Life has exposed something that was already present, but no one had noticed before: many customer service jobs can be capably handled remotely without needing to have someone drive in to the office. Because of this, customer service jobs have, in cases, stayed the same or even expanded throughout the year.
Many people have also jumped onto the customer service bandwagon in recent months to make some extra cash. To make things even better, lots of these jobs can be done by almost anyone with some basic education and computer skills.
In short: if you’re in need of some extra cash and want a work-from-home job that you can maintain, these online work opportunities might be perfect for you. Let’s break down ten top customer service jobs that anyone can work from home.
Online Chat Agent
The job of an online chat agent is pretty simple, but it can also offer some good variety depending on who exactly you end up working for. In a nutshell, being an online chat agent can involve assisting customers with any number of issues, including:
- Answering questions about billing or various products
- Processing returns or billing problems
- Selling products to customers through email, chat, or text interfaces
- Performing tech support for questions that customers have regarding their devices
Furthermore, chat agent jobs are pretty flexible and can be pursued with either full-time or part-time scheduling. This makes them a popular choice for college students or those who have to juggle multiple responsibilities simultaneously.
You can thankfully find lots of chat agent jobs on job boards, and you may sometimes be hired by call centers that offer similar work.
Home Call Center Agent
A home call center agent is best thought of as an offshoot of a regular chat agent. A home call center agent takes calls and communication requests from customers who call a company’s tech support or customer assistance hotline. Naturally, this position comes with a number of requirements.
For starters, you’ll be required to know the languages of the customers you’ll likely interact with. More and more often these days, this means English and Spanish, although other language qualifications may apply. Furthermore, you’ll need to be well-versed in whatever products or services a company offers so you can adequately answer questions asked by your customers.
You’ll also need access to a phone line and Internet connection, and many of your interactions may be over the phone instead of over text chat. However, the specifics necessarily very, and home call center agent jobs can be full or part-time depending on the position. Furthermore, this is one of the best places to find nighttime work if your daytime hours are filled with other obligations.
These jobs are also sometimes sought after since they can be performed around the world, and you may qualify for certain companies or positions based on your experience or locale.
Virtual Assistant
Many virtual assistants are still run by real people instead of AI chatbots. Being a virtual assistant means you’ll work remotely to help customers with all kinds of tasks. The work can be very diverse depending on who hires you. For instance, as a virtual assistant, you might:
- Assist students with research if you work for a college or library
- Help a company with email management, booking engagements, or communications if you work for a large company
- Booking travel engagements or arrangements for companies if you work for a travel agency or an airline
- Assist customers with tech support or other questions regarding a product, such as if the company who hired you is in the IT sector
But the VA industry can be even more complex than this. Some skilled virtual assistants run as freelancers and have their own VA business. In a nutshell, this allows them to set their own hours and work as a virtual assistant for hire for different companies who need a little extra digital labor for the day, week, or month. It’s the perfect stay-at-home job.
Naturally, this industry is a bit niche to get into to start, but it’s something that anyone can get the hang of after a few months on the job. Consider it if you have a naturally helpful personality and don’t mind doing multiple types of work for different clients rather than specializing as a particular type of assistant.
Tech Support Agent
A tech support agent is a more specialized version of many of the above jobs, emphasizing communication skills and problem-solving capability so that you can help customers who need assistance making their devices or programs work as advertised. Most of these jobs are offered by tech companies or startups that have advanced or technical products to offer.
Granted, this does mean that tech-support agents need more than most basic computer skills, including but not limited to:
- Some kinds of coding or IT awareness
- Extensive communication and troubleshooting skills
- Technical awareness and understanding of the industry’s lingo
Most of these jobs can pay more than you might expect, especially if you land a long-term job with a well-known IT company and produce good results. Customers can easily have their opinion about a product or service turned around if they have a good engagement with a tech support agent, so this job is actually integral to a company’s overall reputation.
Like many of the above jobs, tech-support agents can also benefit from relatively flexible hours and may be offered in either part-time or full-time formats. You can also find nighttime or weekend shifts if you have other obligations or goals that dominate the week or your daytime hours.
