Answering the call
Homeshoring, not offshoring, keeps customer-service jobs inside the U.S.
By Rebecca Carroll and Jane M. Von Bergen
Inquirer Staff Writers
When Nicole St. Julien-Thomas hears her alarm buzzing each morning, she doesn't have to worry about her work outfit, traffic jams or office politics.
She just picks up the phone, logs on to her computer at home in Gloucester County, and starts fielding customer service calls.
St. Julien-Thomas is homeshoring, a new and expanding practice that allows customer service agents to work from home instead of in centralized call centers. Some large American companies are even bringing some of their customer-service operations back from India, the Philippines, and other offshore locations to take advantage of homeshoring.
Industry analysts estimate there are 140,000 home agents, who field sales calls, customer complaints and questions for such companies as GSI Commerce Inc., of King of Prussia, General Electric Co., and Staples Inc.
The number of home agents will more than double to 330,000 nationwide by 2010, Stephen Loynd, a senior analyst at IDC Corp., predicted.
"Offshoring's underestimated sibling, homeshoring, is about to hit a growth spurt," Loynd wrote in a January report by the Framingham, Mass., market and business research firm.
For businesses, the goal is to attract agents; improve customer satisfaction, which is often low when calls are routed overseas; and still keep costs down.
Since August, St. Julien-Thomas, 28, of Williamstown, has been working as an independent "cyber-agent" for WillowCSN, a Miramar, Fla., company that recruits workers for home-based customer service.
"I'm my own boss. I can schedule my own hours," St. Julien-Thomas said. "I'm just happier. There's no more office politics. I didn't realize how much that was bringing me down." She had worked in customer service previously at a call center.
For some workers, there is another advantage, highlighted in a recent survey of 1,000 home-based customer-service agents. It found that more than one-fourth had a major illness or an ill family member, either of which prevented them from working a traditional job. But they were able to work as home-based agents. The survey was conducted by LiveOps Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., which provides home agents for firms.
Because agents like working from home, annual turnover tends to be lower - about 8 percent to 10 percent, compared with call-center norms of 40 percent to 60 percent a year, said Timothy J. Kane, a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting L.L.P. who also heads the International Telework Association and Council.
Some firms that homeshore create their own customer-service departments - with their permanent employees answering the phones at home. Others, such as Office Depot Inc., JetBlue Airways Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc., hire outside firms that hire the operators. Some use a combination of approaches.
AAA Mid-Atlantic, for example has its own customer service staff - some working from home, others at company sites. But, for the last two years, it also has used Willow workers to field emergency road service calls in peak periods, such as during snow storms.
Loynd, the IDC analyst, and Kane, who heads Deloitte's Virtual Workplace practice from his Pittsburgh office, say homeshoring will become more prevalent because of advances in telephone and Internet technology.
Also, attracting workers, including young mothers and retirees who want flexibility, will gain importance as the retirement of baby boomers depletes the workforce.
But cost is key.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, customer-service jobs moved overseas where wages were low and the cost per agent was at most $15 an hour compared with $31 an hour in a U.S. call center, IDC estimates.
But an expensive backlash developed, said Mark Frei, a senior vice president at one of Willow's chief competitors, West Corp., an Omaha, Neb., telemarketing company with $1.5 billion in annual sales.
He said companies "had leaped quick" to offshoring, "and then they looked at the negative P.R. they were getting from their customer base," Frei said.
Some customers did not like the accented English, experts said, and cultural norms were different.
So firms sought a low-cost domestic alternative.
A home agent, according to IDC, costs about $21 an hour. That includes software, telephony and management costs, but there is no overhead for bricks and mortar.
There are some disadvantages for workers: Some companies, such as West and Willow, bring the agents on as independent contractors rather than as employees, for example, so they generally have no health insurance, pensions or paid time off. Also, they are paid just $7 to $12 an hour (sometimes a bit more with incentives), and they must supply their own equipment, including a high-speed Internet connection.
Moreover, Willow asks its agents to pay for their own training, Debbi Rase, regional recruiter for the company, said during a recent job fair in Center City. Willow training cost St. Julien-Thomas $99. Willow's next job fair is April 12 at the Philadelphia Marriott.
Willow's agents also pay the company a $39.50 monthly service fee, and they cover their own costs for incorporating as a business - about $200 in New Jersey and between $125 and $415 in Pennsylvania.
Moreover, agents are monitored by supervisors via the Internet. Noisy distractions, such as a barking dog or a crying baby, can get them fired.
It is important for agents to treat their home office just like "getting up and getting ready for work," said Missy Held, who monitors home agents for AAA Mid-Atlantic from her home in Richmond, Va. "You have to be in the whole mind-set."
That is fine with Albert Ciansarano, 69, who used to be a full-time customer-service agent and now works 20 hours a week for Willow from his home in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.
"I get dressed like it's every other business day, and I work my allotted time," said Ciansarano, who likes the extra cash and the mental stimulation. "If it's nice, when I get out of the office, I get on my boat."
Working at Home
Some organizations using home-based customer service representatives.
AAA Mid-Atlantic
AIG International
Carnival Cruise Lines
General Electric
GSI Commerce
JetBlue Airways
Office Depot
Sears
Staples
Verizon
Virgin Atlantic Airways
Washington Post
SOURCE: WillowCSN
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Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com. |
