Business in the Time of COVID-19: Tips for Launching Your Own Virtual Call Center

The Coronavirus has absolutely turned the world upside down. With the tragic deaths of thousands of Americans and an unprecedented amount of people out of work, this crisis has affected the entire world. If you’re struggling to make ends meet during this time, there may be some options for a new source of income or to help take your business digital. 

A majority of employees have adjusted to working full-time from home, and it has only proved that remote work is more possible than ever. You can start making money from anywhere by answering phones and working at a remote call center. In order to take full advantage of this, you’ll want to embrace these tips and tricks to launch your own virtual call center.

Why should I go virtual? 

You may be wondering what makes a virtual call center unique. Rather than the stereotypical call center where employees sit in rows answering phone calls all day and eating lunch out of drag paper bags, a virtual call center allows those same employees to work with more flexible hours and from the comfort of their own homes. Going virtual greatly increases your availability. Now you can work from home for multiple companies across the country and the globe. So even though you may be stuck at home in the Midwest, you can still answer calls for a big company in New York City. You can receive inbound calls from anywhere with a good internet connection, and start making money on your terms.

Stay on task at home.

While working from home has many perks, it requires more diligence on your part to stay motivated and on track. Luckily, there are software programs to help you with your objectives and key results (OKRs). Companies like Profit work with you to help you set goals and stay on track to accomplish them. Gone are the days of simple to-do lists, welcome the days of digital project management and employee engagement. If staying on top of your work is something you need to improve for your personal business, check out these online resources. 

Embrace your expertise.

With a huge world in need of communication and remote call centers, embrace your expertise. If you have a history in the medical field, you’ll have a leg up for answering medical questions. Especially in this time when the government is looking for COVID communication channels, if you can answer those questions, you’ll have a better chance at landing those clients. With your own virtual call center, you don’t have to limit your clients. Rather than working onsite for a big company, you can grow your own company with multiple clients covering multiple divisions across multiple time zones. 

Be aware if you want to specialize as an inbound call center or an outbound call center. While the first requires you to answer questions for hotel bookings or tech problems, outbound calls will require more of a sales background for selling tickets or subscriptions. These can be very different conversations, so know if you would rather chat to answer questions and handle customer satisfaction complaints or reach out to find new customers for a specific business. 

Get your equipment ready.

While working at home does have its perks like a lack of dress code and a fridge full of snacks, you’ll still need specific equipment and a reliable workspace for your virtual call center career. Step one involves simply guaranteeing a quiet space where you can be easily heard and understood by customers. You’ll also want to find a headset or phone apparatus other than your personal cell phone to help keep work and "play" separate. After that, reliable internet is a must. You are going to be communicating with clients from all over the world, and losing them or dropping a call due to technical difficulties is not a very professional look. 

Creating your own call center completely online will also require specific virtual call center software. These kinds of software programs allow companies to connect their entire operation through the cloud. Therefore an employee who answers a call in Kansas can have a detailed history of previous calls with that client that happened in Miami, London, and Dubai. Creating a cloud contact center makes your business still feel connected even though your clients and workers may be strewn across the world. Virtual call center software increases your customer service and benefits customer experience as well as privacy. 

The world of virtual call center software and online communication channels may seem overwhelming at first, but after your first few calls and a few weeks on the job, you’ll be an old pro. Now there is nothing left but to enjoy the flexibility and certain income during this time of COVID-19 and uncertainty.