WHAT IS A CALL CENTER

WHAT IS A CALL CENTER

Also known as blended services, call blending is a call center strategy in which an agent both receive inbound calls and conduct outbound calls simultaneously to achieve maximum efficiency. For instance, agents provide outbound marketing campaign during quiet periods for inbound calls to help increase productivity of agents.

Call blending in a call center has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage as mentioned is it keeps agents productive all the time. It provides a significant increase in efficiency, potentially yielding agent utilization over 95%. Moreover, the addition of outbound telemarketing would provide additional opportunities for agents to earn. For instance, sales they close in outbound calls allow them to receive additional compensation through commission. Call blending also can help agents to be motivated as the integration of customer type and the related training keeps agents learning and developing new skills, which motivates them to work. This may not be as effective all the time however especially for agents who prefer focusing or specializing in one type of service. By allowing agents to handle different types of call or contact, agents become more skilled.

Call blending however also has disadvantages. For one, some agents are simply not skilled or competent enough to perform outbound call services, thus reflecting a decline in quality services. This however can be addressed through training which would mean additional cost for the company. Meanwhile, the engagement of agents to outbound calls can potentially compromise the ability of the center to effectively and efficiently handle inbound calls thus resulting to queue lengths and queuing times and increase in call abandonment rates and thus loss of high value business. Hence, a careful balance of outbound or inbound calls should be done for a successful call blending.

FCR or First Call Resolution is a measure of relative success for a single call center interaction. More specifically, it refers to properly or successfully addressing a customer’s concern or handling a customer requests the first time they call, thus eradicating the need for the customer to make a second follow up call. FCR is often expressed as a percentage of the overall interaction volume.

First Call Resolution is one of the most common and important operational metrics in a call center. Basically, call centers would want to increase their FCR rate which is can be attributed to many factors such as complexity and types of calls handles, the experience and quality of agents handling calls as well as the tools or process of a call center office.

To improve FCR rate, it is necessary to evaluate the different aspects of the company operation that contribute or influence to the customer’s contact experience including processes, technology, agent training, coaching programs and other issues or barriers that hamper higher FCR.

There are different approaches to improve first call resolution. One approach is by identifying repeat contacts across all channels and identifying the most common issues and their corresponding root causes that elicit customers to contact or call the call center more than once. This can be achieved by tracking the customers, actions and conversations in the recorded dialogue. Through this, managers can identify issues or problems that cause second calls and make the real, effective and immediate corrective action to address the problem.

One can also analyze customer profiles and segment them into types so that the company can identify and predict contact patterns. In this way, the company can anticipate needs in advance and make the necessary adjustment in service that can immediately address anticipated arising issues. Addressing the problem may sometimes entail a re-evaluation of policies and processes, which is ineffectual in meeting customer requirements. Finally, assessment should also be made so that QA managers can identify agent weaknesses and conduct the necessary coaching or proper training to improve employee.

VTO or Voluntary Time Off is a call center jargon in which call center agents are allowed to take under time as a cost saving measure. Management allows a certain number of agents to take an under time because of low volume of calls. Agents who take under time only receive partial payment as wage for that day.

More specifically, the agents who take under time are only paid for the number of hours they rendered their service. Ideally, VTO is a voluntary basis in call centers. The management usually sets the number of agents who must stay and who must work. Some agents taking a voluntary time off means that they decided to take the under time of their own accord. In some cases, management handpicks which agents would stay to work and those who will take the under time. Thus the word ‘voluntary’ to qualify the time off should be described as forced instead. This however is apparently not allowed by law hence the term voluntary is used. However, since agents asked to take a VTO would not have a choice but to agree to the order of the management, then it remains voluntary.

For management, VTO is a workforce management tool that serves as a cost saving measure. Implementing a VTO should be strategically determined by identifying exactly which times or days are there low volume of calls to prevent being understaffed. Moreover, managers must communicate the VTO slots to the agents who are interested Agents respond with their willingness to take VTO. Moreover, managers must process the sign-ups and update agent schedules.

We gain different reactions when people are being asked about their opinions regarding call center agents. Some of them tend to appreciate the hard work and the challenging role of an agent, others would give nothing but snide comments and would start pointing out how laid-back it seems to just sit and take calls all night while receiving a mean income. But what is really going on inside the operations floor are beyond the slightest expectations of many. Let us take a quick look on it.

