Call Center Work At Home Jobs Opportunity

Houston Chronicle

They pitch sales in their pajamas

AT one moment, Jeanine Brown is selling Ronco knives. Five minutes later, she's answering questions about the secrets of getting rich from real estate foreclosures.

Brown is an agent for LiveOps, a company based in Palo Alto, Calif., with a national network of 16,000 operators who work from home answering the phone for TV infomercials.

Call Center Work At Home Jobs Opportunity

Looking For Something Specific?

Brown, who lives in Houston, works in her pajamas and never knows what she'll be selling until the script pops up on her computer screen.

"You have to learn to be relaxed," Brown said.

LiveOps is on a hiring spree, ramping up to handle all the calls for exercise machines and diet plans from viewers trying to live up to their New Year's resolutions.

LiveOps would like to add 200 agents to the 180 who are already working in Houston, said Tim Whipple, vice president of the virtual call center, whose clients include the sellers of Ronco knives and rotisserie ovens, Hip Hop Abs fitness program, WalkFit shoe inserts and the Whitney Education Group's program on foreclosure investing.

LiveOps also handles the calls for 1-800-Flowers.com and Pizza Hut, he said.

The work-at-home model works well for the company, which must staff up when its customers are in the buying mood — and that often occurs in the middle of the night.

The sophisticated shift-scheduling program it uses can also handle huge short-term spikes such as pizza orders during the Super Bowl, Whipple said.

It's also an attractive model for the many stay-at-home moms — and some dads — who want to pocket extra cash.

"It's been the best thing that ever happened," said Brown, who has a degree in marketing.

She has four children, ages 2, 3, 7 and 10, and wanted a way to supplement her husband's salary as a middle school teacher.

Day care is expensive, Brown said, so she wanted a job that she could do when her children sleep and her husband is at home. A friend told her about LiveOps. Read on…