Thanks to mandatory shutdowns and business closures hitting the nation in the spring of 2020, more people are choosing to work from home now than ever before. Even before the pandemic changed the scope of how many businesses function and make money, working from home was gaining popularity. According to a 2017 Employee Workforce Report by the State of Telecommuting in the U.S., there were nearly four million employees who worked at least half their hours from home. With the continued focus on improving technology, and flexible hours becoming more popular, working from home has most assuredly continued to grow in popularity since that time. Of course, now the country is moved to a different level of embracing work from home as many Americans are forced to stay at due to shelter-in-place orders.

Today, in many cases, there is no other way to get the job done outside of working from home. Businesses have come to realize that allowing employees to work from their homes, at least part of the time, instead of a brick-and-mortar office is more cost-effective and of course safer with the current health situation. Therefore, working from home has never been a more valid way to earn a living.

Best 15 Online Chat Jobs

The following comprehensive list will give you 15 options of companies. Any of these ventures offer candidates a wide range of employment potential and are all suited for remote work. Before considering a company, always determine if you will be considered a contract agent or will be an actual employee. The way you handle your taxes will be vastly different depending on how a company classifies you in this one aspect, so you need to know this going in. Read on for the best options for chat jobs you can do from the comfort of home:

1.) Accolade Support

This company hires customer service agents to work from home as independent contractors. This means you would not be considered an Accolade employee and would not be eligible for employee-related benefits like health insurance, 401Ks, or qualify for paid time off. However, you can choose which hours you want to work and how much you want to work throughout the workweek.

To qualify to become an Accolate customer service agent, you must have:

• Technical support skills.
• Be able to pay attention to detail.
• Have an American accent.
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills and be great at customer service.

Here’s what you need in your home to be able to work for Accolate:

• You must have a hard-wired computer, plugged straight into the internet.
• Your PC has to use Windows 7 or 10. Sorry, Macs are not eligible.
• Must have a telephone with a headset.

2.) Arise

Arise chat agents are independent work-from-home contractors that serve client’s chat needs. As a chat agent, you would provide real-time troubleshooting and support to Arise customers. Arise itself connects you with other companies, so you might work with a variety of businesses. In fact, Arise hires online chat representatives for Fortune 500 brands for companies from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This means you have an opportunity to work with a wide variety of companies throughout your at-home career. Arise is basically a go-between, pairing customer service chat agents with companies who need their services. You can get started with Arise pretty fast and be working with a company answering customer’s questions a mere five days after your complete your application. You can set your own schedule and work flexible hours. Arise actually boasts some pretty impressive credentials for a business that oversees chat jobs, which is in and of itself a fairly new career field. Arise has been in business since 1994 and has been part of the White House Joining Forces Initiative and has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

3.) Amazon

With the closures and stay-at-home orders, Amazon’s business is booming. In fact, during the 2020 pandemic, Amazon was one of the only companies that ensured people all over the world got necessary goods shipped to their homes when stores were closed, or products were out of stock. This means Amazon was and still is in great need of at-home representatives called Customer Service Associates. The pay is not bad, averaging around $15, hourly, and they offer benefits as well. Usually, Amazon Customer Service Associates work between 20 and 29 hours a week. However, if you sign on with Amazon for at-home customer service, they need you to be available to work for up to 60 hours weekly as their customers chat and call volume does vary from week-to-week. As an Amazon Customer Service Associate, you will communicate with Amazon customers via chat, email, or phone. This is a fast-paced, demanding work environment that does require a strong focus on customer service.

4.) Apple

Apple offers remote at-home work in the form of Apple at Home Advisors. As an at-home advisor, you would provide support to and answer the questions of Apple customers. Apple provides you with a headset and iMac to use to perform your advisory tasks. They will also reimburse you some of your internet costs as a strong, reliable internet connection is necessary for the job. Apple does more than most other companies by offering their at-home advisors paid time off, free career development resources, and discounts on Apple products. They also have both full and part-time employment options. In addition, although it will help if you already have some experience with Apple products like a great understanding of iPads and iPhones, that knowledge is not necessary to be considered employable. Apple will train all their at-home advisors on the latest Apple products, so you will learn the ins and outs of every device even if you didn’t know much about them going into the job.

