# Phone Answering for a Telemarketer



## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

This is an off-shoot of another thread where I mentioned I had a nephew's wife who took incoming calls for a telemarketer. Provided as background information.

I can share what I know about phone telemarketing. The company I worked for is West At Home, LLC. Here is the link;

http://www.westathome.com/

The job itself, wasn't that difficult. The only thing I found time consuming was actually trying to schedule hours. Everything with this company is done through email, hiring, training, working, resigning, everything. You will NOT actually speak with anyone until you have been hired, through training, and ready to start working. How you schedule your hours, is by logging into the website and viewing the available hours. From what I have heard and learned, you almost need to stalk the website in order to get good hours. But it also depends on the client you are working for. I was working for Direct [I think]. And at first it seemed ok, but then I didn't like it. 

There are so many upsells throughout the call, that the customer gets upset with you. Upsell is defined as an additional item that can be sold above what the person saw in the ad or on TV. Sometimes, there were 5 upsells. 

The client I worked for handled almost every infomercial you see on TV. Penn State University, Obama Coins, H2O Mop, AARP information, FREE diabetes testing unit, etc. There are many other clients your friend can chose to work for. Some are Sprint, Walgreens, Home Depot, ProFlower. Once she is threw the hiring process, they will send her a list of available clients and she can choose from there. Once she chooses, she cannot change unless she RESIGNS from the client [NOT from West]. Then she would have to wait until West sends her an invite to another client. Sometimes, that can be days, weeks or I have heard, months. So she needs to make sure she will like what she is doing. Some clients have specific hours, and some are 24/7. She will have to have a quiet area in which to work, customers cannot hear the kids, or TV or anything. The calls are monitored, so if a PAL [support rep] is listening in and hears too much background knows, they will bring it to her attention. 

The pay was basic minimuim wage for your stat + talk-time. Which is when you are actually speaking to a customer. No matter, what client she works for, EVERYTHING is on the computer. You logged into the system and the computer will tell you the call, the script, everything. So she doesn't need to learn any information, it all comes up on the computer. 

I think with all clients, but I only know for sure with Direct, you couldn't work more than 10 hours in one day. The thing about the hours, are the hours are posted in 30 minute increments. So sometimes it was hard to find a good solid 2+ hours. Unless you happen to be on the site when they post the hours, then you can snatch up the hours real fast. You can also post hours for trade. You don't really trade, but just give your hours away to someone else. If someone doesn't not pick up your hours, you are still responsible to work it. You will have a % of time you must meet in showing up for shifts. 

You don't need a second phone line. You must have cable, DSL or fios for internet. No DIAL UP. You must have a landline to work and a regular corded phone. You can hook up a headset to the corded receiver, but it cannot be a cordless phone. If you lose power, cordless phones hang up on the caller thus hanging up on the customer. 

Another good feedback website and good information is;

www.WAHM.com

The have a whole section listed for WEST and information on other companies as well. She should be able to find out more there too.


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## rkintn (Dec 12, 2002)

I worked for West for 3 years. If you think being an employee is tough you shoulda been an independent contractor. There were literally shifts spent waiting for calls that never came and that meant no money!

I quit working for West a few months ago when I got a better full time job. I worked ShopNBC and the stalking for hours and the quality control requirements were becoming beyond ridiculous. I worked Direct Response for 2 years before Shop with West and with LiveOps. West is definitely the better of the two since LiveOps still only has independent contractors. I hated the upsells for DR and the magazines and club offers were the pits! The burn out factor on these jobs is pretty high. You forgot to mention that you are to NEVER let on that you are a wah agent and that you must have a quite place in which to work. You can get fired immediately for any background noise and for telling a customer you are a wah agent.

www.workplacelikehome.com is a WONDERFUL wealth of information about several different wahm companies including West and LiveOps.


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## Kathleen in WI (Nov 27, 2003)

Both forums listed here are where I first leaned about working from home. I worked for West and LiveOps but just really decided that I hate phone work. I came to the realization that, I'm a writer so I should be making money writing. lol So glad I made the change. I do very well working from home creating web content and copy writing.

That said, there are lots of other places that hire phone reps, too. For many, this type of work is a god-send, so even though it wasn't for me, I always tell people about them if they are looking for ways to work from home.


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## rkintn (Dec 12, 2002)

Kathleen in AR said:


> Both forums listed here are where I first leaned about working from home. I worked for West and LiveOps but just really decided that I hate phone work. I came to the realization that, I'm a writer so I should be making money writing. lol So glad I made the change. I do very well working from home creating web content and copy writing.
> 
> That said, there are lots of other places that hire phone reps, too. For many, this type of work is a god-send, so even though it wasn't for me, I always tell people about them if they are looking for ways to work from home.


Oh yes! It was definitely a blessing for me as well I just couldn't work West, work full time and raise my kids lol It just got to be too much. Also, I searched for YEARS looking for legitimate work at home opportunities before I found these two. You have to be very careful..there are lots of rip offs out there.


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## busybee870 (Mar 2, 2006)

I still work for West, been with them 5 years. This year I barely put in my 5 hours per month due to a regular full time job. I keep it so when i can i work a few hours for extra money. This was my full time job for 4 years, it paid all my bills, and christmas time was great. They let you work up to 60 hours at some skills, and some paid 14 an hour. Stalking for hours got to be rough, they over hire, they still get employees , so its good for them, but we get less hours. I had to get a regular job. The being at home working was so nice, I really do miss it. I have to mentally prepare to work, becuase i hate the talking on the phone, the repetitive scripts, "LIPOZENE" UUUGGGHHH!!!! the angry customers. grrr. But It is a good job if you need extra money. I would love to find a work at home computer job where the phone was not used.


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## Cassie (Dec 7, 2002)

I can't say much about my new job because I signed a ND, but it's OnPoint and I'm very happy with the pay, it's weekly, has excellent support and did I mention the pay?! Anyone who can stand phone work and can write well should check them out--OnPoint @home. You don't need a landline, they use a softphone; just a USB headset in your computer. Like most of these jobs you do need a high speed connection. 

Demand Studios isn't too bad for writing, the pay is low but better than most. You get a byline, so at least you're building your portfolio. 

That's what I've been up to in the work at home world.


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