What is it like to work in a call centre?

[Deleted User]

It varies from call centre to call centre.

I hated vehicle breakdown, newspaper retentions, insurance sales, 'council services'

But

Loved PPI claims handling, some e-commerce, debt management, facilities management.

I tend to do waaaay better at companies that don't do completely fully scripted, don't do the buddy up rubbish which just adds to the horrendous rep and strain some places gain. Regardless of targets.

worried_jim

I manage the resource for a high street bank's call centres around the UK and internationally and have done so for 12 years and I love it. A fantastic team of people and a great environment, easily the best company I have worked for. There is a lot of opportunity and I see daily, people that started on the phones now doing a variety of roles, in fact pretty much every manager like me started on the phones including our local director.

daytona0

worried_jim wrote: »

I manage the resource for a high street bank's call centres around the UK and internationally and have done so for 12 years and I love it. A fantastic team of people and a great environment, easily the best company I have worked for. There is a lot of opportunity and I see daily, people that started on the phones now doing a variety of roles, in fact pretty much every manager like me started on the phones including our local director.

Disclaimer to OP:

In a position like worried jim's, they tend to treat agents simply as a "resource", aka a faceless number. This means that you will be judged on how much you help them to achieve their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

If you reach such dizzying heights (managing resources, or even a manager doesn't have it *that* bad) within a call center then you'll generally find that it resembles a stable long-term job, which is why worried jim is surprisingly positive about the experience.

If, however, you start off as an agent on the phones then you will face a number of battles which can include:

1. Surviving the initial 3 months, particularly if you are hired during their seasonal ramp-up (banks may hire extra staff during xmas to handle higher call volumes). They like to axe A LOT of people during this time and you've got to keep your head down whilst shining out with your CALL STATS. They occasionally sack the wrong person because they are stupid (I have previously pleaded the case for two agents in my old job, to no avail).

2. The manager pot-luck. It is almost pure luck whether you'll end up with a good or bad one Contrary to what worried jim says, they don't *always* promote the best people for the job.

3. Handling sickness and stress, as these are usually commonplace in call centers.

4. Having your talent recognised. You need to be around people who appreciate your talents, which is not a given.

5. Finding someone/an opportunity to showcase your talent. You may be the best person in the whole world in regards to resource planning but if they don't need/want one then they aren't going to develop you


If you can hack it then a call center is a nice little money-earner But it isn't all sunshine and rainbows; be prepared for a bit of graft and keep your head down. Good luck

NOTE: I'm talking about inbound calls here. I believe Worried Jim was too, as there is a considerable amount of planning required for inbound calls over outbound ones.

Dakota_Deville

Most points if not all covered but i would like to add.

On the whole the average age in a call centre in the uk is 22.
Most call cents are in the north of the uk, cheap labour and rents.
Most will leave or get fired within 6 months.
On the whole low paid.
Loads of pressure and you can get abuse from your team leaders
You are monitored every second inc tea breaks and loo breaks and time spend per call and results.
Not all, but quiet a few encorage you to tell a few porkies, many cant do that and leave.
Good points, if you like banter, going out, new friends, don't mind upsetting people on the other end of the phone and can mange low wages, speak English to a low level and have elementary reading and wring skills, and want to work part time, job is for you.
Having said that, there are some decent call centres run by well know larger corps.
I hope this helps.

AJS321

Dakota_Deville wrote: »

Most points if not all covered but i would like to add.

On the whole the average age in a call centre in the uk is 22.

I find that slightly hard to believe. From my experience, yes there's a lot of school leavers and recent graduates who can't find better paid jobs. But there's also people returning to work after taking a career break to raise a family, people who've had careers but have been made redundant from well paid jobs who don't want to end up on the scrap heap and the semi-retired.

Just a word of warning, the people who've got families (mainly women in their 30's and 40's) will want to talk about their families in far too much detail that I think is appropriate for the workplace. I've had to listen to many childbirth stories.

And the people who've had careers will also talk a lot about their previous jobs, even if it's got no relevance to the job they're doing now.

