Home Based Call Centre Rescues Seaford Man

 

Despite a long and painful medical history, Andy Dovey, from Seaford, between Brighton and Eastbourne in East Sussex, took a leap of faith from the security of benefits and decided to start a venture with a company that encouraged him to build his own home based call centre.

For more than a decade Andy has endured tremendous pain and suffering, yet he is still positive, refusing to allow his entrepreneurial spirit to be dampened.

It all started before the millennium when Andy was diagnosed with a tumor in his foot. At first he rejected the idea of operations and continued working as a financial consultant. As the years slipped by, Andy could no longer walk and eventually had to accept defeat and throw himself at the mercy of the NHS.

He spent the next year in and out of Guys Hospital having a succession of operations, with subsequent daily visits from Community Nurses to change dressings and support his recovery.

Andy had no choice but to live on State benefits for a couple of years, but then ventured back into the world of commerce to start a small business called ‘Pet Favourites’, which was a web based pet supplies home delivery service, which he started in 2006.

Once again, his foot was becoming increasingly painful and he was often unable to walk due to many years of limping. Even though his business was still flourishing, Andy physically could not continue and he sold it in 2008.

For the next year, Andy worked as a fundraiser for a charity call centre in Brighton. Travelling by bus was incredibly painful and he often found that by the time he got to work, he was in too much pain to talk on the phone. Due to the public transport ride being so hard on his daily physical strain, he couldn’t get himself to work and back, so once again his illness conquered him.

Then, in 2009, Andy heard that Arise Virtual Solutions were looking for working professionals to run their own home based call centre and Andy grabbed the opportunity to work from home. As Andy was already self employed, he whizzed through the process to become a ‘certified professional’ for Arise UK.

After the initial training, Andy now handles sales orders and is able to use his skills and experience working from home in retail account management. Andy is one of thousands of Arise home based professionals across the UK working with inbound and outbound calls, routed to them from shopping giants such as Shop Direct and Littlewoods.

Working at home for Arise is a huge benefit for Andy as it allows him to earn an income without physical strain or relying on benefits. Andy said: “Once I get downstairs, I am at work. The hours with Arise are flexible. I’m in less pain now than I have been for years and I am able to keep positive as I am earning money. Even on days when I am unable to go out, I am talking to people and doing something useful.”

Arise Virtual Solutions is the world’s leading provider of virtual systems to improve business results through sales and customer services.

By retaining home working professionals, such as Andy, they deliver high-quality voice, e-mail, and personalised customer service, technical support, and sales. This is accomplished through a network of entrepreneurial, self-incorporated home-based certified professionals across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

VP of Strategic Sourcing & Operations, Jared Fletcher said: ‘We may be in a recession, but Arise UK is building a new and modern workplace model by adding independent home based businesses to the UK economy. This year alone we’ll welcome 1,200 new home based professionals to our virtual network and would like to hear from more inspiring people like Andy.’

For more information on how you could work from home as a virtual customer service professional, browse http://www.arise.com/in-the-united-kingdom.