How to Start a Virtual Call Center

Major corporations are bringing jobs home from international call centers and instead hiring in-home independent workers to answer calls, take orders and provide customer service. If you have a strong desire to work from home, can hold yourself accountable for getting your work done and truly enjoy providing excellent customer service on behalf of your clients, you might want to start a virtual call center. Creating your own virtual call center can give you the satisfaction of being your own boss and allow you to create your own schedule -- to some extent, based on your clients' needs.


Find and obtain top-notch call center software. Call center software should allow you to accomplish such tasks as managing your inbound and/or outbound calls, viewing call history, and fostering better customer satisfaction by passing detailed information to the appropriate contact within your client's company so customers don't have to repeat themselves over and over again. If customers are satisfied, your clients will have a better customer retention rate, which will reflect well on your virtual call center -- a true win-win situation.


Contact your local phone company and set up a dedicated phone line. To avoid the increased chance of dropped calls or bad connections, make sure that you're using a landline and not a wireless phone, which may not be as reliable. If you employ additional staff, your staff members will need quality equipment, as well.


Obtain a professional-quality phone. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg, but quality is key with a virtual call center, and you typically get what you pay for. When talking with potential clients, your clients will be evaluating everything from your ability to speak clearly and concisely to the sound quality of the call. A low-quality phone with a lot of static or background noise will not present a good impression to your potential clients, who won't want to give their customers a negative or "cheap" impression of their company.


Use a hands-free headset for your phone. If you're going to spend the majority of your workday on the phone, having a hands-free headset will allow you to multi-task -- for example, by typing or writing notes as you speak to customers or by researching answers to their questions without the inevitable neck strain that comes from trying to balance a phone between your ear and shoulder. If you use a wireless headset, you can move around your office to find filed information or perform tasks related to the call at hand.


Market your business online by writing and submitting articles about your customer service capabilities or advertising on websites that target the clients you're trying to reach; reach out to people offline by printing professional business cards and sending brochures or flyers to potential clients in your area.