Once the queue starts, it won’t stop. It’s true that we just sit and take calls all night – and if you out it that way, you’d think of how cool our job is. But what people don’t know is that it’s actually in the literal sense, meaning we are not allowed to leave our seats even to just go to the washroom and pee if the volume of incoming calls is pretty high. Even the breaks and lunches are put on hold just to entertain these calls. It is mandatory for us to take them no matter how tired we are, because that is what we are being paid for.

We are the frontliners, meaning we are also the shock absorber. Irate callers are already a part of our everyday life. In each shift we receive one or two of them, telling how dumb, senseless, or inane we are. We hear all kinds of profanity, and though we are not told to tolerate them, we have to at least understand that the customer is upset, not by us, but by the situation. And since we are the front liners, then, basically, we need to hear and absorb first all of their anger and other negative emotions before we can get to their business.

Our job depends on our performance. If we don’t do well in our jobs, then basically we would be jobless. It is safe to say that what we do in the call center is not for dimwitted. Everything we do, from the moment we enter inside the operations floor, the minute we take the call, the way we greet the customers, the things we tell them, the way we say goodbye and even sometimes the way we treat our colleagues, is graded. Once we fail on something, then we’re doomed.

So don’t ever think what we do inside is just as easy as we let you see. We project very well, making it seem effortless. Because, that is how achievers handle challenges.

If you are working in a call center, most people are under the impression that your job mostly consists of sitting all night long in your workstation, answering phone calls, making phone calls, or maybe provide assistance through chat and email. This is not entirely false, because when you are starting your career in the call center industry, this is most probably what you would be doing at first. Although, you wouldn’t want to make and take calls your entire call center career right? This is one of the best things about BPO companies, because if you aim on stepping up the career ladder, opportunities are always flaunting themselves in front of you.

So aside from being the so-called front liners in the account you’re working for, you can step up the ladder of your career and be one of the following.

Escalation Specialist. You would also be making and taking calls – but from agents whose customers are asking for supervisors. Most of the time, customers are more at ease when they know that they are speaking to the supervisor, so the calls are not too difficult to handle.

QA Specialist. Being a quality assurance specialist or analyst, you are going to listen to the calls of the agents, whether live or recorded, and calibrate it with the company’s or account’s standard operating procedures. Basically, your job is to find out whether the agents are following the procedures and guidelines of the company in handling customers’ concerns and providing them assistance.

Team Leader. If you love handling people the right way and taking care of them, then this career is certainly for you. Being a team leader, you will be handling an entire cluster of agents, and you will be their immediate supervisor. You will be responsible in collating scorecards, file vacation and sick leaves and other usual stuff that supervisor does.

Product Trainer. In this job, you would be handling the new hire agents and train them about the products and services that the company offers. The training also includes the product specification, call handling and call flow, as well as the spiels that the agents are going to use once they go live and take calls.

Being in the call center industry does not only mean you are going to take calls while being there. Explore your options and find out which career path you are going to take. Step up the career ladder and make the most out of your skills and abilities.

Formed through the union of Call Center Week, the world’s largest and most influential customer service event, and Customer Management IQ, the world’s largest and most influential customer service online platform, Call Center IQ is the most important resource hub and advisory community for call center and customer experience professionals. Founded by Jo’Ann Alderson of Progressive Communications, the association provides members with the opportunity to engage with countless, exclusive online resources and a series of award-winning conferences (Contact Center Executive Exchange and Mobile Marketing Exchange 2015) at which they can interact without wires.

Call Center IQ helps create a more empowered breed of call center professionals that will deliver a better, more satisfying experience for customers and business stakeholders by gaining insights and assistances in the areas of Customer Experience, Performance & Metrics, Agent Engagement, Tools & Technologies, Customer Insights & Analytics and Social, Mobile & Web . It allows members to connect with over 100,000 qualified professionals who care as much about the customer as you do. It provides members with quarterly executive research reports valued at $2,000/year. Members also receive exclusive access to top presentations and product demos along with exclusive speaker podcasts, event research reports and live blogs. It also allows for product Matchmaking that matches members with the solution providers who meet their needs.

Among the important partners of Call Center IQ included Mattersight, a leader in enterprise analytics focused on customer and employee interactions and behaviours; Pegasystems for optimizing the customer experience and automate operations; KnoahSoft, an innovative provider of VoIP-based call recording, agent performance management and analytic tools; Incontact, cloud based contact center technology; Customer Contact Strategies (CCS) for collecting and organizeing remote working and work from home strategies; Calabrio for workforce optimization; IQ Services for end-to-end, customer service experience evaluation services for complex unified communications and contact center solution; VPI software solutions, TelePlaza, a web-based (ASP) call center marketing and public relations service; Call Center Planet, colleagues find it useful for meeting people and keeping up with contacts; Douglas Jackson contact center and leadership solutions; BrightTALK for webinars and videos for professionals and their communities; CallCentre Search ; and TELUS International.