5.) Asurion

This phone insurance company hires work-from-home employees to help customers by answering technical questions and by helping them process claims. In most cases, you can expect to make around $13.50 hourly just starting out. To be eligible to be an Asurion work-from-home customer service agent, you have to meet the following qualifications:

• Have either a GED or high school diploma.
• Have six months of customer service experience.
• Have the ability to work holidays, weekends, and nights.
• Be able to pass a drug test and background check.
• Have high-speed internet and a quiet place to work.

Asurion provides all the necessary equipment to complete the job.

6.) Concentrix

This is another go-between company that partners businesses with at home chat agents. Concentrix partners you with various businesses, so hours and pay will vary based on the company’s pay rates. As a Concentrix chat agent, you will provide customer service and technical support to the businesses with which you are partnered. This job does come with full-time hours and benefits while allowing you to work from home.

7.) Best Buy

Work with Best Buy as a full-time customer support agent or help with client services. You will troubleshoot various customer issues via chat or phone. Best Buy customer service agents sometimes respond to customers via the Best Buy forum or even social media platforms. Customers’ issues could include problems pertaining to item delivery, questions about a local Best Buy store, or technical issues with a product. As a Best Buy customer service agent, you should be comfortable speaking to customers either through a chat or over the phone. Best Buy does prefer their customer service agents to have at least one year of experience in customer service, but it’s not a requirement. It’s even better if agents have experience troubleshooting issues with consumer electronics. As a Best Buy support agent, you might be asked to work weekends and evenings but will be able to work a pretty flexible schedule. While Best Buy doesn’t always offer remote working options, occasionally they will hire remote customer service agents. Therefore, when trying to find an online chat job, it’s at least worth checking into to see if the company is currently hiring remote positions.

8.) Ginger

Ginger is an on-demand health support app that provides clients access to trained psychiatrists and/or licensed therapists to address via a video chat and provides instant access to trained behavioral health coaches. You can sign up with Ginger as one of these highly skilled professionals, working with customers. You must be qualified by having a counseling or medical background and be available to work at odd hours because Ginger is live 24/7. Ginger services include psychiatry, therapy, and emotional support services.

9.) OutPLEX

Previously known as Talk2rep, OutPLEX is an outsourcing service for customer support functions like text and chat support. They hire at-home customer service representatives to resolve customer issues using phone or email. This online chat job demands a WPM typing speed of 30 to 50 with no errors. As an OutPLEX customer service representative, you will have to hard wire your computer to a reliable internet connection. Here are some additional qualifications:

• Have a PC that operates Windows, no Apple products allowed.
• Must have a GED or high school diploma.
• Be willing to multitask.
• Have excellent grammar, spelling, and communication skills.
• Be able to independently research issues.

10.) The Chat Shop

The Chat Shop employees live chat agents to help customers across the world. You don’t have to be experienced as The Chat Shop will train agents, but you must be a native English speaker with excellent typing and grammar skills. At the time of publishing, The Chat Shop is only hiring for Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida at-home positions. Here are some qualifications to become a The Chat Shop customer service agent:

• Be able to work between 20 and 40 hours weekly from home.
• Be able to multitask and be organized enough to do the job.
• Have a hard-wired, reliable internet connection.
• Have dual monitors on your computer.
• Ideally, you will also have an external keyboard and mouse if using a laptop.

11.) SiteStaff

SiteStaff offers a wide range of services to businesses. Agents work from home to provide personalized service to customers. To become a chat agent with SiteStaff, you should have exceptional problem-solving skills, a strong grasp of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and be able to type between 65 and 75 words per minute. SiteStaff customer chat agents are highly skilled at problem-solving, so thinking on your feet is a must to be considered for this position.

