So, I just got this new call center job, but it doesn’t start for another couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’m going nuts waiting to find out what I can really expect, besides angry/confused customers. It’s a customer service position for a major wireless company. Thoughts?
I worked at a call center for over four years, and from what I understand, my experience is pretty typical. I worked for over a year on a wireless account as well (outsourced Sprint/Nextel center).
Call centers are essentially the sweatshops of the office world. Call centers are entirely about lower cost, higher efficiency. There will be a lot of lip service given to customer service, but in 95% of call centers, what will make you successful is following instructions and policies and keeping a nice tone of voice.
They can be difficult to start in. It is a lot of sensory input to be in a somewhat noisy room, answering call after call. It’s not usually difficult after you get the swing of it (took me a few days).
The wireless industry is rough on customers. Really rough. Expect to do a lot of transferring. A lot of customers are hostile to their wireless company as they can’t switch without a major hit financially, but, being the “good guy” even at a bad company goes a long way. Most customers are civil, though the small number that aren’t will definitely stick with you.
This may sound bleak, but on the plus side, you can really take advantage of the high-turnover, high-paced environment. I was a supervisor in a year; once our center hit some difficult times, promotions started happening within 2-3 months of hiring. You can gain very marketable skills.
If you can handle the environment, you can get very far by being:
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Low maintenance. This is better than anything else. Show up, don’t be late, don’t complain too much, don’t be a griper or cause drama.
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Quick to learn things / responsive to feedback
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Patient, pleasant, and low-key emotionally
You can and will have bad calls and bad scores sometimes. It’s okay. Everyone does. Just do the best you can and remember the three things above. As long as you do those things, everything else will be fine. Believe me. As long as you’re not stealing or beating people up, those things will pretty much assure you a job if not greater success regardless of what happens. Even if the client (or upper management) hates one of your calls, even if you screw something up badly, even if a customer threatens to get you fired and you might even deserve it, remember those three things and you will very likely be okay.
Good luck. I hope it goes well for you – if nothing else, customer service and management skills are very marketable.
If you don’t already, start drinking. Heavily and often.
I worked for T-Mobile as a rep and as a supervisor, and fluiddruid is pretty spot on. First off, don’t panic–there WILL be some pretty extensive training involved before you’re allowed to take calls. There will probably be a time period toward the end of training where you’ll be taking live calls but with way more support than on the actual production call floor. You’ll be ready when the time comes.
The main thing is–SHOW UP AND BE ON TIME. Always. Without fail. Call centers run on the split minute and someone who is always there, always on time, always takes breaks and lunches when scheduled and doesn’t piss off supervisors or management is GOLD. You can get away with bloody murder in a lot of ways if your metrics are good.
Depending on which carrier you’re going to be working for it can range from damned nice (Verizon, T-Mobile direct call centers) to fucking abysmal (Sextel, AT&T outsourced centers.) If you’re working for an outsourcer, be aware that your shitty wages and no benefits are what pays for the fancy call centers the company is so proud to show the shareholders. Learn all you can with an eye to transferring to a direct center. Some carriers are very good for empowering their agents (T-Mobile is very good for this–there’s very little a supervisor can do for you that the rep can’t, it’s more often that customers piss off the reps and make them less willing to help. They could if they wanted to, though) and some less so–I bet since AT&T just remerged with Cingular that they’re going through the same basic circle jerk they went through the last time they merged, which was a living hell for the employees based on their comments on Phonescoop. BTW--phonescoop.com does have forums for the agents of the various wireless companies to vent and answer questions; I’d suggest getting on there and querying to see if anyone there works in the center you’ve been hired for. You’ll probably get the downlow on it fairly quickly.
Some survival tips–don’t get too comfortable with ANYTHING. Call centers are notorious for changing shit on you more or less at random. Where you sit, your schedule, whether you share a station, what the procedures are–it’s all in flux, the only constant is change. Be flexible or you will lose your mind. You may hate working weekends, but actually weekends are the shit–less management around and usually a much looser dress code.
Stay positive. The more you hate your job the more your customers pick up on it and they’ll drive you insane. Always focus on the positive–what you CAN do for the customer as opposed to what you can’t do. Be cheerful to your coworkers as well–jokes and assing around between calls can make a huge difference in the atmosphere of the room and good energy gets everybody going. Balloon volleyball over the cubicle walls was a big hit for our room.
