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Guest post by: Daryl James Become an Author

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Customer support representative, as a discrete freelance job or as one facet of the "virtual assistant" position, is a great opportunity for a remote provider with strong interpersonal skills and a natural ability to solve problems. But it can be hard to stand out among applicants for a remote freelance job involving human language and "common" interpersonal support skills. Following are some tips to improve your chances of landing that freelance customer support representative position:

Review your customer support profile:
* Spelling and grammar mistakes can kill your freelance chances. You're asking to represent someone's business to the world as a customer support representative. You need to be demonstrate a professional level of grammatical abilities.
* Mention "customer support" in your freelance skills list or in the title for your customer support representative profile. Make sure your professional profile reflects your interest in the freelance customer support opportunity.
* Take the right freelance customer support skills tests. Placing highly in online Call Center Skills Test and Email Etiquette Tests (such as those found over on oDesk.com) demonstrates your virtual assistant customer support representative skills and shows you've taken time to establish your freelance abilities rather than just inquiring into the virtual assistant position because you happen to have a phone.

Nail the customer support interview:
* Be professional, positive and polite. The person outsourcing the virtual assistant position is thinking, "This is the voice my customers will hear when they call in for support. This is the attitude my customers will encounter."
* Ask smart questions. A customer support person or versatile virtual assistant is a freelance problem solver who deftly cuts to the heart of the matter to come up with a quick, appealing solution. Inquire about the kinds of questions the outsourcing organization's callers will have, the tools and authority you'll have to solve the customer's problems, the customer support training you'll receive and the metrics through which you will receive feedback on your freelance efforts. Ask the outsourcing company if you can listen in on a few live (or prerecorded) customer support calls?
* Treat the the person outsourcing the customer support/virtual assistant assignment like a customer. When the interview is over, ask whether there's anything else you can do for them right now, and wish him/her a good day, leaving them feeling the way they want their customers to feel after speaking with you as a customer support representative.

Do the job:
* Keep a reliable freelance schedule. If you aren't able to commit to a consistent time commitment right now, freelance virtual assistant jobs probably won't work out for you.
* Provide frequent support reports. While there is a degree of autonomy expected--after all, the company is outsourcing the customer support virtual assistant work to you--you should be sure to let them see that you are a thorough and responsible freelance professional, and provide them all of the information needed to be confident in your customer support work as a virtual assistant .
* Make people happy. Be a creative freelance problem solver within the parameters the outsourcing company sets forth. Never tell customers, "Hey, I don't know," or "That's not my department." Be positive, empathetic, and utterly solution-oriented: "I will get back to you with an answer" or "Let me ask my manager."

If you're a quick-thinking "people person," you could have a lot of success as a freelance customer support representative and/or virtual assistant helping outsourcing companies to keep their customers satisfied. Just make sure that from the minute you apply for the remote freelance customer support representative job, you know how to keep your customer (the employer) satisfied, too.

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