'Homeshoring' Means that Call Center Might be in Someone's Bedroom

By Adam Geller, Associated Press

“Hello, is Jennifer there? Jennifer at extension 43?”

Nancy Allor tilts back from the workstation at the foot of her king-size bed, momentarily puzzling the voice on her headset. A soap opera flickers silently on the TV behind her. Inside the otherwise hushed suburban townhouse, Allor’s parakeet chirps.

Whoever Jennifer is, she’s not here.

“I’m sorry,” Allor says, grinning. “I’m in a call center and we can’t transfer. But I’d be happy to help you.”

Americans dialing for customer service are increasingly being connected to workers such as Allor — call center agents without call centers. The move to home-based agents, working from bedrooms and kitchen tables across the country, started as a trickle in the late 1990s. But it is picking up speed as a low-cost alternative to traditional call centers.

It’s not as cheap as offshoring, the shift of operations to countries with pools of low-paid but well-educated workers. But companies bent on cutting costs also see home agents as a way to avoid some of the consumer complaints common to overseas call centers.

More than 100,000 U.S. workers now field customer service calls from home, according to a recent report by consulting firm IDC. During the next two years, one of every 10 U.S. call centers is likely to shift at least partly to home-based agents, according to another report by consultant Gartner Inc.

For this complete story, please visit ‘Homeshoring’ Means that Call Center Might be in Someone’s Bedroom.