12.) LivePerson

This position at LivePerson partners you with clients to manage enterprise customer’s portfolios. This means you will develop a relationship with clients, working with their executive team. Your role will be to improve and manage customers’ contracts. To become a LivePerson client partner, you must have at least a Bachelor’s degree. An MBA is even better, but not required. LivePerson’s pay isn’t outlined on their site, but they do provide paid time off and competitive benefits to their at-home client partners. To sum it up, as a LivePerson client partner, you will be making life easier for customers and brands through conversational AI. This position gives you a way to put your extensive education into practice while working from home.

13.) LiveWorld

At LiveWorld, you can land either a part or full time remote, work-from-home position by becoming a service agent. Your job will be to provide excellent customer service and marketing engagement. LiveWorld agents must be fluent in the language with which they are working. The main job of a LiveWorld agent is to respond to LiveWorld customers’ social media posts, triaging customer questions, and responding to user content via social media context. This is not a phone-based job and requires a strong ability to write. Therefore, as a LiveWorld agent, you should have excellent spelling, punctuation, and grammar skills. Reliable phone access, internet access, and computer are a must to do this job. As a LiveWorld agent, you can be called upon to work holidays, weekends, and nights on occasion, depending on demand.

14.) Support.com

Support.com provides at-home workers with a fast-paced yet rewarding career opportunities. Support.com customer service chat agents provide tech support to customers via chat and phone. Because service agents will be expected to help customers with tech-related issues, having experience troubleshooting issues with Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac devices is advantageous. There are some notable perks of becoming an at-home Support.com service agent. They include paid time off, health insurance, tuition reimbursement, and even paid training. Support.com provide agents additional education on tech-related issues by giving them access to a content library. They also provide some reimbursement for equipment use and internet cost.

15.) Fancy Hands

While Fancy Hands is primarily a virtual assistant company, it does offer VA services that include online chat jobs. As a Fancy Hand VA online chat agent, you can choose your own hours and create your own schedule. Pay is a per task amount ranging from $3 to $7 a task. You must have great internet research skills, communication ability and need to have your own audio headset and computer at home. You must also be available on weekends for this position. Some of the common tasks Fancy Hands agents assist clients with are listed below:

• Finding the best price for an item the client wants to purchase.
• Data entry.
• Scheduling appointments, such as doctor’s visits and meetings, etc.
• Making calls for clients.

Why Work From Home?

In addition to the obvious negative health ramifications that are part of being in public today, working from home instead of in public, is advantageous for other reasons as well. For example, a Stanford University study discovered that remote workers were 13% more productive than their in-office counterparts. The study discovered that not only did employees who worked remotely work more hours than when they physically went into an office, but they also got more done during their working hours. These results make sense when you consider how much time workers spend on their commute to and from work. Also, being in-office lends itself to many potential distractions. Coworkers conversing with each other, phone calls, walk-in customers and more are all distracting and can keep workers from focusing on the task at hand. By contrast, at home, unless the house is full of rowdy kids, workers are able to better focus on what they need to do in a more efficient manner.

What is a Chat Job and Why is Wise Choice For At Home Work?

After you have determined working from home is a good idea for you, it’s now time to consider what type of work-at-home job you want to try. As of 2018, remote customer service workers were pulling in around $16.23 hourly. Remote customer service jobs can include either speaking to customers via the phone or through a chat service. An online chat agent provides customer support via phone, text-based or online chat discussions.

Who is a Good Candidate For a Chat Job?