Travel Agent
That’s right – you can even be a travel agent from home. In fact, most travel agents run businesses from a home office rather than having a dedicated office in a business center or park. Travel agents are something of a dying breed for regular travelers, but for extremely luxurious or high-traffic travel arrangements, they’re still a necessity.
In most cases, travel agents will help to book:
- Travel for corporate offices, like for workplace retreats or business meetings abroad
- Travel for professionals that need to hit lots of destinations in a timely manner
- Travel for particularly large groups that can’t coordinate all the details themselves
Furthermore, some travel agents may be associated with different companies so they can offer their clients special discounts for certain cruises, vacations, or other experiences. Be aware, however, that while you can do this job from home, you’ll need experience and certification, and you may need to go to school for some time before you can work professionally as a travel agent.
Personal Shopper/Beauty Advisor
Have an eye for fashion and want to help people make the right purchases? Consider being a personal shopper or beauty advisor online.
This means you’ll essentially help people find the right clothes, makeup, and other products to assist them in building a brand or personal aesthetic. This job is actually more specialized than you might think since clients are usually influencers or other media personalities looking to cultivate a specific image instead of random Internet shoppers.
Most of these jobs are offered by department stores and clothing brands. This means that they will often want you to prop up their own products ahead of their competitors. But you might also make it as a freelancer in the field if you build up enough experience and clients.
It’s usually helpful to have some experience at brick-and-mortar department or clothing stores, and you obviously need some knowledge and passion for the fashion and beauty industries. But it’s still a great remote work job for folks with these inclinations or interests.
Contact Tracer
A contact tracer is a relatively recent and only short-term position that’s likely to disappear when the pandemic finally dies down. But that’s because contact tracers do in-depth investigations to determine how and where it’s spreading by investigating folks over the phone or Internet. They basically draw a network or web of different contact points between individuals to figure out how the virus might spread next and where the last virus flashpoint originated from.
This can be a very rewarding job for many people, especially those with some experience in medicine or healthcare. It’s also important for society since it’s directly helping with containment. This also means that’s it’s not open to everyone. Employment requirements include but are not limited to:
- Very strong communication skills
- Most positions will require bilingualism
- Some experience in public health or customer service
In some cases, healthcare organizations might require you to pass online contact tracer courses in order to apply. However, these positions definitely do some tangible good in the world, and can even pay up to $30 per hour!
Senior Aide
A senior aide is a remote worker who, as the name of the position suggests, helps senior citizens with all kinds of issues. This position is necessary largely due to the increasing requirements of digital literacy to get by in the modern world. Since many older folks are unable to learn modern digital skills, senior aides can help by:
- Ordering groceries or medicines online
- Helping seniors with tech problems or with their medication instructions
- Providing companionship and friendship, as many seniors are relatively alone
This could be a good position if you enjoy helping others and have empathy for older folks who may need some daily or weekly support.
Video Game Support Agent
Video game support agents are among the most popular remote service jobs in the industry. That’s probably because lots of people love talking about video games, and this position allows you to do it for a living!
You’ll most likely be hired by gaming companies or developers that task agents to help players with questions about their accounts, technical problems, billing issues, and even glitches. Think of it as targeted customer support with an emphasis on popular videogame titles and consoles.
This does mean that you’ll need in-depth videogame knowledge, especially related to whatever brand your employer represents. Keep in mind that many positions require second language skills to ensure that you can communicate with players in multiple languages (Spanish and Japanese are the most common). So if you love video games, this a great way to make money from home with.
Wine Specialist
Lastly, did you know you could become a wine specialist online? If you have sharp tastebuds and love talking about wine and how it’s created, you could find a job in educating others about wine and various in-depth aspects of the industry.
Lots of people have questions about wine types and varieties, even when they’re online shopping for a particular bottle. Wine specialists help them by answering questions about vintages or wine types, and they can even help to make educated recommendations based on what the customer says they want.
More and more vineyards and wine companies are hiring e-commerce specialists in this vein, so check with your favorite brands to see if they have a position open. You’ll likely need some customer service experience and, of course, extensive wine knowledge to fulfill these positions.
Conclusion
All of these customer service jobs are remote and offer astounding work from home opportunities that could never have been conceived of just five years ago. Jump on the bandwagon and check out some of these careers yourself.
