Life as a call centre employee can at times be hard. I’ve requested that people share their experiences with me, so I felt that I would first of all share some of my experiences. I have worked in three call centres in my life (one which I’m currently employed by) all in the financial industry.
I was classed as a customer service representative (CSR) in each role. I have been required to deal with applications for credit, renewing insurance, opening savings, transferring money, resolving complex enquiries, answering simple questions etc. The intrinsic part of each role was customer service, helping customers as much as I can and trying to resolve any complaints that customers had.
What I’m looking for from people is specific examples of incidents relating to different aspects of the job. Below I’ve tried to put an example for each section from an experience of my own or at least an explanation of what I’m looking for. I do not just want negative examples but good ones too. The most important aspect is how the incident made you feel towards the job. Throughout my ongoing blog this will obviously be expanded but as a starting point I thought I would draw on some past experiences.
Training
Posters, posters and more posters. Oh and PowerPoint presentations. Material that should take an hour dragged out to fill an afternoon. Boring, long and tedious. All the while it makes you feel like a five year old. This sums up every training I’ve ever done. I’ve often found that I learn the most once I’m actually on the phone.
Taking calls/customers
I have spoken to customers who have called me all the names under the sun, customers who have been crying because I can’t help them, others who rant against the system but do not personally attack me. On the other hand I’ve spoken to people who could not have been nicer or more grateful for the assistance I managed to give them.
Calls obviously impact your day and mood as much as you try to not let it; this job requires a thick skin.
Team
Everywhere I’ve worked the people have made the job. I often find I keep in touch with my training team even when we’re split up on the floor as well as getting to know my actual team. There’s only ever been once I went into a team and was not made feel welcome at all. Instead they kept to themselves and did their own thing at lunch leaving me and two other girls to stick together.
Other than that I’ve got to know some lovely people from a wide variety of backgrounds that means you can have a range of conversations depending on who you are talking too. These people can make a hard job bearable by keeping up group morale and having a joke between calls.
Targets/pressure
Targets are standard in call centres but the targets themselves can change. I’ve been targeted on calls per net hour, call handling time, call quality, sales, errors, break/code time, after call time etc. I found that the more targets I had the more pressure I faced to juggle them because if one target was off base then chances are so were the rest.
Continual meetings with managers to tell me I was off target when I knew that and tried to fix it added more pressure and often were useless when it came to fixing the problem. My biggest problem with the targets I faced were if I wasn’t meeting them it was assumed it was because I wasn’t trying when sometimes I felt it was because I didn’t know how to do what I was being asked and no one knew how to help so I was left myself to try and solve it.
Call quality has been, and will always be, the bane of my life. The analysis of my calls had the most detrimental effect on my confidence as I felt like I was being continually watched, monitored and having every word analysed.
Procedures/scripts
Every role, particularly if financially regulated, will have certain statements that must be said word for word to customers. Outside of these statements each company I have worked for has differed in how much freedom you have in the way a conversation is conducted with the customer. One position had a standard greeting and end call statement but within the call as long as the correct information was given that was acceptable, whilst the other provided strict scripts to be followed without deviation.
The second role became repetitive very quickly and I felt myself losing motivation which was reflected in my voice. I may as well have been a computer recording or a trained monkey and therefore I felt completely unvalued as an employee.
The role where I had more freedom however gave me a sense of responsibility and freedom within the role.
Shifts
I’ve worked several different shift patterns from five week rotational shifts to eleven hour static shifts for three days a week. I’m more interested in how flexible places are accommodating you with shifts and how the shifts affect your personal life. For instance for myself I worked 2pm till 10pm for two weeks out of five and this meant that by the time I got home I would see my partner for half an hour in the day then he would go to bed whilst I stayed up. There were times here when I felt we were drifting apart.
Soft skills
“Build rapport” is a phrase I hear constantly. Give the customer the personal touch by showing genuine interest and striking up a conversation. This is something I used to, and still sometimes do, struggle with. This is mostly due to my own preferences that when I phone somewhere I want them to do what I ask and not chat to me. Also in my experience it’s not a skill that is taught nor is there a universal definition. Different managers and different companies have different expectations as to what counts as ‘rapport building’.
Inbound VS outbound
I have only ever worked inbound so I have no experience to pull on to compare against outbound. All stories regarding outbound would be most welcome and to anyone that’s worked both a comparison of your own experiences would be excellent.
Career opportunities
Every call centre job I have had has promoted the brilliant career opportunities and maybe I just didn’t take advantage of them. I’d love to hear from anyone who has or from anyone who did or tried to pursue a career.
Personal
This is the section that I know most people will be wary of discussing. I will easily admit that working in a call centre environment completely destroyed my confidence and has led to me having some anxiety issues and now on medication for this. This is mostly due to the environment where your behaviour is constantly monitored both on and off the phones and the fact that I struggled at first with working in a call centre. My attendance was poor in one role and the other I only did for five weeks. Both made me feel completely unvalued and to a certain extent useless.
I know depression, anxiety and stress are common in those that work in call centres. I know that some call centre employees bounce from call centre to call centre with a few months spent in each and I also know (from official statistics) that attendance in call centres is an ongoing issue.
What I need to know is why from the people exhibit these behaviours. What is it about the role that causes stress/anxiety? Why leave jobs after a few months? Why do you struggle to go in or get ill a lot?
Another common aspect I discovered that I do not like is the culture of call centres; everything is gossip, a rumour can spread like wildfire and everyone seems to sleep with everyone else regardless of any other relationship. There were times when walking across the floor felt like being at a cattle show. Is this typical of call centres due to the nature of having primarily young staff or was it my bad luck I got this particular call centre?
So, now you know me a bit better and you know what information I’m trying to collect. I’m going to start interviews soon so get in touch