MERFE

I've worked in 3 call centres and an on call office. One inbound customer service, that was great, didnt know what each call would be. Targets around case work and call times but easily achievable. One outbound cross sales to old customers, tough but targets can't have been too hard as I often got bonuses. 3rd was the best - inbound sales, so easy. I left for the on call job as the hours would suit me better and I wish I had never left. On call was awful as it was for care in the community so dealing with emergencies over the weekend and if I couldn't find cover there wasnt any, the most stressful job I ever had and I was alone doing it. Only lasted a couple of months. In an actual call centre surrounded by collegues though the atmosphere is better, there are usually good support structures in place.

Mrs_Ryan

I worked in call centres for years doing everything under the sun and I loved a lot of them. I attempted outbound a couple of times but rarely lasted longer than a day or two- come to think of it, I didn't last that long on inbound either :rotfl: my longest lasted 12 months but to be fair I mostly worked on temp contracts although my longest job was permanent.

Fireflyaway

I have worked in several call centres both on the phones and a supervisory level. A lot depends on what type of call centre it is. If its outbound cold calling and sales based, it takes someone quite enthusiastic, upbeat and resilient. Yes you could be fired for not reaching targets - that's what you are there for. Places like that tend to attract younger more immature workers in my experience. People who do it for a bit but not as a career.
If its an inbound more information and advice type thing you will still probably have targets of call handling times but not the pressure to sell to keep your job and it can be more varied and interesting.
All call centres operate differerntly. Some won't tolerate any talking to colleagues whilst on the floor and some you have to ask permission to go to the loo! Others are more loud and fun.
Do expect rude and impatient customers. Expect to be hung up on and sworn at from time to time and remember your calls will most probably be recorded and listened in to.
The pay is not great but I'm glad I did it. Opened my eyes to many sorts of people.

About-time

I worked in various call centres for a few years in my twenties - having left uni with not much idea what to do next, and that at the time seemed to be the only work available to me. I would not recommend it. As others have said, any outbound calling is just guaranteed misery unless you enjoy sales. But I soon tired of the inbound calls too.

Imagine having to explain something in detail to a caller who is (A) usually wrong but thinks that they are right, (B) doesn't really understand what you are trying to explain, and (C) can't hear you anyway because they're too busy screaming and calling you all the names under the sun, demanding managers, compensation etc etc etc. Then imagine clearing from that call and immediately taking another where a similarly irate and clueless caller screams and shouts at you while you attempt to explain the same thing all over again. Then imagine that x 100, and that being your entire working day. This is call centre work at its worst.

Admittedly sometimes it's not that bad, and you could probably do it for a few months before it really started to wear you down, but that's your worst case scenario. That, and being pestered by management - you either won't be taking enough calls, or you'll be unavailable for too long inbetween calls, or you'll not be hitting your targets, even stupid stuff like you won't use the customer's name often enough so they'll give you poor feedback despite the fact you sorted the customer's problem out and they were perfectly happy with you. They always find something to pick at.

And while there are other, more interesting roles within a call centre that you could go on to do, be warned that this will represent a minority of roles within the office, and every man and his dog will be chasing after them (as a manager once said to me in my one to one, "Why does EVERYBODY just want to get off the phones?"), so you may find there's not much chance that you'd ever get one.

Also, I don't know whether this is still the case, but it used to be that once you'd worked in one call centre, you were 'branded' - and employers wouldn't be that keen on looking at you for other stuff because you're 'only a call centre worker'. Agencies just used to try and push me into more call centre work despite the fact that I was telling them I wanted to do something different. That kind of thing. It took me a few years to escape the trap and I would never go back.

Admittedly there are people who enjoy working in call centres, and there are definitely good ones and bad ones to work in, but to me it always seemed like a bit of a thankless task. There's a lot of taking the flak for mistakes that you didn't make, and that you are often fairly powerless to sort out. I could write more, but this blog I found a while back articulates the general call centre experience far better than I could : http://callcentrefury.blogspot.co.uk/

latvianlegend

I started out at 18 in a call centre (inbound sales) for a large company about 15 years ago - it was great at the time.
200 odd people largely of a similar age so the social scene was the best of any place I've ever worked. Pay wasn't great but plenty of opportunity to earn extra.
Sure they monitor your every move and there is an element of being 'just a number' to the powers that be but I learnt a lot and was able to use what I'd learnt to get into a more career oriented role.
Helps that I sold holidays, so a 'nice' product, there's quite a few call centres in my city and most of the others are insurance/financial services so not sure if that would have been so enjoyable.