Anyone here work in a call centre?

[MelindaKiah]

Hi there.

Just wondering if anyone else here works in call centre. I've been hired for an inbound call centre, activating cell phones, to begin on March 22. I'm quite excited about it, as the company offers many benefits.

Just wondering how others felt about their job at a call centre.

Melinda

 

[Cindy B]

Well, it depends on what type of call center.

My husband has been doing phone support, (now a supervisory level) for almost 8 years.

There are some days that are good, and some days he gets customers who have just taken "idiot pills".

Just have a lot of patience, and you should be fine.

 

[momof3disneyholics]

I work in an answering service. We take after hours calls for doctors offices, lawyers offices, plumbing companies, heating and air companies, and a million more.
We also book cruises for a cruise line, are an order line for a discount golf club, and answer for a cable company.
I love my job, I have been working there for about a year and a half, but I have worked at answering services for years.
I'm home from work sick today. I lost my voice and I can't work unless I have my voice

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

I work for our campus help desk, part of the job includes some time in the phone room. I like my job, but espicially in a university environment, there are some customers that you just want to strangle sometimes. (or the parents who call on the student's behalf, 5 minutes after the student first called. Although, I guess those are better than the parents that call because the student is having a problem, and the student hasn't even called us yet)

 

[Princess_Aurora]

My mom use to work at a call center for WebTV. She had good days and bad days too. There would be days where she would have one crabby person call in to complain and would just be down right rude. Their policy is if you have to tell them three times to keep their voice down or not to swear, etc then you can hang up on them.

My best friend works at a call center for an electric company. This one isn't a good job to have. He has people calling him all day begging to turn their electricity back on. He said sometimes it can make him cry because single mothers will call in crying about their baby being cold, etc. Then he'll have some jerk call in and yelling about it being the electric company's fault for his electricity being turned off and not his own fault for not paying the bill.

So depending on what and who you're working with, your experience will probably vary from day to day.

 

[swea_pea1]

I used to work in a call center and I absolutely hated it. It wasn't the customers that bothered me, it was the mentality of the management. For example, we were not permitted to go to the bathroom unless we put the proper code in our phone before leaving. One woman I worked with got called into our manager's office and given an "oral warning" because she visited the bathroom too often during the day We also weren't permitted to leave our desks to get a soda (had to be purchased at break) or even to hang up our coats (had to be done before the start of the shift). The annual turnover rate in our call center was 25% and they touted this as better than the industry average.

The good news is that you'll find out about the rules pretty quickly so you'll know right away whether you like it or not. Good luck. I really do hope you have a better experience than I did!

 

[luv2nascar]

a call center is part of my department
I do not answer our 800# calls but I have on occasion as a fill in
emergency type situation
we are a large insurance company
I would have to say it is one of the most stressful jobs out there
I would say they average 70-80 calls a day per person
sometimes its one after the other for a very long time
with 40 calls in cue
They answer 10,000+ call a month
it is the kind of job that has no flexiblity you are married to the phone be in your seat and answer it all day long
only get up during scheduled break and lunch.
They have a fancy system that tracks amount of time you are on a call, time to answer calls, unavailable time, etc and that is how you are reviewed.

These are just some of things from where I work. Your job could be quite different but this one is very high stress.
I know these people don't enjoy having people scream at them, be rude, or curse but that is a regular event for them.

Good luck.

 

[jsmith]

I work for a very large telecom-I have been with a company that got bought out by a company to become this company for 10 years-although I now work in IS/IT I started out as a conference call operator and then reservationist in a call center. I absolutely loved doing conference reservations-I enjoyed the customer contact enormously and although my current position is far more challenging and pays better I still miss it sometimes