Learn to modulate your voice–take voice lessons if necessary. There’s nothing more hated in a call center than the screechy voiced bitch who can be heard all over the room the minute she gets pissed at a customer. Learn to emphasize your tone to project to your customer while being nearly inaudible to the person next to you–it’s a plain fact that in any vocal interaction the person whose voice raises in either pitch or in volume is the one who’s losing. Don’t be that person!
Learn as much as you can about the technology and the policies of your company–I made a study of the more esoteric aspects of cell phone technology and the fact that I knew so much made me unassailably confident, which made customers less likely to fuck with me–not knowing your stuff is like blood in the water and customers are sharks…
You will be constantly expected to reduce your call times and up your QA scores. You can be handling calls in a 90 second average, with .002 nanoseconds after call work and a stellar QA average and they’ll STILL be after you to improve! Don’t take it personally, it’s how the call center world works. If you’re good, you’re propping up some loser they can’t afford to fire because they need the warm body in a chair taking calls and rather than make the loser better they’ll get on you to be more perfect. It’s stupid and unfair, but that’s how it works.
Resist with all your might any tendency you may have towards being a drama queen. Drama queens are the bane of call center management and will be ruthlessly hounded out. Be cool, be pleasant, be calm, be unemotional to the best of your ability–as has already been said, fly UNDER the radar. The ONLY reason you want management to notice you is because your numbers rock. For this reason it’s best you resist the common tendency in call centers for everybody to date/fuck coworkers. When the inevitable breakup arrives drama abounds, it’s annoying for everybody and eventually somebody gets fired if it’s too noticeable/irritating.
Finally, and it pains me that this needs to be said, be VERY aware of your personal hygiene and habits. Shower every day, use mouthwash and brush the teeth, use deodorant, wash your clothes often and if you’re a smoker be kind and spend a couple minutes outside walking away from the smoke before you go back in to the call floor. Avoid using perfume or body sprays, it’s maddening to sit next to someone who reeks of Axe when you can’t get up and move. Be militant about washing your hands at least five times a day and keep Purell at your station in case a germy floor support person handles your mouse or keyboard. It’s pretty much a guarantee that you will encounter the stinky call center person at least once–just don’t be that person. Resist nose picking, hair plucking, dandruff scratching, pimple squeezing and crotch adjustments–call center workers are generally packed together like cattle and EVERYTHING gets noticed. And talked about. Just sayin’.
Once you figure out call center, you’ll never have to worry about having a job. It’s like being able to run a cash register; someone always needs you. It may not be the best job or the coolest, but it’s something you can do no matter how physically fucked up you are and that’s a good thing–as long as you have a brain and a voice there’s a call center waiting to hire you!
Oh, and drinking (and the attending hangover) is not conducive to call center, but smoking weed is… 
Expect nothing. Honestly, working in a call center can be very challenging, it is best to not have expectations.
Let me relate some of my experiences:
*HUGE, well-known wireless phone service call center: I worked in “customer service” – which is just what they call the people who handle the everyday, standard calls – for about 5 months before being promoted to “retention” – the fancy name for cancellations.
I got cursed out in pretty much every language on the planet on a daily basis – even before going to retention – for every reason you would possibly imagine. What I did, though, was to pull the headset away from my ear, so I didn’t have to hear everything, and could respond appropriately with the “yes, I know” or “I understand” & let the customer finish venting before fixing their issue or get them to someone who could fix their issue. Kept me from being bothered. Remember – they’re not angry with you personally, but with the company for whom you work, it’s not personal.
*Leader (small company, huge profit) in the gift wrap/retail business: I have worked here in sales for going on 3 years. The customers tend to be less dramatic, but can be downright rude nonetheless. It gets boring as all Hayell around here during our “off” season – which is everything other than 4th quarter. The funny thing is, even during 4th quarter – which is what drives this entire industry – it’s still slower than it was at the other place on the slowest times!
Be aware, working for a wireless place that you will hear all kinds of crazy stories from people about why they can’t pay their bills, etc. You have to disconnect. I once got a call from a woman who was absolutely hysterical because somehow a VM had been deleted. It was the last VM her daughter had left her before she died. There was nothing we could do to retrieve the VM.
I had a woman call once who was hysterical because her cell phone had been disconnected for non-payment (FYI – when your cell is disconnected, it will still dial 911 and the cell phone company) and her daughter had been abducted. She didn’t know that the phone would dial 911, and was scared that I was wrong and if she hung up she would not have any way to get help. I conference-called the local 911 service for her and stayed on the phone until the police arrived to help her. It was heart-wrenching, being a mother of a (at the time) very small daughter myself.
