“JONESBORO — Bridget Ray was looking for a job with flexible hours that would allow her to spend more time with her two young children.

That’s when her aunt mentioned she was taking customer service calls for a company called Arise Virtual Solutions, allowing her to make her own hours and work from home.

‘I waited about six months after she got in to it to see if she was able to make some money with it,’ Ray said. ‘I decided to get started, and it’s been excellent.’
Ray trained for the program via the Internet, which took about two weeks. She set up an office in her home in Paragould and began taking calls for a consumer electronics client.

She works about 30 hours a week, and the 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. schedule she made for herself allows her to spend time with her child and still take time out to meet the demands of her family life.

‘It’s very flexible,’ Ray said. ‘My oldest is in kindergarten, and they have a lot of activities ... I am able to schedule my time around that so I can participate.’
‘We’re trying to get some extra money to go to Florida in January and take the kids to Disney,’ Ray said. ‘The pay is better in my opinion. You’re saving on gas money. It’s working out real well.’

Arise Virtual Solutions considers itself a leader in the home-based call center industry. The company was formed 10 years ago as a consortium with the State of Florida, BellSouth and private investors to provide jobs for disabled persons in South Florida.

As corporations began to look for U.S.-based agents to handle customer service, technical support and other calls, Arise expanded job opportunities to others.

‘If you have ever called an 800 number and been routed to some place offshore you know how frustrating it can be,’ said Mary Bartlett, Arise’s vice president of Virtual Services Corporation Culture and Communications. ‘And our clients ... want an authentic, local experience for their customers. They want to talk to somebody who speaks English so that if they are stuck in a snowstorm in Detroit and need roadside assistance they don’t want to be talking to somebody in India who doesn’t know what a snowstorm is or where Detroit is.’

Arise’s clients include AAA, Virgin American and Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Walgreens, Home Depot and Verizon. Arise specializes in supporting clients in the retail, financial services, travel, hospitality, utilities and health care sectors.

Arise has 7,500 agents in 49 states including 53 in Arkansas who provide technical support, roadside assistance, insurance quotes, consumer goods sales and travel reservations among others.

‘They work 100 percent out of their home,’ Bartlett said.

‘We have a lot of stay-at-home parents who have kids, and they want to work in the middle of the day or have a day job and want to work nights and weekends to supplement their income,’ Bartlett said. ‘We have a lot of retired individuals who realize their Social Security check won’t go as far as they thought.. ... And a lot of military spouses .... or even returning military who are making the transition back from military to civilian life. Everybody has different needs and desires, and that is what makes our model work so well.’

Getting started

Applicants must register online. They take an assessment test which takes about an hour and rates their skills in a few key areas. Applicants need basic computer skills and problem solving skills.

‘What you find so often on a customer service type call is that they need help with ‘my product arrived late or it arrived broken. What are my options? What can I do? And how can we fix that?’ Bartlett said.

Applicants must pass a national criminal background check.

Accepted applicants must incorporate the business, which costs about $100 depending on the state where they reside. They must own a computer with high speed

Internet access and get a separate business phone line.

Agents complete a 20-hour online introductory course to learn about the call center industry and things like home offices, basic customer service, sales fundamentals and call management.

‘We present them with information on all of our clients,’ Bartlett said. ‘We give them a detailed sheet on each one — what their hours of operation are and how it aligns with their wants and needs and what you will be doing and the skills required to be successful in that particular application. It’s like picking a major in college. They have some interests, and we know what it takes to be successful so we match them up.’

Agents are paid by the minute or on a per-call basis, depending on the contract. Most earn $10-14 an hour.

‘For folks who want and need (structure), working from home is not the right opportunity for them because you need to be disciplined and you have to be structured enough to set up your own schedule,’ Bartlett said. ‘At Arise, you pick the clients. You pick the hours you wish to work.’

Ray, who started in October, said she loves it and has already recommended it to people she knows, including her husband who recently became an agent.

‘I really enjoy it,’ Ray said. ‘I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a flexible schedule or has small children and wants to spend time with them.’

Arise wants to recruit 500 new agents in Arkansas before the year’s end.”