Category: Jobs and Employment
Hello all!
I'm still working on finishing the school thing. In the mean time... I'd like a job! I'm looking at a company called west at home (www.westathome.com). They handle inbound telephone calls. Given my love of talking to people, and the fact that I'm on my computer all the time anyway, I figured this might be an ok fit for me.
has anyone worked with this company or any similar? If so, are there any accessibility problems with the website/software they ask you to use? Also, they want you to have a telephone with a headset when you process calls, but I think this just so you cna have hands-free typing. I'm very good at the whole balancing the phone on the shoulder while typing game. Anyone ever done this? Any idea how strict they are on the headsets needed policies?
It doesn't have to just be west at home, it cna be any kind of similar inbound call center work from home thing.
Thanks,
John
I applied for this company, but they require you to take a test, which was going well for me for a while until I got to the computer section. They want you to identify pictures of buttons or icons on the computer and say what they do, and it was visual. I tried writing the company about it, but they wouldn't listen and said I still couldn't qualify for the job.
Misty
http://www.workathomeunited.com/mistybradley
Interesting. I took that same test, actually. They just emailed me and said there were some openings they needed filled. I forwarded that emila on as instructed, and am still waiting for a response.'
I was actually going to start a board topic about this. I didn't know if one had already been started or not.
Anyway, a friend forwarded an email to me yesterday, that talked about this company. I looked at the site, but there are so many companies out there that try to do this, and they're not legit in any way. I also don't know how accessible it is, so if any of you do end up doing this, I'd really be interested in hearing about your experience.
From what I can tell, this company is legit. I found them on a list of companies, and the website claims their list only has legitimate work at home ops. I'm still debating actually taking the job, because with college (which this year includes a thesis), I'm not sure how much time I'd be able to put in to work. I've heard though that they are really flexible with what shifts you choose to work. In fact, it seems like they don't even have shifts as such. You just sign up online for the time that day that you want to work, and can add additional hours to your shift if you have the time to spair. I'll keep you posted.
How all, as for being a real company, this is not a problem. West is a widely popular call center and have actual locations all over the US as well. However, as far as accessibility, much of what you do is script reading and doing that with jaws would be difficult. As for flexibility it is an extremely flexible schedule allowing you to pick half an hour time slots acording to your own needs.
Assuming the script is static, with only slight variations in what you say based on customer responses, then it would be simple I would think, if you had a braille note or other similar device with a braille display, to copy the scirpt and read it that way. That's what I would do, anyway.
i tried applying for a similar job in the UK, and even though the software I had to use was 95percent accessible with jaws, the company wouldn't put the effort in to script the little it would need to make the programme accessible. i lost that job incedentally.
The bigggest problem is, the script changes bassed on the given answer, and while you are paid by the minute there is a requirment as to how much time should be spent on the phone. Also if you're given a no answer, you're required to read given rebuttles. Lastly you don't know what call is going to pop up next until the call is right there!
I would braille the script out in hard copy. Braille out the possible answer options as well, leaving a blank line and putting a heading before each one so you can quickly skim to find the appropriate one.
I've never worked for this company, but have done several similar jobs, and this approach has worked well for me. After awhile, you get the script pretty much memorized and tailor it to fit your personality, too.
Drop me a note with any questions.
Again guys, I've worked with dozens of these companies both from an employee and as a contractor working with accessibility of there software. the biggest problem you face with companies like west or liveops which take DR direct response calls is, is that you can get any given call at any given time, for example one call you may take an order for knives and the very next call you're taking an order for Hip Hop abbs! problem is that the screen pops after you've answered your phone, and you have a live customer and you see what type of call you're taking. Second problem is the web site version of the scripts are usually Java based and after you select an anser or type in any information you click the next button to move on to the next part of the script and the site pretty much drops you back off at the top somewhere while the text you need to work with is somewhere in the middle or near the bottom of the page. One place that was fairly accessible and easy work was voicelog. http://www.voicelog.com paid $9 or 10 an hour and was simple verification work. I've been working from home after leaving corp america for 4 years now, and have researched just about every opportunity that is out there. I've done scripting for some and some unfortunately, are just not accessible or reasonable for someone using access technology to do. If anyone has questions I'd be happy to help in any way. I just got finished writing a book on working from home as well as a list of over 1000 verifyed WAH opps which myself or colleagues have tested and verifyed.
Is this book available, or will it be available in the future, on bookshare? Because I'd love to read it!
I would like to read the book also.
If you had to look at photos and you fell. that's a decrace because you couldn't see it and should of tried the headquarters because thats not fair. U pass the questions and fell site part because this job is easy. I have a neighbor who works at westathome.com for virgin Mobile and a blind person all just do is enter credit card and answer questions.