Call Centres- What’s the truth??
Here at Park we often see candidates come in to see us with a negative perception of working in a call centre environment, without having worked in one themselves, so I thought I would have a look at some of the common themes and try to bring these to life!
Receiving abuse from customers
People presume that customers only want to call to complain but that is not the case, you are there to provide a service whether that’s selling something, offering advice or solving queries. Of course, you will get the odd complaint like in any other customer service role but it’s how you deal with it that matters.
You think you will be on the phone all day!
This is not true, a call centre role is usually very varied, your duties would include being on the phone, answering emails, helping colleagues, updating websites - the list is endless. This just enhances your skill set should you wish to move on and keeps things interesting!
Contact centres are only for large businesses
Again, this is false, call centres can vary from a small office of 4/5 to large contact centres of over 30 people. We see a lot in-between.
Shift work
This all depends on the company that you’ll work for, we see the normal Monday- Friday 9am-5pm hours but also early shifts and late shifts but that’s usually between 7am-7pm which you’d have to do working in retail, childcare or hospitality anyway.
My experience
Having a background in retail, I wanted to try something new and as I knew I had great customer service experience I applied for a role in a call centre selling holidays and was lucky enough to get the job. I was just happy that I didn’t have to stand up for 9 hours a day! When I started, I realised I was a natural and at first I found it quite difficult as we had to use multiple systems whilst being on the phone but I soon got the hang of it.
5 years later I decided to move on into a call centre within a bank which gave me financial services experience and enhanced my skill set even more. I then had options to move into multiple avenues in my career such as banking, secretarial and administration roles and ended up working for Park as a Recruitment Consultant which I love.
The Transferable skills you can gain for working in a call centre:
Administration
If you have great customer service skills but lack experience in administration this is a great place to get it! Usually you are dealing with multiple systems, emailing and using websites daily so this added to your CV opens up a lot more avenues for you in your career.
Working well under pressure
Usually in a call centre you have varied duties and can have targets to hit and queries to follow up but all of this shows that you can work well under pressure and future employers will love this as it shows you are resilient.
Selling
In a call centre, there are usually opportunities for you to be upselling products, so you will gain exposure to sales and working to targets which would stand you in good stead if you are interested in a sales or wealth management role going forward.
Communication
You will learn to communicate properly, if your selling something the customer needs to know exactly what their getting and that’s the same if your sorting out an issue or just explaining you can’t help them you learn how to be clear in the way you relay information.
Multi-tasking
This speaks for itself you must be a great multitasker you may be using a headset and talking to a customer whilst using multiple systems and maybe even emailing someone whilst doing the above, although this may not come naturally you will soon pick it up.
Opportunities
Not only do you gain all of the above which is amazing, Call centre roles are really good to get your foot in the door with a company you would love to work for as there usually is progression within the business, so although you may not want to work in a call centre forever this could be stepping stone to the career you want, you have to think of your end goal!
What’s next!
We have multiple call centre positions for a variety of company’s- all of which offer great benefits such as private health care, pension, vouchers and many more.
So, if you have exceptional customer services skills why wouldn’t you go into a call centre and gain all of this experience - I did and look at me now.