Feeling at home with the freelance lifestyle : A quick look at freelancing and the rise of online customer service

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For freelancers, working at home is an incredibly attractive proposition. You don’t just get paid to develop your skills; you also get to exercise complete control over your own time and space as well. 

Global trends in the job market show that an increasing number of professionals are cutting their teeth on freelance work online, coinciding with the current ubiquity of the Internet in up to 40% of the world and its particular spike in demand for customer service agents.

According to industry statistics, the rising demand in customer care isn’t going away soon and this bodes well for the large number of skilled customer service people in the Philippines.

Thanks to the surge in online-based freelancer talent marketplaces like Upwork, customer service practitioners are in a position where they can successfully build entire international-standard careers for themselves, getting first-world pay without ever having to commute. 

This has proven to be incredibly appealing to businesses of all types and sizes —from bootstrapped startup to established enterprise—all over the world since they now have access to the talent they need to build phenomenal support teams thanks to an earth-sized talent pool of freelance professionals , giving an ultra-nuanced matching experience compared to traditional hiring methods.

The customer service category is one of the fastest growing categories on Upwork. Last year alone, companies spent 54 percent more than the year before. Increasingly companies are discovering the value of having a distributed customer support team – from reduced turnover to improved customer satisfaction and 24/7 multi-channel support.

If you are a passionate service professional looking to start practicing online freelance customer care, now is a great time to start.

The challenges of freedom

While the trend is unquestionably empowering for both businesses and freelancers, it is not without its quirks.

One thing that scares many aspiring online freelancers off early on is the fear of losing the distinction between “work time” and “home time.” For freelancers customer service professionals in the Philippines, the need to address this is particularly pressing.

Luckily, here are some tips to help you feel more at home with the freelance way of life:

Build your office

Your first step in kickstarting the freelance life is building the space you’ll be working in. While things should be welcoming and familiar for you, never forget that a clear work area goes hand in hand with a clear mind.

Remove unnecessary clutter from your table, and ensure that you have a professional-looking backdrop in case you need to face clients during your next online meeting. Also ensure that your immediate environment is quiet enough to work in. This will be your office from now on, so everything counts if you want to stay distraction-free, regardless if you’re offering email, chat, or voice support.

You may also need to secure a stronger or more reliable connection, as you may need the extra bandwith and speed for conference calls and long customer service sessions. Compare reviews and current product offerings from your preferred service provider.

Dress the part

The thought of going to work in your PJs is something many home-based professionals aspire for, but this may be particularly bad for you in the long run. 

A big part of the professional mindset knowing how to make the best possible impression when you present yourself to clients. The gesture alone shows them that you’re willing to be the best version of yourself for them, and it helps build trust between both parties.

While you may be incredibly talented, it’s hard to trust someone to deliver if they look like they just got out of bed all the time. Just think of it as something that cements your image as a working professional. Studies also show that a healthy self-image boosts productivity and motivation. It’s never a bad idea to dress up for work!

Develop a routine

People need a routine to ground them to certain aspects of their working lives. For many, this starts as early as the morning commute; something that may be foreign to the home-based customer care professional. I mean, how far do you have to walk to go from your house to… the other end of your house?

Try setting routine habits to get you into that working mood. Some would prefer a quick morning workout before the bulk of the day’s deliverables. Others cook, while others would prefer a simple walk to the nearest coffee shop for a good cup of coffee.

With opportunities to develop your customer service agent career, the comforts of home, and all the time you need for the things that matter in life; could you ask for a sweeter life? If you are a skilled customer service agent , online freelancing can make your dream of a freestyle life come true.

About Upwork:

Upwork is the world’s largest freelance talent marketplace. As an increasingly connected and independent workforce goes online, knowledge work — like software, shopping and content before it — is shifting online as well. This shift is making it faster and easier for clients to connect and work with talent in near real-time and is freeing professionals everywhere from having to work at a set time and place.  Upwork is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices in San Francisco and Oslo, Norway. 

For more information, visit the website at www.upwork.com, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Elance-oDesk Relaunches as Upwork, Debuts New Freelance Talent Platform

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Upwork ushers in a new chapter of online work, making it easier for businesses to find talent quickly — aims at real-time hiring and collaboration

Elance-oDesk, the world’s largest freelance talent marketplace, today relaunched with a new name, Upwork, and a new freelance talent platform, also called Upwork. Talent, like software before it, is shifting online. As the online work market leader, Upwork is the driving force behind the reimagination of work and represents a new chapter of innovation. As part of the new Upwork platform, the company also debuted new features aimed at connecting businesses with great talent faster than ever (within minutes).

