Change Public Perception of Call Center Agents
I'm an engineering graduate. My major is in the field of Electronics and Communications. You would most likely expect me to work in a semi-conductor company or maybe in a telecommunications company. But nope, I don't. I don't want to think that my resume is not good enough for me to make it even in the most non-popular semi-con or telecoms company. Let's just say that I am one of those who are greatly affected by the economic crunch we are facing right now. But I'm not entirely unemployed. In fact, I'm currently in a job that pays pretty well. I am presently working in a call center company.
Given my educational background, I never thought that I'd ever work in a call center industry. I'll be honest about it, I was probably one of those who despised working on it. What does call center agents do anyway? They of course answer calls, but not only that, they also take in the rants of their callers, drink some coffee, give directions on how to use an appliance or how to connect to the Internet for those customers who are lazy to read the the appliance manual or the Internet usage handbook while sipping coffee in a spilled-proof-mug, apologize for the inconvenience, listen to some foul languages from their foreign callers and drink some more coffee. That's all they do: listen, talk, apologize and drink coffee. Or so I think.
Since I'm a coffee lover myself, the coffee-drinking "side" of the job is pretty easy for me but all this "listening, talking, apologizing" side of the job are actually not easy than what I thought it should be. Yes this will be the part that I will try to change the public perception, that was also my perception, of this so called job of call a center agent.
We don't have scripts.
I don't know with other call centers but in my company, reading a script is a no no. Aside from the fact that you will sound robotic if you are just merely reading, there will be a 100% possibility that you will not listen to your caller because you are more particular with reading your script. We only have opening spiels but no scripts. And since we don't have scripts, that means that we really have to be very very familiar or be that knowledgeable about the product or service we are supporting. And personally, I hate reading aloud and more personally, I hate memorizing. I'm a tech-support engineer so I'm supporting those customers who are having problems with their Internet connections. It could be that because I'm an engineering graduate, I find the job easier. I believe that every customer's problem is unique and must be dealt differently from the other. That's the reason why I've never and will never read a script
We've seen the real deal.
Most people think that we are supporting a product we don't even own. Or we were just trained from 2-4 weeks, and in the training, all we were given were just the company's history, company's profile and all those stuffs that a caller would not even most likely to ask about. To be blunt about it, I was sent back to training because I haven't resolve an issue or I was not able to deal with the customer's problem the way it was suppose to be dealt with. It was like..."Crap! I'm an engineer and I was sent to training by a call-center company? Holy Crap!" But I learned. I realized that there are still so much to learn in this industry. I've seen real routers, real switches, real hubs. I've seen what a real server look like. And for every call that I have, I know what I'm talking if I ask the guest to double check on the port of the room, or the problem is with the router. And we actually have one account here in my company that supports a cellphone industry. And my! All agents in that account have their own phone. I wish I'm in that account.
We don't just drink coffee at work.
It's not easy than what most people think. Although it's true that we are being paid to talk over the phone. But it's not easy to take in the frustration of a customer. It's not easy to apologize to a guest. It's not easy to pacify an irate customer. It's not easy to troubleshoot an issue to a caller who is having difficulty understanding the language. It's not easy to be patient all the time. But you know what? Every time I get to resolve an issue, every time I get to satisfy a guest, every time I get to laugh with my caller, it's hard to think that I had once despised this kind of job. I feel like I'm the smartest individual every time I get to have my guest get connected to the Internet. =) And I just don't drink coffee at work, I drink coke too.
I know this job that I'm currently in is not a life-time career. I'm still hoping that after this economic recession, I'd get to be a project engineer of a telecommunications company because that had always been my dream job. But if that time will come, I'd always be looking back to this first real job that I have. I've despised this job but oh boy - I've learned.
