A real work at home job

PaulK_3

pottsy_79 wrote: »

Hi guys - I am now working for Teletech @home on the technical side and just wanted to share my feelings and observations.
I would just like to point out that no one has asked me for a P45 or P46, and after speaking to my referees, none of them have been spoken to either.

All my referees were contacted before I took live calls so either something has changed or someone is behind.

The training takes three weeks, but could be done in 3 nights if you can avoid all the technical problems - which did verge on the ridiculous really - some of them quite worrying for technical helpdesk people!

No it can't, the training takes as long as it takes and it looks as though some agents struggled last time round as it is. Yes, there are often technical issues during training, mainly due to the nature of the way we are all working but to be quite honest I would prefer to see the training lenthened anyway as it would seem that some agents are skip reading info and not fully understanding it, at least with the tech issues people are getting a second chance (if they want to take it) to read through notes etc. Believe me, you do not want to rush people into their first call.

At the end of the training, we were informed that we would be allowed an amount of time at the end of calls to show what we'd done - that wasn't true and the shifts all seem to be 4.5 hours which is the maximum you can work without a break - however you usually go over this at the end of the shifts due to a longer call.

You should be doing your notes as you go along in the call and there is a set of copy and paste notes available to all staff every shift which help a lot to keep the end of call time down. As with all call center based work its luck of the draw if you get hit with a call at the last second, nothing you can do about it other than try to get it dealt with quickly and properly so you can get offline. (Remember, Aux is you friend here as soon as your shift ends)
As to 4.5 hours shift, these are being handed out at the moment as these are fitting into the periods that the customer want more staff in, once things settle you may find yourself in a position to take on more hours through a shift bid of extra hours overtime. You get a set amount of personal time you can take each shift no matter what so you never go a shift without being able to drop into aux for a few mins to grab a drink, take a toilet break etc.

Having said that - it is a proper job and it's all money at the end of the day, but as a previous post has said, people do seem to just disappear.
Also its very lonely.

Lonely? Last weekend we had 2 main rooms with 40 people between then and 4 other team rooms with around another 50 people in those, it's hard to be lonely when there are around 100 agents online some nights lol. Believe me we sometimes wish it was a little lonelier out there when we have 10+ screens open.
The nature of the work that you agree to fulfill when you begin being paid by TT is that you work in a quiet area with no distractions or other people to cause noise or issues with Data protection. Yes sometimes this can lead to you feeling a little isolated from the people around you but it would be the same in a call center, once on calls unless there is a swing you don't get much time to interact with the people around you, you just take the calls and get on with it. The only times you get to interact is during your assigned break periods and they stagger those so you may not even get to speak with people around you at that point either.

Sugarcubed

Gutted

Went through the whole process but I have a holiday in August, need to contact them again once my holiday is over.

Jobberdun

Sugarcubed? Are you saying that if you already have holidays booked you cant get a job?

I have my phone interview tonight but also have holidays booked for 2 weeks in August.

Nicwits

PaulK wrote: »

Believe me, you do not want to rush people into their first call.

I agree totally, when we were sent off to take our first calls I thought I was going to be sick and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth! But I just took a deep breath and really enjoyed it.

You do not have to remember everything in one go, you just need to know where to find it, be organised and make notes during training and have a sheet that is a basic script. It's not something that you have to read word for word, it is just the barebones of what you need to say at each stage of a call and it will change as new things come in to improve the whole customer care side.

The best advice I could give anyone is DON'T PANIC!!! If you need to look something up in your notes or ask a superuser, just fill the silence while you do this by chatting to your customer or tell them what you're doing so you don't feel awkward.

I found I could not remember everything from my training and had post-it notes all around my screen, after a few calls things sink in better. I'm one of those people who learns by doing, not by being told. And I've now got just two and they are what numbers to use to transfer people and what info you need to order replacement routers.

PaulK wrote: »

Lonely?

No way! Paul's right, with the team room and your help room open you have conversations going on all around you and to be honest it is easier that the chat going on is on your screen and not audible because it makes it easier to listen to your customer. Sometimes it's hard not to giggle when you're reading the team chat and also you can pick up more info in the help rooms by seeing other agents questions being answered.

Originally, I just wanted to post in agreement with Paul that the training cannot be rushed but I thought I may as well pass on my experiences so far because I know how helpful this thread was during the application, training and first few calls.

So hopefully me waffling on for a bit has been useful to someone:D

Jobberdun

I completed my selection test yesterday online and was also given the link to the workbooth assessment page.

This would not load last night and the live help could not help.

I read here that some people was having problem yesterday logging into work and i was wondering if there is still a problem.

The page will still not load and i have my telephone interview tonight at 9pm and was told to have all these assessments completed before the interview.

the link i was given was
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]http://workbooth.net/assessment/[/FONT]

I have tried using Internet Exployer and it gets to about 50% and don't load any further.

I have tried Firefox and that just gives me the 404 page error message.

Anyhelp? Please?
[/FONT]

PaulK_3

Jobberdun wrote: »

Sugarcubed? Are you saying that if you already have holidays booked you cant get a job?

I have my phone interview tonight but also have holidays booked for 2 weeks in August.

You cannot take any time off during the first 12 weeks as far as I know, this is due to the training period, nesting period and then the first set of time you are live on calls.

BillDawg

BillDawg wrote: »

Hey might be a funny question but the site http://workbooth.net/assessment/ has gone down and i can't get the setup.exe to see if my computers any good, any chance someones still got the file and could link it up to me?


Thanks

Hey sorry to double post but im really desperate to get the ball rolling on this.....


Please please please has anyone still got the setup.exe file that performs the assessment on your computer? Surely someones still got it in their download folder?!?!?!?!

Thanks

Oliver27

I don't have it unfortunately, but go to the Hirepoint
Site and the use the Live Help option to tell them you
cant access the assessment site.

wildt

I'm having the same problem - can not access the technical assessment. I went to Live Help who told me to send an email stating the problems I'm having. It seems every one is having difficulty with it at the moment. I've got my interview tomorrow at 5pm so hopefully it will be sorted out before then. Live Help said not to worry if it isn't though..they will put a note on my account to inform the interviewer.

Good luck every one!

Daffodil1965

Just popping my head in to say thank you to Oliver for starting this thread.

I also have my interview tomorrow and wish everyone luck who are currently applying.