Call Center Jobs
Will you flourish or flop?
Is a call center job a chance for you to flourish or flop? Many people will trash call center jobs but there is a portion of the population that flourish and succeed. additionally. I worked in a large financial call center for approximately four years. I was a success at many functions and a failure at other functions. In that time, I was quarterly top agent 3 times but still did not feel confident.
Are You a Rising Star?
I knew my weakness was that I was too slow at writing notes and finding answers to customer questions. That was drilled into me at every weekly, monthly and annual review. The problem was that I just could not work any faster. Yes, I survived for 4 years but most of the time it was not a good fit for my emotional nature. Hope you are one of the “stars” of the call center jobs.
Are you a good fit for a call center job-answer the questions below:
1. Competent with operating the computer?
Many of the large call centers are financial institutions-banks and all types of insurance companies, internet centers, sales centers. These companies expect that you are competent at functioning in their computer system. There could be as many of five or six functions that each have separate codes and information.
- Can you operate up to five information systems to answer customer questions?
- Do you know how to send a screen shot to a supervisor?
- Can you answer customer questions and work the team instant mail at the same time?
2. Verbal Learner?
Most companies want people who can be told information only one time verbally. They expect the person to retain the information or know how to get the information in a information system-must be fast at finding the information. If you are the type of person that needs to write notes and study them-you are bound for failure in a call center job.
3. Networking Skills?
Working as a team member is very important at a call center. The ability to network with co-workers is critical. This networking skill needs to be effective with your team members, people outside of your team and management.
- Are you knowledgeable enough to offer your help to co-workers? No matter how friendly you are, you have to give help in order to get help.
- Confident that your answers are correct? Faking it does not last long. People will know you are a fraud if you give incorrect answers then eventually you will be ignored.
4. Does constant time monitoring bother you?
Every second you are working at your call center job is being monitored. The computer will record if you are more than 2 minutes late from breaks, lunch, if you take restroom break and how long you are gone. You must be ready to work on time and leave on time. You must attend every day scheduled for work or usually 3 strikes and you are gone.
5. Job quality monitoring
The supervisor’s main job description is to monitor your answers to customers. Many times supervisors are not trained to help you with customer problem answers because they have never preformed your particular call center job. You should be networking with other co-workers to get answers to difficult customer questions. The supervisors are present only to monitor your calls and time your attendance. That is a rather huge job.
Questions for Job Monitoring:
- How many seconds does it take for you to answer a call?
- How long did it take for you to answer the customers questions?
- Was the answer correct?
- Did you have a “smile” in your voice?
- Did you begin and end the call by company script?
- If you transfer a call, was the transfer necessary?
- If you place a call on hold to check for an answer to a customer question, did you check back with the customer every 3 minutes?
- How do your customer after call customer surveys (CSTAT) rate on a scale of one to ten (the highest)?
- The computer records every call and you and your supervisor will be listening to one or two of your recorded calls usually once a week for rating and improvement.
- Your supervisor will probably be required to sit on a side-by-side and listen to your live calls about once per month. Supervisor rates your voice quality, how efficiently you work the computer, accuracy of answers, do you use the script when appropriate?
In conclusion, the call center job is very demanding but there are some people who just are a “good fit” for the job. The call center job stars are fast verbal learners, shine in their efficiency and love being at work. I know this is true. There were many employees who are promoted to higher positions and soon became leaders. If you think you are one of the “good fit” people. Go for it! You will have a golden future in a call center job!
If a Call Center Job is not for you:
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