BusinessWeek - January 23, 2006

Call Centers in the Rec Room

“Home agents are also more productive. Willow CEO Angie Selden says the company's home agents make sales that are up to 25 percent higher than in call centers; their customer satisfaction rates are often 40 percent better.

“…The advantage for employees is an end to days where more time is spent commuting in a car than lounging on the living room couch -- or having only enough for a trip to McDonald's after job-related expenses are paid.

"’I could get a job at the mall, but the $8.50 an hour would all be taken up by day care and gas,’ says Crystal Gilot, a military spouse who works for Willow from her home in Sierra Vista, Ariz., near Fort Huachuca. Her two kids are trained like soldiers not to utter a syllable when she's on the phone. She says that by taking calls for AAA roadside assistance and Office Depot, she can earn up to $20.70, with incentives. But she usually averages $15 an hour -- extra income that will be helpful when Gilot's husband leaves in six months for his second tour in Iraq.”