You would be surprised that many companies rely on freelancers to deliver outstanding customer support.
Depending on the project, you can answer questions, provide support, walk users through main procedures, or simply interact with them. Let’s see how you can take advantage of these opportunities without turning them into a full-time job.
Different shapes of customer support specialists
For this analysis, inspecting some available job listings that offer customer support positions is crucial. So, we can make the following observations:
- Some jobs require classic customer support, such as answering questions customers provide via live chats, emails, or calls.
- When finding a position, you must focus on the working hours and time zones. Some require being available during business hours in particular countries (such as the USA, UK, or Italy).
- Customer support specialist roles could extend further, such as attending clients’ meetings to gather requirements or needs and refining implementation procedures.
- Freelancing gigs will also require people to know a particular language, such as English, Spanish, Italian, or Finnish.
- While these freelancer gigs should be more flexible, many postings specify that more than 30 hours per week are required. Thus, you might have little wiggle room to negotiate your schedule.
- You should also learn new skills, such as using a ticketing system software you have never encountered.
- It is also very likely that most of these freelancing gigs will require you to sign NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreements) to preserve companies’ information.
- The concept of customer support might be slightly different in these job postings. One offer included a role for interacting with social media followers on behalf of the actual creators.
- Promised fees differ project by project: from $3 to $25 per hour.
What do you need to qualify?
All customer support specialists need strong communication skills (especially if you’re accepting calls) and, most importantly, patience. Not all queries and remarks coming your way will be pleasant. Thus, prepare to deal with angry, intense, and unsatisfied customers or clients.
In addition to your personality traits, you should have the necessary equipment (such as a decent microphone for customer calls). High-speed internet is also a great help in maintaining uninterrupted communication with clients. Of course, some minor interruptions are possible, but constantly freezing or lagging devices might be unable to cope with the demand.
The possibilities of earning online
Becoming a customer support specialist is one of the options for launching your freelancer career. Besides that, you can browse the available job postings, including anything from travel writers to data cleansing analysts.
Online earning opportunities also don’t end with freelancing. You can sell digital goods or teach others via online courses or tutoring sessions. If you have a strong internet connection, you can also use it to generate some free money. Services paying people for their unused internet bandwidth don’t require any investment or unique setup.
Also, you only need a compatible device to start sharing and earning money online. The same applies to sharing computing power and storage that companies need for more efficient rendering or other demanding activities. Of course, try to choose trusted services and double-check their reviews.
Customer support specialists can make or break a service. Thus, you should educate yourself on providing the best quality of service. Since freelancers are not protected by employment contracts, losing to other competitors is possible. Even if a service decides to go in another direction, don’t take it as a discouragement and continue honing your skills.
