What is a Call Center
If you desire a job where you sit down for most of the work day and don’t have to take any work home with you then working at a call center might be the perfect job for you. Call center jobs can seem easy and non-demanding but that is not always the case. Each call center has their own set of demands. Even though each call centre is unique, there are similarities in every call center that you should consider before you decide to work at one.
Call centers exist to provide customer service to national or international customers and the amount of people calling these service centers is usually pretty high. Call center employees must develop a high tolerance of answering phone calls one after the other. Does answering the phone and talking to people for a living sound easy to you? Well, it is not easy. If you choose to work at a call center not all of the customers will be pleasant to you and not all of their questions and concerns are going to be instantly solvable. Depending upon which call center you choose to work for, the majority of the time you will be answering calls will be because customers are angry at the company or have problems with products that you yourself cannot physically be there to help them fix. Even though you would not have to see them face to face, serving irate customers can wear on your nerves and make you feel stressed. If you have a low tolerance for argumentative customers, then working at a call center may not be suitable for you.
Call center work might seem easy because you have a pre-determined script created and issued by the call center’s management team to recite on each call to customers but repeating the same script day after day can make you feel bored and robotic. Call centers also have employees who listen to the calls of other agents in their company to monitor the quality of service they are providing to customers. Call centers must do this for legal reasons to ensure that customers and the company are protected in case of discrepancies but being closely monitored does very little to make an employee feel comfortable. Being monitored is no different than being spied on and if that bothers you then think twice about working at a call center.
When you work for a call center, your schedule is never your own. Some service centers operate 24 hours per day and 7 days for week and if you are new to the company then chances are that you will be forced to work the less than desirable evening or overnight shifts. Break times at call center jobs are closely monitored too because each minute that you are late is a minute that your management team will rationalize could have been spent answering a customer’s call. Because there are usually so many customer service representatives working at a call center you have to request vacation time that is compatible with the company’s needs. If you are new to the company, forget about having the Christmas holidays off if the center is open because employees who have worked for the company longer than you will claim and receive those days off first. It may be years before you are granted the days off that you prefer because your tenure will always be lower than the more senior agents.
Call center jobs are great for people who are talented at sales but if selling products to customers makes you uncomfortable then you should think twice about joining a call center. All call centers have a product or service to provide to customers and the management team at the company will pressure the staff to meet certain sales quotas and targets in order to keep their job security. Many call centers provide sales training to employees to help them achieve those targets but at the end of the day despite your best efforts you cannot force customers to accept your sales offer. You need to be comfortable with the risks that should you not meet the sales quotas at a call center, you may not be able to keep your job.
Call centers might seem like secure jobs but there is no such thing as job security. The only security you can depend on is your own ability to work hard and build a career that you have the majority of control over. Working at a call center can give you the training and experience that you need to succeed in other areas of your life but unless you own the call center you will never be in complete control of your job. Consider all of these factors before working at a call center.
