Whenever there’s news about typhoons hitting the country, we have to make sure that our safety is our primary concern. Same thing goes with your call center as they also help their call center agents come to office or arrive home safely after work.

How do you keep yourselves safe on the road? Here are some tips:

    * Always listen to the latest news regarding the latest weather situation through company bulletins
    * Make sure to bring extra money, clothing, bottle of drinking water and food on your bag, you’ll never know when you’re going to need it
    * Enable your mobile phones to call, this means to charge your phone’s batteries and have enough credits to call someone in emergency situations
    * Also stash an umbrella (three folds is okay, but the longer umbrella is proved to last longer). This goes even if you have your car going to work (better to be safe than sorry)
    * Keep the number of your call center hotline or your immediate supervisor’s number to inform them if you will be late or absent or if you need some immediate help in nearby areas

So those are some helpful tips to remember to keep you, call center employees safe on the road. Can you add more to the list?

West Corp. said Monday that it will hire 700 more full-time employees at its two San Antonio area call centers to support the needs of an existing wireless client and the expansion of West’s mortgage services business.

West would not divulge the identities of the clients, nor would it release financial details.

Omaha, Neb.-based West already employs 1,500 workers in Northwest San Antonio and 400 workers in Universal City. The new hires are in addition to West’s recent announcement back in September that it would separately hire 500 people in Universal City.

Once hiring goals are reached, West will have 3,100 employees in the San Antonio region.

West will host job fairs on Tuesday, Oct. 19, from noon to 7 p.m., and on Wednesday, Oct. 20, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Individuals may apply online at www.westemployment.com.

A small business phone answering service or call center service can help you proactively manage your business and keep in constant contact with customers. You can focus on growing your business, while a team of professional agents acts as your full-time, peak-time or after-hours call center. A call center service provides 24-hour service, and helps you increase sales and improve customer loyalty. If you’d like your small business to improve sales and present a more impressive corporate image, sign up for a small business phone answering service or call center services.

Stay connected with your customers with a small business phone answering service or call center service. For a reasonable price, you’ll receive an individual phone answering solution to meet your business’ needs. The small business phone answering service or call center service will partner you with a team of agents who handle calls professionally, accurately and efficiently. You’ll be able to choose a customized greeting, and your team of agents will answer customers’ questions however you choose. A small business phone answering service or call center service will even act as your sales staff, taking and processing your orders; this takes the administrative task of answering phones away from your employees, freeing up time and saving you money.

Your customers will appreciate reaching a helpful, live person rather than an automated messaging system. Call agents gain a thorough understanding of your business, so they can provide customer support, take orders, qualify leads, schedule appointments, run surveys and more. They’ll handle emergency calls professionally, matching each call to the correct person. Agents will handle work-hours calls, taking over during your lunch break or whenever you’re busy. Call-answering services also handle bilingual calls and provide translation services. Agents will also handle after-hours calls—a small business phone answering service or call center service provides 24-hour phone answering service 365 days per year, so you can feel secure even on sick days or vacation days.

You’ll begin by letting the small business phone answering service or call center service gain an understanding of your business, and your goals for inbound calls. The small business phone answering service or call center service will work with you to develop scripts so agents will handle phone calls to appropriately meet your objectives. You’ll then receive call data to track how the service meets your goals. A small business phone answering service or call center service will provide you with call trends, source code data and conversion rates. A CSS, or Customer Service Specialist, will listen to all calls to track individual team member performance, so you can revise scripts as needed and keep track of progress.

Hundreds of job-seekers lined the halls of the TriPointe building in Evans this morning hoping to land a position with Afni Inc., which plans a 500-person call center.

The company plans to hire 250 jobs initially, then another 250 by February.

Almost 250 people lined up within the first 40 minutes of today's job fair, which will run until 7 p.m. at TriPointe, 3001 8th Ave.

“This by far exceeds our expectations,” Dave Usrey, Afni's human resources director, said of the job fair turnout.

By comparison, about 500 people turned out at an all-day job fair for a recently opened Afni call center in Florida, Usrey said.

Most of the positions at the Evans facility are entry-level call representatives, starting at $9.50 an hour with incentive opportunities. Afni will also hire at least 25 front-line supervisors as well as positions in human resources, information technology, operations, instructors and quality control. The front-line positions will start, depending on experience, in the low $30,000 range, Usrey said.

Among the job seekers in line for management positions was Bob Boswell, Republican candidate for House District 50 in the state Legislature. Boswell has been unemployed since the restaurant he owned, Western Sizzlin', closed eight months ago after more than 20 years as an Evans institution.

“It's a godsend,” he said of call centers arrival. “It ought to lay to rest, too, some of the comments made about people who are on unemployment. The vast majority of people on unemployment weren't looking to get on unemployment. Obviously, there are hundreds of us out here that are doing our damndest to get off of it.”

Nebraska human services officials ushered in a new way of offering economic assistance services on Tuesday.

The celebration focused on the first customer service center, where Department of Health and Human Services staff members will do interviews, take customer changes and provide information and referral services over the telephone.

By 2012, the state will have four customer centers to process and approve requests for economic assistance including food stamps; Aid to Dependent Children; energy assistance; Kids Connection health insurance; Medicaid; assistance to elderly, blind or disabled people; child care; job training; education; meals; respite; transportation; and employment preparation.

"More than ever before, we're working to bring efficiencies to the people in our state," HHS CEO Kerry Winterer said in a news release. "That means doing our best to provide great customer service and make it easier for people who are eligible for our services."

Through ACCESSNebraska, people can apply for services online. The system also offers document scanning and economic assistance case file retrieval.

By 2012, these customer service centers will be open.

    * Lincoln: approximately 100 staff; to take calls in November

    * Fremont: 150 staff; the target date is February 2011

    * Lexington: 50 staff; fall 2011

    * Scottsbluff: 100 staff; January 2012.

Todd Reckling, director of the Division of Children and Family Services, said the centers are not designed to be open to the public. The focus is on customer service over the phone.

"However, I want to emphasize that people will continue to have the option of going to a local office and talking to someone in person even after all four centers are in place," he said.

The local offices are equipped with computer kiosks and telephones.

The Lincoln center will be the test site for a new universal case management system. Instead of having one assigned caseworker, clients will call an 800 number for assistance. They won't have to wait for workers who might be on vacation or home sick.