How to Start a Customer Service Business

I was a little surprised to see so much interest in how to start a customer service business on my businesses you can start from home survey. Customer service is one of those jobs people either love or they hate. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. As this is a service I offered myself in my early Virtual Assistant days, I’m going to tackle this one myself.

There are a few different ways you can offer customer service to other businesses. You can offer phone support, email, chat, or any combination of the three. Phone service is always the most common, so that’s what I’m going to address. There are some things you need to accept before jumping headfirst into a customer service business.

Pros

There is always a need for customer service. It can make or break a business. Solopreneurs often don’t have the time to handle every little call. They have much bigger fish to fry. This opens up big opportunities for virtual service providers. However, many service providers don’t care for customer service either. In the few short minutes of keyword research for this post, I can tell you there are far more people searching for this type of support than there are people looking for how to start this type of business.

These are going to be long-term clients. This isn’t a one-off project. You are hopefully going to be landing steady clients for a good length of time.

When I was offering this service, there was little competition compared to other service offerings. It wasn’t taking long to land clients.

Cons

You need to provide the best, most professional options for your client. This is likely going to include utilizing a virtual phone system. If your client is simply using the call forwarding option offered by their phone company, they may find themselves with a hefty bill at the end of the month. There are often double-billing charges with using this service. If you are fielding a good number of calls this can be a shocker to your client. You also need to consider any outbound calls to your client’s customers that you may be making. Obviously those calls are going to be billed to you. RingCentral covers both of those bases, and is what I used in the past. Calls are forwarded to you without double-billing the client. You can make outbound calls on that account if needed. All incoming and outgoing calls are logged by RingCentral. There is complete transparency for your client. They have a number of plans available, and you may be looking at around $50 per month for this service. You can add this into your costs, or bill your client separately for this system. If you are utilitizing their toll free number, watch those minutes for your client. At this time, there are 1,000 minutes included each month. You are billed 3.9 cents for each additional minute.

Pricing is an area of concern. Are you going to need to be available to field calls eight hours per day? If so, you may not want to bill by the call. If you are staring at your computer eight hours per day waiting for calls yet only take 15 minutes worth of calls per day, this billing option may not be the most profitable for you. However, you likely won’t want to bill your client for eight hours per day. If you try, you probably won’t land many clients. Do ensure you are getting a bit of compensation for your availability however. Make it worth your while for the limited personal flexibility this business model offers.

You also need to set clear boundaries for your hours from Day One. You do not want to get yourself into the position where your client is expecting those calls answered live day and night, Monday through Friday, and weekends, and holidays. Set the rules. Make your availability clear and known in your initial conversations and in your contract.

Set yourself up for success and you should have no problem landing clients. Every business needs an outstanding customer service system. I had clients ranging from other VAs to insurance agents to solo entrepreneurs with no online presence. Network! Sign up for an RFP system like Shelancers. There are thousands of opportunities out there.