What is it like to work in a call centre?

Beyou

I wanted to know sort of what are people's experiences of it? I don't know much about it I guess it's making calls and sales well do you have to hit targets and what if you don't hit the targets make enough sales could you get sacked? Thanks.

ohreally

Look in their eyes, there is no soul.

Hutchch0920

I used to work in call centres while I was at uni.

The first one was patching through warm leads to an insurance company. I called customers on a dabatase whose insurance was due for renewal and offered a quote. We had targets to hit including time between calls and numbers of transfers through to the insurer. It was quite an easy job, fun at times when they did 'power hour' with prizes and we often popped to the pub for lunch on Fridays. I was one of their first employees and it steadily grew. It had a high staff turnover. I think this was partly because I worked PT so it was easy for me to do it for 4 hours at a time, I can imagine it being much harder for longer stints.

The second I was only there for a couple of months. It involved ringing tenants to do some kind of survey. The survey was quite long and the completion rate was slow. I decided to leave as it wasn't all that fun.

The last one was doing ticket sales for concerts and football. It was often pretty slow late in the evening, you could read etc. I used the time to do my uni reading, although I was banned from using USBs in the computer. This one was ok. Easy, fun when it was super busy like when big tours went on sale, boring when it was slow and you didn't have anything in common with your co-workers. It was an inbound centre so I didn't have any targets to meet other than ensuring a good level of customer service. Interesting perks included being able to do the box office at festival over the summer.

I think it's the atmosphere more than the job itself that often makes these roles. If the people you are with are interesting and engaging then you'll have a good time. If not it can be a bit monotonous and boring.

Oakdene

I worked in 'The Call Centre' that BBC did a series about.

It all depends on whether you are working inbound or outbound. People who work in outbound roles tend to cop a lot of flak from people as you are calling them, interrupting their day whereas those who work on inbound calls are being called because the customer needs them.

In my experience you have to be ready & prepared to do whatever is needed to hit your sales targets as it can often be cutthroat when it comes to reviews with managers.

Beyou

Ok thanks it seems like a job I would be able to do and find it ok. I was just worried because I know sometimes people say it's too stressful and if I don't hit the targets would it bad? Could I be fired?

Bogalot

You can be fired from any job if you don't meet expectations. However you'll normally be given a chance to improve before if gets to that stage.

Not all call centre work is sales based. I used to do technical support, and I have friends that work in call centres for the local authority. Experience in call centres is very useful if you wanted to apply for emergency service control rooms in the future.

TyreLever

Oakdene wrote: »

I worked in 'The Call Centre' that BBC did a series about.

It all depends on whether you are working inbound or outbound. People who work in outbound roles tend to cop a lot of flak from people as you are calling them, interrupting their day whereas those who work on inbound calls are being called because the customer needs them.

In my experience you have to be ready & prepared to do whatever is needed to hit your sales targets as it can often be cutthroat when it comes to reviews with managers.

Thats the trouble with too many jobs these days. F'ing targets, targets, targets. How, in this case, does not getting enough people to buy mean your performance is unacceptable? If people dont want to buy then it shouldnt go against the employee trying to sell it. Unless the employee is being negligent or genuinely crap.

lincroft1710

Oakdene wrote: »

I worked in 'The Call Centre' that BBC did a series about.

You have my deepest and sincerest sympathies

xapprenticex

Oakdene wrote: »

I worked in 'The Call Centre' that BBC did a series about.

It all depends on whether you are working inbound or outbound. People who work in outbound roles tend to cop a lot of flak from people as you are calling them, interrupting their day whereas those who work on inbound calls are being called because the customer needs them.

In my experience you have to be ready & prepared to do whatever is needed to hit your sales targets as it can often be cutthroat when it comes to reviews with managers.

Is everyone there a chav or weird?

27cool

I can't imagine anywhere less that I would to work. Especially cold calling. Incoming calls OK, outgoing calls, no thanks.

ACG

I worked for a banks customer services in a call centre.
It was pretty good, loads of people a similar age, plenty of social events.

They made you work for your money but 10 years ago I was earning about £18k which was pretty good for my first real job.