As simple and easy as it may sound, call center job would also require you to hit some targets. These targets, other time called metrics, are the numbers that would determine just how well you perform as an agent. There are various metrics that you need to hit in order for you to acquire additional pay, incentives and other bonuses, and also, metrics that you need to hit in order to keep your job. What are these metrics that can be seen in your scorecards? Here are the basic.

Attendance. This is applicable as well in any other jobs. However, this is one of the basic and important metric in your scorecard. Every minute counts, and so, tardiness, even for a minute will no longer give you one hundred percent on your attendance sheet. This is the easiest to manage, though, because all you have to do is go to the office on time or even earlier than usual.

Average Handling Time. This is the number of minutes that you spend in talking to the customer over the phone. This is to gauge on how rapid you can provide assistance to the customer. Normally, the call should not run more than four minutes, but that depends on the account that you are handling. If you are on the technical team, then longer average handling time is allotted.

Quality Assurance. This determines on how well you perform during your calls. A QA analyst will listen to your call, either live or recorded and see how well you assist the customer, if you are following the standard operating procedures and the recommended call flow. This is usually one of the basic but the most crucial, because this also determines how well you know the product and services that you are offering to your customers.

Productivity. This determines the number of hours you spend over the phone in total. If you are asked to take calls for 7.5 hours every shift, then you scorecard should show the same in productivity. This is where the higher ups would know if you really are doing your job during working hours or you are wandering somewhere else.

These are just the basic metrics that almost all call centers have in their agents’ scorecards. Depending on the account, if it’s sales, financial or technical, there are additional metrics that you would see in their scorecards. Performance is a must, to be able to acquire those incentives and other perks, and even the simple fact that you want to keep your job.

When you were in school, you did your best in order to get good grades, because you believe that good grades meant a good job once you stepped out of the academe. What you do not realize while you were in school is that, good grades, even great ones, do not automatically mean great opportunities in the corporate world. Most companies out there would want to hire those who already have experience in their job posting ads. What if you are a fresh grad? How would you qualify?

A lot of people underestimate those who work in the call center. What they do not know is that, call center job is by far more challenging than they could ever imagine, that the job may not really be suitable for not-so-smart people. For one, if you want to work in the call center, your English must be flawless. Once you are hired, you would still need to undergo various voice and accent trainings and grammar trainings before you go live and take calls, regardless if you already are good in verbal English or not. Remember that you will be speaking to people who do not understand your vernacular. Secondly, talking to people with different culture than yours will be challenging, because you would need to adapt on the way how they think and the way they want things to work. Therefore, you have to use a certain skill in order for you to understand what your customer is trying to say, or trying to ask for.

In addition to this, most of the time, your customer would call you and talk about what’s going on with his or her services, without exactly telling you what is wrong, so you have to figure out your customer’s unstated need and address it properly. Some may say it just takes some common sense, but this is something that is not so common any more nowadays. Furthermore, there are also customers who would try your patience, and therefore, you must be tactful enough to pacify them, and make them believe that the services you offer is truly excellent even after the bad experience they just had.

See, being a call center agent is not just about making and taking phone calls, eight hours a day, five days a week. It is also about having proper logic, common sense, tact and excellent verbal English communication skills. Those aren’t easy to acquire, don’t you think?

It’s your first time to work in a call center. Most probably, you will be undergoing intensive one to two month training before you are actually assigned on the floor to receive real calls. This part of the job is important because it will allow you to have an initial feel of what it’s like working in a call center. The training is usually conducted at night to allow trainee to adjust to the night shift in most call center companies. Here are a few tips on your first night at work.

Get enough sleep. To have the energy and vitality for tonight’s work or training, once should try to get enough rest or sleep in the day to maintain an active and lively temperament up until the next morning. Don’t let your excitement or your regular day routine get in the way to your sleep. This is also a time for learning how to adjust to the night life.

Dress casual and presentable. First impressions last. Looking too rugged and rough or looking too glamorous and fashionista may not give the right impression to people. Besides, these appearances do not impress a welcoming disposition. Instead, it tends to solicit judgment or criticism.

Bring a jacket. Most companies have super cool air conditioners – too cold for one to be comfortable unless one wears a jacket.

Be friendly. Agents are often hired in batches and the group to where you belong will most probably become your teammate, and future colleagues with whom you will be spending the next months or years in the job. These people can help you grow along the way hence it is best to try to get along with as many co trainees as you can. One way to achieve this is to wear a smile and by being open and courteous to everyone.

