Call Centers: Those who Wish to Work at Home May Be in Luck Soon

 NBC Nightly News ran a great video story online regarding call centers, outsourcing, and the possibility of a lot of new home based jobs for Americans in the next few years.

For a while the trend was to outsource call center jobs to areas overseas. While the main company may be based in Chicago, the calls for that company might actually be handled in an entirely different country.  Companies have done this in an effort to save a dollar or two, or actually more, in wages. Workers in the US may make ten dollars an hour for call center work while those living in other countries may be paid a third of that price.

Yet many companies are finding strong customer disatisfaction when it comes to this practice, which can ultimately hurt the company. If you're making a call to inquire about a service and you have difficulty during the transaction, chances are-if you are like me-you'll hang up out of frustration and call another company, until you find one that you feel can answer your questions. 

As a business owner, I know all to well about customer satisfaction. When you are providing a service or selling a product to a customer, your number one concern is often how that product or service will be received. If your customer is not satisfied, chances are she's not coming back. And if she's not coming back, that means you are doing something wrong. And if you are doing something wrong . . . you are losing money. 

It seems that some companies are deciding that what they save in labor costs may not be worth what they are losing in their customer base. Bringing these jobs home is not an entirely new concept. In fact, Dell and some other big companies did just this several years ago, at least with some portions of their outsourced work.  

In this new year we may find that the trend is to bring home these call center jobs, literally. What great news! Not only will these companies be helping out our economy by bringing these jobs back to the states, something that our economy definitely needs, but those who are hoping to find work from home-the disabled who can't easily commute, those who have retired from full time jobs and need a supplemental income to help with medical expenses, working parents who want to remain in the home during the workday-will now have a shot at a great work at home opportunity!

Take a glance at the video and then share your thoughts!