Texting services such as KGB and Cha Cha provide flexible working hours for their workers and quick trivia responses for their clients.
Both companies hire their workers as independent contractors, and workers can work anywhere they have access to a computer. Karen Adams, human resources manager for KGB, said KGB asks its agents to work six hours a month. Cat Fowler, vice president of marketing and client core for Cha Cha in the Indianapolis area, said Cha Cha doesn't have any time specifications for its workers.
Adams said 70 percent of KGB's workers are students and there are 14 student agents at Ball State University.
"Our workers are independent contractors," she said. "College students like it so much because it's flexible."
When applying to work with KGB, she said, one has to complete a trivia challenge, go through a training session to familiarize oneself with the platform and go through a simulator using the real platform.
Workers earn 10 cents per question, and they get a 5 cent bonus if they pull from the KGB database, Adams said.
Fowler said 15 to 20 percent of Cha Cha's guides are students, and there are 398 student guides at Ball State.
She said there are three roles that a guide might fill: voice transcribers who forward questions to guides, expediters and specialists. She said students can qualify to be experts and play to what they're interested in.
"We have technically elaborate back end tools for guides, and they can pull from links and most currently asked questions," she said. "It's a great way [for students] to make money in their spare time."
Sophomore Becky Price has worked for Cha Cha for the past six months.
"I needed money, and I was an insomniac," she said. "It's not a huge money-maker, but it does help for little things."
She said she gets e-mails when Cha Cha has a lot of questions they need answered, but she doesn't have to be online for any certain amount of time each week. The process, she said, is simple.
"You sign on to the Cha Cha page, and questions pop up when you're online," Price said. "You have to answer within ten minutes."
Sophomore Megan Faulkner worked for Cha Cha in 2008 from October to December. She said it was convenient at first, but when she considered how much she was getting paid per hour, she decided it wasn't worth her time.
Faulkner said she was getting paid 10 cents per question, and it took two minutes on average to answer each question.
"You're pressured to answer as quickly and accurately as possible," she said. "It's a ludicrous amount you're getting paid, around four or five dollars an hour."
Both companies have increased their volume of business since they added text responses to their list of services.
Adams said KGB began in 1992 with internet and voice-in questions, and it launched its texting service in January 2009.
"KGB is the largest independent provider of information worldwide," she said.
Cha Cha began in September 2006 and launched its texting service in January 2008. It is the self-proclaimed number one texting service in the United States.
Numbers for KGB
- Launched its text answering service in JanuaryJaunary 2009
- 70 percent of its agents are students
- 242 agents are from Indiana
- 14 student agents from Ball State University
- Agents earn 10 cents per question answered
- Agents have to work six hours per month
- Text 542 542
Numbers for Cha Cha
- Launched its text answering service in January 2008
- 15 to 20 percent% of its guides are students
- 1,200 to 1,500 guides are from Indiana
- 398 student guides from Ball State
- Agents earn from 3 to 20 cents per question answered
- Text 242 242
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