There is a global talent pool for businesses to tap into

In the U.S. alone, 53 million professionals freelanced last year1. Globally, independent professionals are earning more than $1 trillion per year2. “There is literally an earth-sized talent pool of freelance professionals out there, and yet most businesses still limit their thinking to rigid local hiring models,” said Stephane Kasriel, CEO at Upwork. “Upwork’s launch signals a new chapter of work in which people are able to hire quality talent — regardless of where the professional happens to be — in minutes. Freelancers were already earning $1 billion annually via Elance-oDesk — I predict they will earn $10 billion annually via Upwork within six years.”

New Upwork freelance talent platform makes finding quality talent online easier

“Hiring is one of the most important things a business does, and yet it’s also the hardest and most time-consuming. Upwork’s new platform will radically disrupt hiring norms, making it much easier to hire a proven, high-quality freelancer quickly as well as to collaborate with them after the hire,” said Hayden Brown, VP of Product Management at Upwork.

Highlights of the new Upwork platform’s innovation include:

Faster hiring – Traditionally it took around three weeks to hire. Upwork’s innovations will make it possible to hire in minutes or less by factoring in availability and immediacy of response (i.e., is the freelancer available to engage in a chat-like interview instantly?) when finding freelancers. To do this the platform utilizes:

Enhanced matching algorithms developed by Upwork’s team of Stanford PhDs.

A new work status feature allowing freelancers to set their availability (“Right away,” “Later” or “Not looking”).

Upwork’s new mobile app, from which it’s possible to post jobs, submit proposals, review applicants and contract on the fly – enabling hires to be made from devices in minutes.

Real-time group collaboration – Upwork also includes a new real-time group collaboration tool that is similar to Slack but completely free and available to anyone on the web with no limitations (users don’t have to be an Upwork customer otherwise). These new features enable immediate collaboration after a hire, allowing clients to file share and communicate with their new workers instantaneously. Support for video and integrations with popular tools such as GitHub, Google Drive and Jira are also expected later in 2015.

Upwork launch disrupts hiring norms and represents a new chapter of online work

The launch of Upwork comes two weeks after announcing the promotion of Stephane Kasriel, previously the company’s top tech executive, to chief executive officer. Kasriel led a global team of 300+ engineers, designers and programmers — many of whom are freelancers hired from the company’s own marketplace — to create the new Upwork platform.

Businesses are already posting more than 3 million freelance jobs and conducting 100 million searches annually on the Elance and oDesk platforms.

“Though we are already the largest freelance talent marketplace — with $1B in freelancer earnings annually and the first online marketplace large enough to qualify for a ranking of top U.S. staffing and talent engagement firms — enormous market opportunity remains, and we decided it’s time to up the ante. This new platform will make hiring near-instant, which is a radical reimagination of work,” said Kasriel.

“This has implications not only for the way people work, but for the job market itself. Reduce the friction in a job market and you open up more opportunity,” said John Horton, Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences at NYU Stern School of Business and former Staff Economist at oDesk.

There have been three chapters of work’s shift online:

Chapter 1 (2000). Resumes and job classifieds move online

Sites moved job-related content online. Job boards (such as Monster.com and Craigslist) and professional profile sites (such as LinkedIn) made information more readily available, but didn’t provide clear indication of whether professionals were currently motivated to find work. They also focused on traditional hiring of full time, on-premise employees.

Chapter 2 (2005 – 2015). Online workplaces launch

Sites such as Elance.com and oDesk.com launched and — in addition to providing job listings, profiles and other context needed for hiring — enabled the actual work to happen online, thereby reducing dependencies on physical location and opening up a broader talent pool. These sites disrupted traditional hiring models and empowered flexible work by enabling clients to connect with motivated independent professionals actively looking for freelance work.

Chapter 3 (2015 – future). Online work goes real-time 

Upwork represents a new chapter in which real-time hiring will be realistic for businesses. Traditionally it took around three weeks to hire; now, Upwork is at an average of three days to hire, and within the year it will be possible to hire in minutes or less. With a clear indication of the best professional actively available across a global talent pool, the biggest barriers to hiring — bandwidth and availability of specific skills — will disappear.

“This chapter will deliver the increased opportunity that comes with less job market friction to both clients and independent professionals. We are a company that will be around in 100 years. Upwork’s launch up-levels our innovation as we lead the online work industry into a new chapter,” said Kasriel.

About Upwork

Upwork is the world’s largest freelance talent marketplace. As an increasingly connected and independent workforce goes online, knowledge work —like software, shopping and content before it— is shifting online as well. This shift is making it faster and easier for clients to connect and work with talent in near real-time and is freeing professionals everywhere from having to work at a set time and place.

Freelancers are earning more than $1 billion annually via Upwork. Upwork is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in San Francisco, California, and Oslo, Norway.

For more information, visit our website at www.upwork.com, join us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.