Have you ever worked at a call center? Were you good at it?

[PandaMa]

Hi all,

Currently off on Maternity leave and planning to look for a new job once I've been back at work for a while. In my area call center jobs seem to offer a decent wage and as a non-driver the workplaces are easily accessible by public transport so my plan is to apply for a few of these.

I have experience on reception, but no call center experience and I hear a lot of people say it's very stressful and target driven. I was wondering if anyone had any words of wisdom about their time at a call center and if they feel they were good at the job, and if so how did you become good at it or did it just come naturally?

I did and I was good at it, once your learn the lingo and get your head around it.

However. It is target driven, and service driven and you need to be able to cope with pressure and long ques, busy service levels and angry customers, for a variety of reasons, even more so when you can’t solve their problems there and then.

It’s not for everyone OP.

I havent personally, but OH has worked in two - first was for a bank, he enjoyed it, it was target driven, but Team Leaders and management were great. He was kept very busy (which he likes) and, although he had to deal with bolshy customers, plenty of training was in place to help deal with any problems arising. He only left when he got a job closer to home.
Second was with Vodafone. Utter disaster of a place. Was promised the world in regards to bonuses, incentives, in house training....in reality the team leaders were shite, management was atrocious - if your face didnt fit (ie didnt suck ass) you were on borrowed time. Impossible targets, constant pressure, toxic environment. The staff turnaround was unbelievable - there is a reason these places always seem to be recruiting. OH started in a new start team of 16....there are 2 of them left, 6 months later. He ended up walking out. I have never seen him so down in a job, was really affecting his mental health. His co-workers were fab , he made some great friends, but the company who ran the centre on behalf of vodafone were a joke.
So, after writing an essay, I would say think very carefully before you take a job in one. Read employee reviews on Indeed (wish OH had, cos the ones for that company are fucking awful ).

Can you tell i am really bitter about his experience 😂

Oh wow Squidward that sounds awful! Will definately pay careful attention to the reviews on Indeed!

I worked at an inbound call centre car insurance so there was no cold calling. I was a lot younger then but loved the social aspect, great team and lots of fun.
Yes we had targets but I can't remember being stressed by it. Met some funny people in the calls... however I'm happy to chat all day so it suited me.

Forgot to answer your question! Yes I was pretty good at it but I guess the product sells itself (or not) sometimes.

I worked on one, but on the service rather than sales side. 95% of customers were fine and pleasant but some were truly awful.

Depends on what it is. I worked in all manner of call centres in my student days. The worst were cold calling/ sales, I was rubbish at that and there is a big pressure and targets. Some people did amazingly well though and there were lots of bonuses.

Easiest was a customer enquiries line for a car company. Bit dull but on the evening shift there was lots of down time and we would just mess around on the internet until we had a call.

I worked at an inbound call centre car insurance so there was no cold calling.

Me too, but a different car thing. I loved it but partially as it was one of two jobs and I could have survived on one. I used to tell them I was taking a break when we were supposed to ask and wait (I'm a grown woman and I pee when I want). My stats were so good they wouldn't get rid of me. And I like stress. I was quick and precise, both skills I think you have to have.

Oh and it was the only job where someone threatened my life. And I've worked with rapists and murderers.

Oh, and yes, I was good at it - I’m good with computers and can touch type while chatting away about all kinds of nonsense. Plus my secret ability to pronounce Welsh and Gaelic addresses came in handy.

I worked in a call centre for a break down company many years back and loved it.

It was very frantic and times, and strict on call durations etc, but a good team spirit and a huge amount of opportunity to progress.

There is a vast difference between inbound / outbound roles, and customer service type centres will be a better experience imo than sales focused for someone with a sales background.

Good luck

Actually also remembered working for a mobile phone company, cold calling to sign people into contracts. No computer, just a big yellow pages and pen and paper. You had to pick a letter and then call everyone under that letter! I left after a week

I have worked at an inbound call centre for six years and i love it. I’ll be staying at least the same amount of time again while I do a part time degree. Yes there are some awful customers but it’s not constant. Previously I’d heard a lot of negative stuff about call centres but I haven’t experienced them in this job. I would say go for inbound though as sales can be much harder.

