Kate Lister, Author of Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home, Principal Researcher at the Telework Research Network Sally Hurley, President, Co-founder of VIPdesk Work-At-Home Agents • What’s in it for You? • Virtual Hiring • Virtual Management • Technology • Staying Legal

1. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Kate Lister, Author of Undress for Success:
The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home,
Principal Researcher at the Telework Research Network
Sally Hurley
President, Co-founder of VIPdesk
View The Webinar
October 27, 2009

2. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Our Virtual Experts
Sally Hurley
President of VIPdesk
Kate Lister
Telework Researcher & Author of
Undress For Success—The Naked Truth
About Making Money at Home
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3. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
• Founded in 1997
• Originally deployed centralized
solution
• Quality concerns led to home-based
migration in 2000
• Represent over 40 leading global
brands in financial services, retail,
travel and real estate industries
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4. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Kate Lister
• Analyzed 250 Studies
• Dozens of Interviews
• Telework Savings Calculator
Research Quoted By:
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5. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
The Road Home:
• What’s in it for You?
• Virtual Hiring
• Virtual Management
• Technology
• Staying Legal
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6. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
• Expanded Talent Pool
• Lower Turnover / Absenteeism
• Increased Productivity
• Greater Efficiency
• Continuity
• Environmental Impact
• Reduced Costs
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7. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Expanded Talent Pool
• Retiring Boomers
Traditional Call Center Agent:
• Disabled Workers
25 years old
• Relocated Workers
3 years in workforce
• Second Jobs
• Students
• Military Spouses
Virtual Call Center Agent:
• Rural Populations
41 years old
• Caregivers
15-20 years in workforce
• Part-Timers
Other Advantages:
• Geographic Matching
• Local Licensing
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8. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Lower Turnover / Absenteeism
Turnover: Absenteeism:
• Turnover is costly • 78% of employees who call in sick, really
aren’t.
• 61% of employees who do not currently
work from home say they are willing to • Companies with telework programs see, on
give up some pay in exchange for being average a 63% reduction in unscheduled
allowed to do so. absences.
• 68% of Shering-Plough Corporation’s • Teleworkers typically continue to work when
telework program say that being able to they’re sick (without infecting others).
telework is a factor in their decision to stay
with the company • Teleworkers return to work more quickly
following surgery or medical issues.
• 95% of employers say telework has a
high impact on employee retention. • Flexible hours allow teleworkers to run
errands or schedule appointments without
• Two-thirds of employees would take losing a full day.
another job to ease the commute.
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9. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Increased Productivity
• 25% to 45% More Productive
- Best Buy
- British Telecom
- Dow Chemical
- Sun Microsystems
- JD Edwards
- VIPdesk
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10. Virtual Customer Care
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Greater Efficiency
• Redundant Scheduling
• Time Zone Coverage
• Traffic Spikes
• Seasonality
• Supervisor: Agent Ratio
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11. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Continuity of Operations
• Flu
• Terrorism
• Weather
• Traffic
• Disaster
• Oddball
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12. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Environmental Impact
• Fuel
• Electricity
• Paper
• Greenhouse Gases
Carbon Taxes, City Access
Fees, Sanctions
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13. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
What’s In It For You:
. . . Save Money
100 Person Call Center
Real Estate - $300,000
Over 100 Assumptions. 20 Well Respected
Sources Contribute to the Model:
Electricity - $46,000
Turnover - $450,000
• ACS (Census), BLS, DOT, EPA, DOE,
FHA, GSA, NTSB
Absenteeism - $82,000
• Matthews and Williams, Reason Productivity + $600,0000
Foundation, WorldatWork, AMA, and
others Total $1,478,000
$14,780 per person, per year!
PLUS: other employee costs, parking, electricity, hardware, office
products, management, workers comp, redundancy, etc. 13

14. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Virtual Hiring:
Skills Matching
• Be more selective
• Establish criteria of soft-
and hard-skills
Focus on traits required for
working from home with
less supervision
Home Office Requirements
• Noise-free home-office
• Dedicated phone line
• Computer requirements
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15. Virtual Customer Care
The Bottom Line for Business
Virtual Management:
• Training / Coaching
• Monitoring
• Managing
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16. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Technology:
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17. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
It’s the Law:
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Workers Compensation
• Contractor vs. Employee
• Liability
• Licensing
• Double Taxation
• Zoning
• State / Local Overhead
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18. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Your Turn:
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19. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Thank You for Stopping By!
Want to learn more? Contact us:
Sally Hurley
shurley@VIPdesk.com
http://www.vipdesk.com
Kate Lister
Kate@Undress4Success.com
http://Undress4Success.com
You’ll be receiving an email with a link to this webinar.
Feel free to pass it on.
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20. Virtual Customer Care:
The Bottom Line for Business
Find Us Online
Website: http://www.vipdesk.com
Blog: http://blog.vipdesk.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/vipdesk
Facebook: http://facebook.com/vipdesk
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/companies/vipdesk
YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/vipdesk
Via RSS: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/23095083.rss
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