I had Arabic men call and tell me point-blank that they would not talk to me as I was inferior. I had people threaten to cancel their services for all kinds of reasons – and let me tell you, the greatest joy was when they were “low-value” customers and I got to say “ok, I’ve gone ahead and cancelled your account, you should be receiving your last statement, with that $150 cancellation fee on it within the month. Have a great day!”
I have said many times that one must truly loathe people to be successful in any business in which constant communication with them is involved – this is especially true in the call center environment. The good news? They can’t see you flipping them off, making faces or rolling your eyes at their asshattery. Some advice – never, ever, ever assume that the mute button works. If you must turn to your companion to say “omg, this guy is a real douchebag” – unplug your headset. Trust me on this one, I have seen too many people walked out of a call center for trusting the equipment to work correctly!
If it is a scripted environment, stick with the script. You may not like it and think you can improvise something better, but don’t do it. Doing what you are told in the way that you are told to do it is the best bet in the call center situation.
Questioneth bufftabby, “Hired at a call center: What to expect?”
Ring.
Answer question. Try to sell some shit.
Ring.
Answer question. Try to sell some shit.
Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseum.
I only have one. You aren’t doing outbound cold-calling, for which you ought to be eternally grateful.
Have fun with it. Inbound is never all that bad.
Be there when you’re supposed to be. Don’t expect them to care or cut you any slack if you’re sick. If you take one day more than you’re allowed, you’re automatically out. My niece recently lost her job because the doctor couldn’t fill out the FMLA paperwork the same day she went to see him. My sister worked at the same facility. She had thyroid surgery and couldn’t talk afterward. Instead or trying to find something off the phones, as soon as her mandated leave was up, she was let go. Both had great evaluations.
You’re just another body in a chair to them.
StG
Try not to let calls get to you. A bad call at the beginning of your shift can ruin your entire day if you let it. You just have to let things roll off like water off a duck’s back.
It feels really good when you are really able to help a customer out and they are suitably grateful. Doesn’t happen all the time, but as your skill level improves, it should happen more often.
If you’re having a bad day, you have to smile anyway. Fake it til you make it. I often felt better at the end of a shift than at the beginning.
You will be working all the time. No (or very little) chatting with co-workers or wandering to the copy machine like in other office jobs. You will even be timed and rated on how long you are in the bathroom. We had a bathroom pass–only one person could be in the bathroom at a time, just like high school. You plug in your headset at your start time–even if you are in the building when your shift begins, it does you no good if you are not ready to work. Also, you work for the freaking phone company, and they do not care if it’s raining, snowing, hailing, or Memorial Day and your route to work is crossed by a freaking parade–you will be at work ON TIME. If snow is a problem in your area, you may want to invest in 4-wheel drive.
I hope you get the schedule you want/expect, because I never did. Turns out that my family and I do better with a more traditional schedule offered by other jobs. Probably for the best, though–a year after I quit, the center closed and everyone got laid off. How it goes sometimes.
My call center experiences seem different than anyone else’s. There were slow times were we talked with the people near us. We had 30 minutes of ideal time, for using the bathroom or whatnot. The job had high pay and good benefits.
The callers will be annoying. They will want the impossible and blame you for it. Although, knowing exactly what all of the company’s procedures were made those calls from people that insist they are right and you are wrong seem better. “No sir, I’m sorry you signed a contract. Yes sir, it is said very clearly in the contract. Yes I have one handy. Section 3.3. Would you like me to read it to you.” Freaking morons have MDs and don’t read things before they sign them …
The best advise is something that my mother has told be all through life. Just get more and more polite, the angry they get. Not always easy, but what are they going to say, she was too polite?
I almost didn’t reply, because I had two call center jobs and hated them very much. Me ranting about that wouldn’t be very useful. I do think a person has to have the right personality for the job. I did not. I got too involved with the callers (the first call center job I had was at a bank), and got upset too easily. After a little while it got better, but I could never let things completely roll off of my back. I admired those who could. Also the work is mind numbing as hell. Expect to spend 75% of your day answering the same few questions.
I do have one good thing to say. With both of my jobs, there was a classroom training period of at least 3 weeks, and each time there were at least 20 new hires. You get to know people and that is REALLY helpful when you start. It is very good to have somebody to bitch to during breaks and at lunch–someone who is just as confused and frustrated as you are.
