9 Tips for Finding a Customer Service Work at Home Job

The scams usually outnumber the real jobs out there when you want to work from home. That's because many people get too eager to work at home, and don't use any common sense. They see dollar signs and easy living, and close their eyes to reality.

Your first clue that you're encountering a scam is that the pay is outrageous for the work you'd be doing. Work at home jobs often pay less than other jobs, not more, and certainly not obscenely more. If you're being promised thousands of dollars for easy, part time work, forget it!

The job listing and application process should also indicate that your potential employer is interested in knowing how much relevant work experience you have. That's vital for real employers to know. People running a scam just want to know how soon they can get money or personal information from you.

Employers should not ask you to pay to indicate your interest. Unfortunately, some legitimate employers do ask applicants to pay for a background check. I personally find that outrageous, but I gather it happens with outside the home jobs as well, so at least it's not completely out of the ordinary. Just make sure that you're dealing with a legitimate company before you send in money for any reason, even if it sounds like a good one.
Learn more about how to spot work at home scams at 8 Rules to Help You Avoid Work at Home Job Scams.

Companies hiring home based workers don't somehow have lower standards than other companies. They still need to know about your work history. You will want to polish your resume before you apply.

Keep it relevant to what the job posting asked for. Pay special attention to those areas where your skills precisely match those requested. Those skills should be clearly indicated.

It's also important to pay attention to how the company wants to receive your resume or work history. Some companies have an online form you can fill out, while others will want a resume in text format only or Word format only. Whatever the preference is, that's how you should send in your information.

Many people aren't comfortable with their resume writing skills. In that case, you have some options.

You can talk to family members. Often you'll find someone who feels that they know what they're doing when it comes to writing a resume. They can be of great assistance, but you must make certain that whatever they create for you is still accurate, doesn't leave vital information out, and doesn't have any typos.

You can also hire someone to write a resume for you. A professional resume writer can be a bit expensive, but some find it worth the cost.

If you want to write it yourself, but don't feel comfortable with your resume writing skills, buy a resume writing guide. You can find them on Amazon or buy an ebook version such as Guerrilla Resumes to improve your skills.

It may not sound like a part of your job hunt, but being prepared to work as soon as you find a job is important. If you're going to succeed as a customer service representative, you will need a quiet home office. You cannot have any background noise at all in this career. Background noises are a great way to get fired.

You will need a quiet room with a computer, high speed internet access and a separate, wired (not wireless for most jobs) telephone line. A wired noise canceling headset is a very good idea as well, to limit the chances that any incidental background noises are heard over the telephone line.

You should also consider your desk chair. You will be sitting in it for however many hours you work in a shift, and it should be both comfortable and ergonomic. A good chair is one of the most important parts of your setup for your long term health and comfort.

It can help you to sit correctly and type with proper posture and arm positions. If you want to avoid repetitive stress injuries as you work, a good, ergonomic setup is vital.

One of the best parts about working at home is that you can set your own hours for many jobs. However, customer service positions require that you set up a schedule. They need to know when they're going to have people on the phones.

You usually can change your schedule easily when you need to, but most of us will have certain times that will be better than others. The key is to know what those hours are.

When will your home be quiet enough?

When do you want to work?

What times will absolutely not work?

Know your answers to this before you start working. You don't want to schedule yourself for one time and find out that it simply doesn't work. Adherence to your scheduled hours is very important to customer service jobs, where there is often a contractual obligation to answer calls within a certain time frame. If you can't handle your schedule, it's probably not the job for you.

There are a lot of distractions when you work at home. Kids are a very common one, and one of the hardest to control. You must have a plan for dealing with distractions.

If you have kids, you will probably want to have someone else caring for them while you work, or work while they are sleeping. Anything else risks them coming into your home office when you need silence.

You will also want pets out of the way. If you have a dog, consider how you will keep it quiet, or at least have any barking far enough away that your noise canceling headset manages it.

You won't want anyone making a lot of noise in the home in general. That means no loud music or television in other parts of the house. Everyone will need to understand how important that will be to your job.

Your biggest challenge is finding a job. They are out there, but you aren't the only one who wants them.

To find employers, choose reliable resources, but take their tips with a grain of salt. Sometimes companies change ownership. Just because a company was good when it was listed doesn't always mean it's okay now. You should always confirm that the company is still legitimate.

I have a free list of companies that may hire work at home customer service agents at my own site. I speak from experience when I say take all lists with a grain of salt. They're a starting point, nothing more. I've had to regularly remove companies which have gone out of business or changed ownership, and are no longer legitimate. It happens.

The temptation to pay for job leads can be incredible when you want to work at home. There are plenty of ads and websites promising you a list with thousands of companies that allow employees to work at home.

The problem is that most of these lists are of companies that sometimes (emphasis on sometimes) let existing, experienced employees telecommute. The lists are often hugely out of date, having been passed around the internet for years. These are not things you should pay for.

That does not mean, however, that you should never pay for a good quality job board. A very few high quality paid resources do exist. Home Job Stop is one. They get job listings from employers ranging from entry level to professional level, full time, part time, contract and more. They've built up a good reputation, and have only a one time fee.

It is important that I emphasize that this is not the same as paying for a job. it's paying for job resources.

My own suggestion would be to go through the free resources out there first, then consider whether or not you want to go with paid resources. They can be worth it in terms of shortening your job hunt. The expense is made up if it helps you to land a job sooner.

A lot of jobs get listed on Craigslist, It's a great site in many ways, but one in which you must be very careful. Tons of scams get posted there too, and may not be removed by the community before you see it.

The scams aren't always that easy to spot, either. Some try hard to look legitimate until you contact them.

It's not entirely impossible to find work there, however. If you use Craigslist, go in expecting to see scams. Don't trust anyone too quickly, but also be open to the possibility that a real opportunity may be out there.

A reality to face with customer service jobs is that sometimes there will not be enough hours available with one job to meet your income needs. It's not impossible that you will need to take two jobs.

This can be difficult. Most employers will need you to qualify for each account you take calls for. It takes time to learn how to deal with the different aspects of each account.

As you qualify for more, you may not need as many jobs. Qualifying for many accounts with one employer means you have multiple sources of work. That may help you to get enough hours as you gain experience.