. But be aware that the competition can be a bit overwhelming here.
What Companies Are Hiring Remote Customer Service Agents Right Now?
Most companies today need some kind of customer service. That’s why you will find many companies hiring customer support representatives. Just to give you an idea, here are some of the remote-friendly companies, that are currently hiring:
Amazon
Amazon work from home customer service positions are very popular. For one, being the most successful retailer means they need thousands of people working in customer support. And two, they’ve been one of the early adopters of remote work, which means that they are familiar with the concept and have all technical necessities in place to allow you to work remotely.
Concentrix
Concentrix is also known for providing many different work-from-home positions. The company provides business services in areas such as energy, tourism, e-commerce, insurance, media, or automotive. Here you can, for instance, choose between being a customer service agent or a sales and service representative.
Kelly Services
Kelly Services is a global leader in workforce management solutions and offers a wide range of work-from-home positions. That means you can find plenty of customer support jobs, too, no matter if you want to work via phone, email, or live chat.
Liveops
Liveops is another very popular company for remote jobs. They fully concentrate on virtual call center services, which means they are the perfect choice if you are looking for customer support jobs. Clients here are mainly healthcare, retail, financial, or high-tech industries.
Working Solutions
Working Solutions provides customer service, support, and sales services to clients around the world. The only disadvantage: You need to be located either in the United States or in Canada to be able to work from home for Working Solutions.
What are the Advantages of Being a Customer Service Agent?
Having a work from home customer service job has its perks. Here are a few:
- You can often choose between part-time and full-time positions and may be flexible in terms of your schedule or shift.
- You don’t need to have much (or any) previous experience or skills as you usually get training in the beginning.
- You don’t need much equipment to do the job. A computer, phone, internet, VPN, and the usual office furniture will do.
- If you are a shy introvert, then a work-from-home chat job or even email support is perfect for you as you won’t have to pick up the phone and talk to anyone in person.
What are the Disadvantages of being a Customer Service Agent?
As with any job, there are downsides to being a customer support agent, too:
- As mentioned before, you will be dealing with upset customers, too, which might be stressful from time to time.
- Since the competition for entry-level positions is quite big, your income opportunities may be limited in the beginning.
Work Remotely as Customer Support Agent!
I hope this article gave you a few insights into work-from-home customer service jobs. There is definitely a reason why so many choose to become customer support agents if they want to work from home.
It’s very easy to do this job remotely and you don’t need any experience or specific skills to start as a junior. All you need is the ability to stay friendly, accommodating, and patient.
If that sounds like you, give it a try! There are many open positions out there and it’s a fairly easy and flexible remote work opportunity.
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