Blog Where GREEN and Job Creation Converge—Outsourced but Not Offshored

ViaSource Solutions seeks to maximize the customer experience with every contact.

Where GREEN and Job Creation Converge—Outsourced but Not Offshored

Where GREEN and Job Creation Converge—Outsourced but Not Offshored

– Where are the jobs that we have heard the presidential candidates yearn for and agonize about? Right where people live – at home! –

Thousand Oaks, CA (December 6, 2012)                      Two decades ago a forward thinking company introduced the Work at Home Agents (WAHA) concept to the call center industry.  The concept ideally addressed the needs of the direct response industry – primarily responding to radio and TV ads, but also print ads, billboards and others using toll free numbers to generate sales. The concept is being enthusiastically adopted by providers of contact center customer service.

Imagine going into your spare bedroom, closing the door and suddenly you are an entrepreneur earning a decent wage, solving real-life problems for customers, administering customer satisfaction surveys, selling merchandise or services, contacting companies about new products, helping people with mortgages, loans, insurance, education….the possibilities are endless.

By working at home, the average individual saves more than $375 per month in gas, vehicle repairs, clothing, meals and non-productive commute time.  And, by NOT sitting in traffic, additional savings accrue from less wear and tear on public highways and reduced pollutants. Agents work when needed, participate in setting their own work schedules and lead more fulfilled lives. And best of all, the Cloud based customer service personnel are likely to be more experienced, more mature, better skilled, and more positive and energetic than their counterparts working in a call center. They work an average of 5½ hours a day and don’t use up personal energy with stressful commuting. No road rage here!

These jobs are not just for customer service representatives; sales reps, managers and support personnel such as human resources, accounting, marketing and IT enjoy these same benefits by working from home. This ecosystem provides for upward mobility and promotion from within.

There are over 800,000 contact center jobs “in the cloud” today and it is estimated that 18% of the US contact center positions will be in the cloud by 2015. Working at home as a customer service professional has been mainstreamed by big business, companies that include Jet Blue, Hilton Hotels, Delta Airlines and others.

This opportunity for job creation has been enabled by disruptive technology.  The Work at Home movement, sometimes referred to as telecommuting, combined with a new technology, Cloud Computing, are the enablers.

Jobs outsourced to India and the Philippines, under the rubric of cost saving several years ago, are being repatriated today with favorable economic results. Contact Centers operating in the cloud do so for far less than their “building bound” bricks and mortar competitors resulting in greater productivity.

What is Cloud Computing? Not to oversimplify, but the recruiting, hiring, training, coaching, management, and business processes are all built “into the cloud” rather than run on servers in a data center at a company location. This cloud software is “rented” instead of purchased by many users who demand constant upgrades and features. Cloud software is designed so that data is secure and private.

With cloud technology, the necessary infrastructure and security is in place to enable all of the essential customer service transactions: phone conversations, email, chat, twitter, Facebook and other social media and mobile communications, can be addressed by At Home Customer Service professionals.

Companies achieve significant benefits by outsourcing (but not offshoring). They have flexible staffing, they don’t have to open and close facilities due to changes in the economy, their market or their industry; they have access to a broader pool of highly talented personnel because they can recruit by skill and experience (saving on training) from all across the country, rather than in a 25 or 30 mile radius of their contact center. They can obtain technical skills, language skills, industry experience as long as they conquer the challenges of the cloud. The benefits include: less real estate, short lead times to setup or expand a call center, less energy consumption, fewer parking lots, less traffic congestion, less middle management.

By harnessing technology, innovative companies are creating more with less in the contact center industry. Cloud computing has significantly reduced the cost of establishing and operating a contact center.  GREEN translates to significant benefits for companies, meaningful benefits for customer facing service personnel and a strong economic incentive for creating more US based jobs in the contact center industry.

About ViaSource Solutions

ViaSource Solutions delivers on the promise of quality customer service, customer care and customer acquisition programs for companies of all sizes, with the guarantee of professionalism at a very competitive price. Using only US based agents, the company is committed to helping customers build their brand and increase sales.

For more information contact Len Linton at llinton@viasourceos.com  or by phone at 877/404-5639.