Well, it certainly sounds like my new job will be…interesting. It doesn’t sound like it will be too bad, though; I was previously the GM of a restaurant with lots of phone orders, so I’m pretty used to dealing with the irrationally angry folks out there in Phoneland. I appreciate everyone’s tales of phone servitude.
bufftabby, I just noticed where you’re located & am pretty sure I know which call center you will be working. If it is the one I suspect, then you will be ok. The biggest thing to remember is to be there on time, every day. I know a few people who went to that call center when it opened – they loved it. I don’t know if the pay & benefits are still as good as they were, but I think so. Not to be snotty, but the “quality” of the customers of that particular wireless carrier is much higher than that of the customers I dealt with when I worked for a wireless company.
The key to remember, like I said, is that if/when the customer is angry, it’s not personal, even if they try to make it that way. They don’t know you, they don’t know anything about you – they’re angry with their wireless provider (or sometimes with themself for forgetting to pay a bill!) – don’t let it get to you.
Good luck and enjoy the good shift during training!
I worked in a call center for seven years, on the floor and as a supervisor. Don’t expect to get a lot of training in “how stuff works.” If you’re working for an outsource company (I did) the client doesn’t care whether you really know anything about the product/service. All they care is that they don’t have to handle problems. The training will be entirely in three areas:
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The phone system; how it’s used to track your time, how you can use it to track your numbers (some places call 'em “metrics”) and what you can and cannot do with it.
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The client’s “tools”; these are the websites or computer-based knowledge bases, scripts, etc., that you’ll call up as you attempt to assist customers.
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Customer service protocols; how to handle angry people, what you can and cannot say to customers, when to escalate a call and when, on that rare but oddly unfulfilling occasion, you can terminate the call.
The quality of your experience will depend on two things – the client’s attitude toward customers, and the kind of people the call center hires, and they tend to be somewhat linked. If the call center tends to employ people with little more than a high school education and few real job skills (in other words, if you, bufftabby, are in the upper 5 percentile in terms of skill and intelligence), it means the client has little regard for its customers, and it’s going to be a bitch of a job. But if you look around your fellow trainees and feel like you fit right in, then the client probably wants to provide a decent level of service, which means you’ll have a fairly good product to work with and good tools. Of course, I’m basing this on some assumptions about the fact that you are intelligent and sophisticated enough to ask your OP question in the first place.
On the other hand, if you’re working in a proprietary call center … well, honestly, I have no experience there, but some of the other Dopers on this thread have pretty well addressed that, I think.
I think it would be interesting to find out what companies the rest of the call center Dopers worked for. I worked for Sykes Enterprises, and we outsourced for all kinds of clients, including some of the world’s biggest and smallest.
Litoris, thanks, you do know exactly which one I will be at. I had wondered (before you clarified) if it was the one you were at also. I was pretty sure you would pop in this thread at some point…
Sunrazor, thanks for your vote of confidence on my intelligence. I was in the top 2 percentile on skills and intelligence at my last job, and it was frustrating! Luckily, everyone where I’ve just been hired should have a college degree of some sort, so they’ll be a little more socialized if nothing else.
I had just shy of 14 yrs in the wireless industry, All-hell, with a majority of it being at the call-center. There were times I hated it and times I loved it.
One of the drawbacks is the constant changes and a lot of times noone is on the same page - especially the higher-ups. You may be saying something your supervisor doesnt correct you on when they should, and then if someone else monitors you they may mark you down on your QA for it. Most supervisors will “overlook” things merely because your scores also have a mark on their shifts and reviews.
Dont give excuses for anything - focus on what you can do to make things better.
If you see an error on an acct - FIX IT. Dont say you will and dont, dont see it and ignore it, even if the customer is unaware, and if something looks fishy (slamming) - tell your supervisor. If you happen to work at a callcenter that focuses on sales and commissions - expect to see a lot of unethical things going on and little done about it. the company I worked for was more of a “Talk high on ethics” but as long as their numbers were looking good, they’d look away at what was going on.
Make sure you stay in control of the call and remain positive and pleasant when doing so - try to avoid the negative “this cust is being such a jerk” to your neighbors or sup, even if they really are. You’ll get further by being positive and pleasant, but also calm and direct.
Dont take upset callers personally, apologize on behalf of the company and always state “What I can do for you…” and peraphrase the customer’s issue and repeat to them letting them know you are listening to them.
NEVER leave negative comments on a customer’s acct. Although they cannot see what you write - other’s can! And, sometimes account information can be subpeoned (although extremely rare) and it doesnt look good for the company if there’s a note that says: “cust being a jerk, wants credit, dont give it to him!” (yes, I have seen this and customer at a store saw this note and all heck broke out).