I will add that I’m very much a work to live person with no plans to work my way up in this particular job. It just keeps me earning in a bearable way until I get the qualifications for what I eventually want to do.

God I hated it. They were ridiculously petty and target driven. You only got a specified number of minutes between calls then the phone rang again, regardless of whether you hadn’t finished typing up or needed the loo etc. And if you were stuck on a call at break or home time it was tough, you had to finish the całl and lose your break or miss your bus. Nobody valued you at all, and it was extremely isolating because you were basically working on your own.

I worked for Addison Lee - another call centre with staggeringly high staff turnover. The atmosphere and certain members of management were so toxic, my mental health took a savage beating and I ended up being sectioned

I was good at the job, and had some great co-workers, but it was utterly thankless and I regret ever setting foot in that place.

I work in a call centre for a big retailer, although I haven't been on the phones for several years now. I am good at my job and am working on progressing. This is the only call centre I've worked in so I don't know what others are like, but I've made some great friends working there. Management try to keep us motivated and make it a good place to work. There are targets to meet but I've always found team leaders, trainers etc to be really supportive.

Like a PP said it's not for everyone, but as long as you can use a computer and have a friendly, natural manner on the phone you should be fine.

I also worked for Vodafone and also found them horrendous. I had previously worked for a different call centre and loved it, but Vodafone management were shocking. You were encouraged to lie to customers, could never get a manager to take a call or do a call back, and just had to fob customers off.

I have. Was good at it but I used to get eat and throat infections all the time. They went once I stopped!

Ear!

I've worked in two. On the phones and then as a team leader. I was awful at cold calling sales but i got moved to an inbound customer service team and found it ok. I'm good at customer service. I also did credit control for a while and it was challenging but i quite enjoyed it.
I was in my early 20s and the social life was great! Met loads of great people including my DH there.
I worked in another one at a time when I was a bit older and was in dire need of a job. It was awful. A shoddy, amateur operation. We were treated like dirt. I was a team leader and did my best for my team but i didn't stay long.

I worked in call centres for years. My advice is to remember that when someone gets shirty, remember it is only words. Just hot air. Never take it personally, they aren't angry with you, they're angry with the fact that they've paid a grand for a telly which doesn't work or they have been overcharged. You'd be pissed off with it yourself.

Those next to you will know when you're on a bad call and give you a sympathetic word or go to the tea machine when you're done. A decent call centre can be fun at times too, especially when there's a challenge to say a David Bowie song title to every customer or use a chosen long and complicated word in every call. Sometimes, if there were no managers around, we'd end a particularly difficult call with the words "Fuck you for calling Comet, goodbye"!

I work for one now and am very good at my job.

It's basic communication skills really no matter what your call centre does.

I do inbound contacts for the world's largest online retailer. I work from home and have flexible enough shifts. No two days the same when if has it's ups and downs but here 5 years now. Christmas is manic but thats to be expected.

People tend to look down on those in call centres. I say fuck em, I have a job, a very good rate of pay, shares, paid for tuition and plenty of promotions. Plus I've made some great friends too.

I worked in a call centre as a temp, with an agreement I could go for job interviews for permanent jobs at short notice. It was for the facilities management of a large supermarket chain, so no external customers. It was calling out lighting engineers, freezer engineers, weighing scale engineers, petrol pump engineers and all that sort of thing. I found it really interesting.

When I left, the supervisor said, "why is it always the good ones who go?" Er, because they can? She'd never hinted she thought I was good before then. I doubled my wage by leaving for a "proper" job back in IT, and that was still about half what I'd been on a couple of years previously. I'm glad I did it (it was definitely better than signing on,) but I am also glad I left when I did. I don't think I would be any good at doing it in a sales environment, though.