If you’re looking for a remote customer service job that you can do from home but you don’t have the luxury of a noiseless workspace, then work from home chat jobs may just be the perfect fit for you.
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Kids, pets, and other sources of background noise may make it completely impossible for you to talk to someone over the phone from your home. In addition, if you have social anxiety, you may find it extremely difficult to speak on the phone with anyone.
But this doesn’t mean you can’t work remotely!
Many companies hire people who can communicate with their clients and customers via email or online chat, enabling you to make money from helping others while not having to speak on the phone.
You can even take your work to coffee shops, restaurants, playgrounds, your local library, or any other place where you can access the internet without having to worry about the background noise.
Today, you’ll learn about work from home chat jobs: what they entail, the requirements, and companies who are currently offering this opportunity.
What Does A Work-From-Home Chat Job Involve?
To put it simply, work-from-home chat agents communicate with a company’s customers through text messaging, instant messaging, or email.
They’re normally asked to provide customer service by answering questions, resolving issues, and handling complaints.
What Are The Requirements To Be a Remote Chat Agent?
The minimum technical requirements are a computer that can run the software of choice of the company you plan to work for and a stable internet connection (i.e., DSL, cable, or fiber only; no satellite or wireless internet).
Aside from technical requirements, you also need to have soft skills such as fast typing skills (companies usually require a 30 to 40 wpm minimum) excellent written communication, attentiveness, empathy, independence, and extensive knowledge of the company’s offerings, products, and services.
A high school diploma or GED will normally suffice unless you’re offering support that requires you to have specific knowledge in a field. For instance, if you’re providing chat support for a medical product or drug, you’re often required to have at least a bachelor’s degree in a health-related field.
16 Companies Offering Work From Home Chat Jobs
Check out the list of companies below that offer online chat jobs. Some of the sites might say they’re currently not hiring. Don’t fret, though; bookmark these pages and check back from time to time and see if jobs have opened up.
1. FlexJobs
In contrast to the other companies on this list, FlexJobs is actually a job board where companies list various jobs.
The great thing about FlexJobs is that the companies that they allow to list here are carefully vetted. No job scammers are allowed here!
That saves you time and energy researching and vetting these companies yourself.
Plus, if you sign up as a member, you’ll have career coaches available to help you review your résumé and host mock interviews to get you on the road to your desired career.
Browse all the work at home chat job openings available now.
2. Apple
Apple occasionally hires work-at-home chat agents for its customer service and technical support divisions.
These 20 hour/week virtual positions get snapped up fast, so it pays to check the company’s job board often.
If you do land a chat support position with Apple, the company will send you your own computer for free!
Apple chat agents should be familiar with the company’s products and have some prior experience in customer service or live chat support. According to GlassDoor, Apple chat agents earn as much as $20.50/hour.
3. Arise
The Arise Platform connects individual customer service agents and customer service companies to provide customer support for businesses and brands.
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As an individual, you’ll need to register as a customer service agent and find opportunities with a virtual call center already working with the Arise Platform.
The usual form of customer service they provide is telephone customer service, but they also provide live chat and email support.
The good thing about registering for the Arise Platform is that it provides an opportunity for you to eventually open your own call center business and handle your own team of work-from-home chat agents if you want to.
4. Best Buy
Best Buy continually hires remote tech support chat agents who can troubleshoot Apple and Microsoft products, as well as some mobile apps, as part of its Geek Squad workforce.
Geek Squad agents must have at least one year of technical troubleshooting experience and reside in the USA (except for California, Alaska, Washington, and Puerto Rico).
5. Wayfair
Wayfair’s entire customer support team is remote and these are permanent positions.
They have openings all over the world and you can earn more if you are bilingual, but that’s not required.
6. Support.com
This company maintains a global network of work-at-home chat and call agents to provide customer and technical support for its clients, which are typically small- to medium-sized businesses.
Thus, you’ll need to have some tech support experience to successfully snag a position with Support.com.
Once hired, you’ll be able to schedule and work shifts that pay $11 per hour. There is also a mandatory training period, complete with a background check.
7. OutPLEX
This company is currently hiring Work at Home Customer Service Representatives.
You must possess a fairly good command of the English language, have a typing speed of 30 to 50 WPM, and have sales experience.
The pay for work at home chat agents ranges from $9-$14/hour; agents also earn commissions.
8. TeleTech
This company hires customer service and technical support representatives to work with various clients.
With TeleTech, you are hired on as an employee, and the company does require that you pass a series of MatchPoint tests before you are hired. You must also pass a drug test.
Work shifts with this company range from 4 to 6 hours; most TeleTech clients require that you work a minimum of 20 hours a week. The pay ranges from $9 to $11 per hour.
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9. The Chat Shop
Companies that need chat agents for their own websites work with The Chat Shop to hire such agents.
Available positions vary from sales to customer service to technical support, and all positions come with paid training.
To qualify as a chat agent you’ll need to demonstrate a typing speed of 80 WPM, be meticulous and organized, and be able to work 35 to 40 hours per week.
Chat agents work remotely, and the pay scale starts at $10 per hour.
10. Uber
This company hires so-called “Community Support Representatives” who work remotely to provide email support to Uber drivers and users.
The duties of CSRs include answering inquiries about a service, reporting a problem/complaint, and escalating an issue when deemed necessary.
Uber CSRs are expected to work 40 hours per week, with some of those hours spent on weekends. According to GlassDoor, CSRs earn $13 to $15 per hour.
11. Sedgwick
Sedgwick helps people handle their insurance claims.