If the prospect of working from home in an exciting, fast-growing field sounds good to you, you want to know what it takes to do this job. An ideal candidate for a chat job will be someone who can handle a fast-paced working environment. There is little downtime in between conversations, and sometimes they will have multiple lines of communication open simultaneously. Online chat agents should also be able to use proper spelling, punctuation, grammar and communicate in a professional manner. In general, you will need the following to be considered a good candidate for a chat job:

• Reliable internet connection that won’t arbitrarily drop or slow down so much that it freezes.
• Have the ability to type at least 35 WPM. Being able to help many customers quickly is key in this job, so if you are really slow at typing, you might want to increase your proficiency before considering this career option. Check your current WPM speed here.
• Have the self-discipline to work from home and remain focus on the tasks at hand, no matter what might be going on around you.
• Have a professional and friendly attitude that will come across in text form or over the phone throughout customer interactions.
• Have the ability to communicate clearly in written form and over the phone.

What Do You Need to Qualify For an Online Chat Job?

The specific qualifications for chat jobs depend on the company. Some require their chat agents to have a certain knowledge of the business before they are hired in as an agent. In fact, some companies require potential chat agents to have at least a few years of customer service under their belt before they will even consider them for such a position. Others are willing to train the right candidates and do not demand a person has previous knowledge of their company or understand the inner workings of their company at the outset.

How to Avoid Scams When Working From Home

The 15 online chat jobs listed above have been vetted and are worthwhile places of employment for at-home work. However, going out and trying to find other similar jobs can be fraught with peril. Let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to get scammed when trying to work-from-home. Thankfully, there are few red flags that indicate a company or business isn’t on the up and up. Look for these signs if you are considering working from home. If you see them, run the other direction, digitally speaking…

Red Flags: Indications a Work From Home Job is a Scam

• There is no interview: While you can partner with various work-from home sites without having a phone or video interview when it comes to customer service related chat jobs, you should expect to be interviewed in some way for your position. If the only interview you complete is online only via a chat, that could indicate a potential problem.

• There are no outlined responsibilities: Just as you would with an in-person job, you need to know what is expected of you in your work-at-home capacity. What are your responsibilities? If a company can’t tell you this, beware.

• They ask you to pay upfront: Admittedly, you might have to spend some money to purchase equipment pertaining to your new at-home job. However, if a company asks you to pay some sort of fee, perhaps for training or some other type of service, run the other direction. A company that either partners with you as an independent contractor or that employees you should never ask you to pay them. It should be the other way around.

How to Find Legitimate Remote Work Opportunities

The 15 online chat jobs outlined above are all tied to a specific company that employs online service agents. If you don’t find anything within those 15 that sound promising, you can attempt to find your own clients. The following are a few sites that specialize in helping clients find professionals for various services, some of them online chat related. Use them to look for alternative opportunities or to supplement the income you are making from one of the other companies already mentioned:

• FlexJobs: This site provides a curated list of flexible, remote jobs. They include both part-and full-time variety and cover the spans of experience levels, offering jobs from entry-level up to experienced positions with specific educational demands. Unfortunately, FlexJobs does charge a $14.95 monthly usage, but they provide more than just job postings. They also offer help for job searching like resume reviews and other job search resources. Hopefully, you would only have to pay for one month as you would find the perfect job, quickly once on the platform.

• Fiverr: This is a free-to-use platform that allows you to make a profile highlighting your home-based chat agent skills. Fiverr provides a platform for you to post rates, negotiate with potential clients, and produce offers for said clients. Typical prices for online chat services vary greatly and can range from $5 to $995 depending on your experience and the scope of the service provided. You collect payment safely on the site, as it acts as a middleman via either direct deposit or PayPal. You don’t have to pay to post on Fiverr, but the site does require a percentage of any job you coordinate and complete through the site.

• Upwork: Create a free profile on Upwork and then search for applicable jobs. If you see a chat job posted that interests you, you pitch your services to the client who posted the job. You invoice the client through the site. The downside to this site is it charges users $0.15 each time you connect with a potential client. This can add up if you are pitching several jobs so keep this in mind.

Try any of the 15 jobs listed above to begin a rewarding online chat job, all from the comfort of home.