Human Resource Executive - May 16, 2006  

Home Work

"Consider WillowCSN in Miramar, Fla., which hires independent contractors for its virtual call-center services nationwide.
"Its 3,000 'cyber agents' are required to form sub-S corporations, which roughly costs each agent $75, says Basil Bennett, president of the 8-year old company that has doubled in size over the last several years.

"...'The call-center business is a very analytical business,'[Basil Bennett] says, adding that supervisors monitor calls and coach agents during live phone calls since customers can't hear them.

"The key challenge Willow faces now is keeping ahead of client demand for more agents. 'Once they start to see the quality of people, they go way beyond what they ever told us they were going to do,' Bennett says. 'Every one of our clients that compares us with their internal-operations employees are shocked how much better our performance metrics are when compared to their own.'"