Follow the Quality guidelines to a T. Surprisingly, the callcenter I worked at in Texas did not incorporate this into their training class and left it up to the sups which a lot of times the results would be skewed. I’d ask the trainer for some information on quality scores/guidelines before you start taking calls during training class. One thing I found useful was giving the trainee a copy of the QA scoresheet & descriptions and have them score some calls when sitting with a seasoned rep. IMO, this would help them gain an understanding of the QA setup.
I certainly hope the callcenter you will be working for is proactive instead of reactive like the one I worked at in Texas. They also micro-managed their reps to death -I couldnt do it which is why I stepped down from management (not my idea of managing effectively, imho).
Be on time, every scheduled day, and for god’s sake dont sit around on your breaks or after your scheduled time off doing unfinished work - this is actually against the law and the company could get into trouble. Finish your work while you are on the call, or ask for help if it requires some time off the phone.
I hope you will enjoy it, I did most of the time when I was taking calls. The pay was good and the benefits were also. If you can handle change, and like change, it might not be such a bad job.
Good luck =)
bufftabby – I never worked at that call center, it’s an awful long drive from Gallatin/Cottontown! The call center I worked for was Sprint when I started but was sold off to Convergys (who ended up shutting it down) – which is why I left. The one I work in now is actually in Hendersonville and very small. Like I said, this company is huge in terms of profit and being a leader in the industry, but very small in size and number of employees.
The things you need to learn are “really? :dubious: You lost a call? I have never heard of that happening with our network!” and document, document, document. As Pixilated pointed out, you never want to put negative comments in a customer’s account, but make sure you are very detailed. You will learn the shorthand as you go, just be sure to document everything. It will help if you are able to type one thing while saying another – that is a skill everyone in a call center should learn.
Actually, Pixilated gave you some excellent advice. If you say you’re going to fix something, then fix it. There’s nothing more frustrating to a customer than having to call back rpeatedly to fix the same issue (this from the person who had unlimited 411 put on her phone back in May 2007 and has been told every.single.month since that it has been removed and credited – it’s still there, by the by!) and nothing more frustrating than fixing someone else’ fuck up. Oh, and one thing that will probably be drilled into your head – you are part of a whole company, don’t refer to other departments as “they” – learn to use the royal “we.” It feels weird at first, but becomes easier and makes the customer more able to believe that you will fix things if you say “hey, you know what, we can fix this, but in another department – let me get you to the right person!”
Anyways, you will be just fine – the company you are going to work for has a good reputation around these parts, even after having been here for several years. That’s a good thing.
Great advice so far.
I just want to emphasize one point that has been brought up a couple of times already, but that absolutely needs to be said again: Be. On. Time. Actually, show up early, if you can. Even a minute or two late can hurt you, if you make a habit of it. Lateness is taken so seriously by my employer’s call centres that they’ll dock pay if you log in more than 5 minutes late for a shift or when returning from break (starting with 5 mins and working up for each minute late thereafter).
Don’t call in sick more than you have to. In fact, if you can drag yourself out of bed and yank on some clothing, it’s often better to show up sick and be sent home - it shows you tried. One girl in my training class missed a total of five days over the three month probation period… she never made it out of probation, unsurprisingly.
Network, network, network. Most companies use the call centre as a recruiting ground for the rest of the organisation, which means you’re sitting in primo networking territory if you want to make a career of this. In the four years since I left the call centre, a lot of my old colleagues have found their way into various sections of the company - and I’ve learned that nothing greases the wheels of inter-departmental relationships faster than having someone on the inside.
Lastly, learn how to goof off while still looking busy. Call centres want to look like a busy hub of activity even when they’ve had 10 calls in the past hour and there are 20 employees on shift - you never know when the big cheese might decide to walk through unannounced. This means that if you have downtime, keep your butt in your seat… don’t pull out a magazine, don’t stand up to chat with your buddy on the other side of the baffle, and don’t try to catch up on your knitting. Looking actively un-busy is sure to land you with a bad rep, even if you’re a model employee in all other ways.
You make it sound like a game. Call Center 3.1, with advanced levels, including Enraged Drunken Lunatic Level 5 and Repugnant Body Odor Colleague Level 7. Now shipping with Flying Spittle VR module.
Nice post, though. I never call centered, but I once did 19 1/4 days in a boiler room operation. I broke down on the fourth Friday, which was lucky, because I think I got outa there just before the cops kicked in the doors.