The call center industry pioneered the all-virtual business model more than a decade ago. As a result, thousands of people now work from home taking pizza orders, sending flowers, booking flights, and answering informercial calls from insomniacs. Now think about that. Here's an industry that relies on fairly low wage workers to:

• work untethered,
• provide their own workplace--one that meets the companys' requirement for privacy and quiet,
• purchase and maintain their own computer and broadband service,
• and meet the stringent security standards required for handling credit card numbers, social security numbers, medical information, etc.,
  

VIPdesk, is an all-virtual call center based, well, everywhere. They provide customized solutions for premium brands such as Land Rover, Eddie Bauer, and others. "We refer to our home-based staff as Brand Ambassadors," says Sally Hurley, president of VIPdesk, "because their job is to inspire customer loyalty through great customer service." I asked Sally what led them to the virtual model. She described it as a matter of business survival.

VIPdesk started life as a concierge service for MasterCard and other credit card issuers. If you hold a premium MasterCard, chances are you can call their 800 number and reach someone who can help you reserve a flight to Machu Pichu, purchase tickets to see Wicked on Broadway, or send your Mom a bouquet of her favorite orchids. As a platinum customer, you expect great service. That's where, back in 1997, VIPdesk saw its niche. At least that was the plan.

"We started out with a traditional big-building, cubicle-farm approach but quickly--or, actually not so quickly--learned that the kind of people who made great brand ambassadors didn't want to sit in a cubicle eight hours a day earning $10/hour. Initially we thought, well, maybe we're in the wrong place to attract the kind of people we need. Over the next several years we pulled up stakes and moved three times in search of a reliable pool of talent; to no avail. There just had to be a better way. In 2001, we completely abandoned the bricks and mortar approach for a home-based agent model. That decision, it turns out, made all the difference."

Here are just some of the benefits VIPdesk realized when they sent their people home:

• The average age of their customer service representatives went from mid-twenties to early forties.
• They attracted more educated people. Over 90% of their reps have college experience and 5% have advanced degrees.
• Their retention rate went from 100% turnover, to 90% retention.
• Their employee to manager ratio went from 12 to 1, to 25 to 1.
  

Now if that doesn't inspire managers to consider telecommuting, here's the clincher,: VIPDesk has never lost a single client to a competitor--something Sally attributes entirely to their virtual business model.

VIPdesk's experience is not unique. Time and again, companies have found that a home-based approach yields more qualified, more engaged, more professional, more available, more productive, and less expensive (by a long damn shot) workforce

If an industry can achieve unprecedented success by sending its lowest paid employees home, why doesn't the rest of the world follow suit?