If you ask any answering service owner what the biggest challenge that they face today almost all would answer employees. For a number of years employers have tried a number of methods to find a desirable employees to work in what is sometimes less than desirable circumstances. Today technology has delivered these answering service owners a new alternative; the stay at home operator.

Thanks to VoIP services it is very easy for an answering service operator to log on and work off premise with the same advantages as an operator has in the war room of the call center. There are several advantages to such technology and call centers who have implemented these advances are seeing major changes. Some of these answering services virtually had to beg for employees and the pickings were slim. Now these same businesses actually have a waiting list for employees, with highly qualified candidates.

Another advantage to the stay at home operator is that it allows the answering service to be able to fill peak time periods and cover absenteeism more efficiently. The answering service now has alternatives when there are weather related emergencies as well as filling those difficult to handle shifts. There are offices that will staff overnight shifts with work at home operators.

Still other offices have been slow to embrace this type of technology while other offices reluctantly use this technology only for emergencies or supervisory tasks. There is a general misconception that these operators are more difficult to supervise and that the only way to run a call center is from a centralized location. With the advanced statistical reporting capabilities that most answering services possess, coupled with voice recording technology these employees are as easy to supervise as they would be in your office.

As the answering services that utilize at home operators continue to flourish, others are following their lead. At home operators now make up the fastest growing segment of employees in the answering service industry. In addition this new trend seems to be an alternative to overseas outsourcing. With the advantages offered to work at home operators, answering service owners and the industry as a whole, stay at home agents seem to be the trend of the future.

Todd Cardin is the east coast marketing team leader for Specialty Answering Service. For more information about Specialty Answering Service, please visit our answering service / call center website and explore our services. This article may be reprinted and republished without permission as long as it remains wholly intact.