They have quite a few work-from-home chat job opportunities available. Enter “work at home” in the search bar of their careers section to find the available positions.
Bilingual speakers are offered higher compensation rates.
12. Sitel
Sitel is a business process outsourcing (BPO) company that currently has multiple work-from-home chat job openings for various clients.
If your application is successful, you’ll be employed full time (up to 40 hours per week) and will be eligible for benefits, such as paid overtime, medical, dental, and vision benefits, and a 401k.
13. Everise
Everise is another global BPO currently hiring sales support agents to answer product and sales inquiries through chat channels.
At least six months of sales experience is required for this position. Bilingual Spanish/English agents are welcome to apply and have a higher pay scale.
14. ERC
ERC is yet another international BPO serving various industries, such as financial institutions, healthcare, media, and many more.
They are looking for both part-time and full-time work-at-home customer service agents to handle chat inquiries. Starting pay is $9.50 to $10.50 per hour.
15. Anthology
Anthology is an educational platform enabling learners and educators to interact in a virtual classroom.
They continually hire customer support and technical support live chat agents to assist users who have inquiries and technical issues with software.
16. Omni Interactions
Omni Interactions employs a wide network of gig workers (who they call Gig Brand Ambassadors or GBAs) to provide customer support to their clients via phone, email, live chat, text, and social media.
Currently, they only have openings for phone and email support agents, but add this page to your bookmarks and check back for new openings for chat agents.
How much do work-at-home chat jobs pay?
The majority of remote chat jobs salary falls within the $13 to $18 per hour range. Some pay less, while others pay more. Some companies will pay more and offer benefits, but those are rare and extremely competitive. Some positions are more sales based and will include commissions on top of an hourly rate as well.
Pay is always equivalent to the amount of work and effort needed. Work at home chat jobs are fairly easy and do not require much experience.
You should mainly be using these types of jobs for extra income with part-time work, or as an opportunity to get your foot in the door at a larger company.
The Bottom Line
Chat jobs hold a distinct advantage over more traditional customer support jobs: you get to do all of the work and never have to talk on the phone.
If you’re looking to land a work-from-home chat job, start with one of the above companies.
Being a chat agent is probably the most flexible and has the least barrier to entry of customer service jobs. However, this is also one of the lowest-paying jobs.
Check out other customer service jobs you can do from home to potentially find higher-paying remote jobs.
Be sure to check out our full list of work at home jobs as well, which has 90+ ideas listed with hundreds of companies looking for new employees.
Does being an online chat agent seem appealing to you? Which one of these companies are you going to apply to first? Share it with us in the comments!
Hi Steve,
I’m from Madagascar and the chat job is appealing to me. Can I do it anyway?
Wow!!!… Thank you for the great the information. Do you know how much people struggle to find this kind of jobs of working from home?
You saved a lot of people time of searching from one site to another.
I will definitely try some my self. Do they cost anything to register or to join?
No, these are REAL jobs meaning they pay YOU and not the other way around.
Hi there,
Thank you kindly for this list of chat job that I or my girlfriend could do from home. I have notice that a lot of the companies listed are multi-national, therefore by defination as long as they have an office in a particular country there ought to be some kind of chat job going…
You’re very welcome Derek. A lot of the companies do hire from anywhere in the world, but a strong grasp of the English language is usually a requirement.
There are quite a few options to choose from to work from home in the chat section. So this proves that eventually, most people will be working from home as new technology emerges and more and more people are looking for freedom.
But I agree that true freedom is one that allows you to work when you want to and to be able to earn more than these low hourly wages.
A lot of these jobs pay double the minimum wage. They make for great part-time work if you’re looking for a consistent paycheck week-to-week.
Thanks for adding this! I really appreciate your research. Now a day’s evety company have different policies. I have worked in many companies. But TalkAgent offered training period and required good communication skills.
Hi Steve!
Thank you very much for this post. All the offers seem very interesting for someone looking for work from home. I have some questions for you, though, if you don’t mind. Do you believe, beside typing abilities, companies look for specific software or programs knowledge or they are usually willing to train their staff? Do they hire people from other countries? I am interested in trying some of those online jobs. Your article was very helpful!
Every company is going to have different policies regarding location and experience. I haven’t personally worked for any of the companies listed above, but after looking through the listings, almost all of them offered a training period and required good typing skills. The requirements seem rather low as most of these are entry level jobs.
Hi Steve
Thanks for this article. I learned so much from it.Honestly speaking, when it comes to Apple customer support, I actually pictured folks working at a specific Apple training center of some kind not at home, and to top it off, you get your own PC. No wonder these jobs get taken up so fast.
Anyway, I really do appreciate your review of these jobs and they are interesting. However, some of them seem more demanding than regular jobs with having one to work over weekends?
I am actually looking for something whereby I could have an online business whereby I could earn a passive income from.
You mentioned something about your passion, that sounds like interesting stuff.
Can you tell me more about that?
Regards
Roopesh
Some of these can be demanding as they require you to log a certain minimum number of hours per week. You can usually hit the minimum by spending 2 hours per day with a few extra hours on the weekend. It’s a good way to earn some extra money each week without the obligations of a full-time commitment.
Great post. I’ve always wanted to work from home and be free from the 9-5. I’ve researched a lot online about what options are available to allow me to work from home and these are some great ideas. I never really considered live chat being an option but of course it’s becoming a more popular method of offering tech support so what better way to earn your money from home. Thanks for an inspiring article. :)
Cheers Steve! It could be a great way to earn some extra money in your downtime all from the comfort of your own home.