Today I'm writing about one of the bad sides of working with some of the work at home phone order companies. Most people think "Oh, I'll just have to process someone's order and get paid for it!" Sorry, but it's not that easy, and I want to clear up this misconception now. In addition to selling the product that the customer has called in to order, you also will be trying to get that customer to buy multiple other items, from additional items similar to the one that the customer is purchasing, to different magazines and membership clubs.
For example:
If Linda calls in to order a juicer, it could then be an agents job to try and sell her another juicer, some cookbooks that she could use with that juicer, and maybe even a fitness program or a magazine subscription.
So in addition to Lisa just buying the juicer, we would be offering her upsells (additional items along with her juicer), downsells (reducing the price of the additional items if she turns it down), and even affinities (magazine subscriptions, free vacation getaways, and membership clubs.)
As an agent, most companies require us to offer her every single item, since there can be a large profit made from these items. Because there can many items to offer, a call that could take five minutes might even reach half an hour. This can make the customer very frustrated if they do not want the items, and they sometimes might start yelling at you that "No, for the last time, I DO NOT want anything other than what I ordered!" The only way that you can usually skip all of the offers is if the customer says that they will hang up or cancel. Usually, you finally get to the end of these call with the customer frustrated and you tired from saying that you're sorry but you are required to read these offers. Though I still think that working at home is great, I just want people to take this into consideration before applying.
(Additional Note: Not all work at home companies do this with the calls they take. With the ones that do, not every call is this way. What happens is the call company's clients (the ones who are actually selling the product, will decide whether or not they want to add additional offers to the product they are selling. Also, you will usually receive an incentive per additional offer sold.)
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