Don’t take anything personally. If there is one thing first time workers must learn, it is not taking things personally. One should learn how to act and not react. This means maintaining once cool, casual and friendly demeanour regardless of the heinous attitude of anyone at work – whether another trainee, employee, trainer, supervisor, and most of all the customer. Try to think that everything is business.

If you have been working in the call center industry for quite a while now, you would probably smile to yourself as you read along this article. Not because what you would be reading is funny or anything, but because you will find that most statements are relatable to you and true. Now, if you are one of those who plan to apply and be part of this industry, you would most probably find this article helpful. Here you would find out the things that you would certainly find in a call center agent’s locker.

Sweatshirts, hoodies, jackets and blazers. If you are already an agent for months (or years), then this article of clothing must be dominant in your closet. If you are a newbie, then, it would be a good thing to invest in these, because the oh-so-cold night when you are about to leave the house for work would not seem friendly, especially during the last months of the year. Furthermore, the central air-conditioning system in your office would not leave you in peace – it will chill you to the bones.

Spill-proof mugs, tumblers, water containers. Even if you have been in the graveyard shift forever that does not give the guarantee that you would not feel sleepy during shift. Coffee is going to be your number one best friend. Good thing, most of the call center companies provide free coffee for the employees. All you have to do is secure yourself a mug. Just be sure it is spill-proof so to avoid spillage in your workstation that causes those icky sticky marks.

Blanket, small pillow, sleeping bag. Okay, not all may have sleeping bags in their lockers, but most of them, especially girls, have blankets and pillow. This is for when the shift is so unbearably tiring that they couldn’t help but just grab these sleeping must haves and find a corner in the sleeping area where they could snuggle and rest.

Alarm clocks (digitals are the best). And because none of them wants to be tagged late just because they overslept, and they are not allowed to bring phones inside the operations floor where most of the sleeping quarters are located, an alarm clock has also become an essential. It does not need to be loud, just enough for the owner to be informed that it is time to work.

See, if you are smiling right now, then you must be an agent with all these necessities in his or her locker. Well, for those newbies out there, now you know what to bring.

WORKING IN A CALL CENTER

Working in a call center industry is not just a job for some now. A lot of people have subconsciously turned it into a lifestyle, and some have even considered it a culture. Because there are certain things that shout ‘call center’, it would easy for one to identify if a person is working in a call center. It isn’t just the physical appearance, but the significant change in lifestyle. Here are some of them.

Call center job is so diverse that even your lifestyle seems to take a different path. But however the pressure may seem in following your colleagues’ lifestyles, always remember that you can always have your own.

Call center agents in the Philippines have a very tough job description. They stay awake at night; hold their emotions when customers become unprofessional towards them; and work under pressure when the team managers and the client are putting too much workloads on them. There are only a few things that can motivate the call center agents. It could be the sense of fulfillment, their family or compensation. Talking about compensation, call center agents, though are highly paid when compared to other jobs. They are paid through incentive and performance schemes on top of their basic salary. Now, how can you get those incentives? To answer that question, a call center agent must need to be a top performer. Here are the tips on how to become a top performer call center agent:

Attendance. It is very important that call center agents are punctual. Since most of the BPO companies operate at 24/7, this kind of industry could not afford absenteeism nor late attendees as it highly affects the businesses’ operations. Therefore, to motivate the agents to come in on time, call center companies offer perfect attendance as part of the incentive scheme.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Call centers are KPI-driven. This means it is the basis for a company or an organization how well their employees performed and if there are processes that need improvement. For call centers, KPI includes customer satisfactory survey, average handling time, first call resolution, and how would it likely the customers recommend the product offered by the company. Focusing on customer satisfactory survey, it is very important that the agents are well-mannered, professional, and provide excellent customer service, as it will lead to a positive feedback from the customers.

Sales. This is where high incentives given to the call center agents. When a call center agent sells the product well hitting the sales target, he/she is rewarded with sales incentives. In addition, if he/she is consistently hitting the target, he/she is also recognized as the sales top performer.

Nomination from co-workers. There are companies leading a program, in which it will ask other employees who will be nominated and identified as the employee of the month. The co-workers will identify the employee through his personality. He/she is usually recognized annually.

The key of success of all BPO industries also came from the success of call center agents who performed well for the company.

Working in a call center industry has opened lots of opportunities for some people. It has paved the way to success because of its competitive compensation and benefits. Through its compelling efforts for its employee, it has given them more reason to pursue their career in this industry. However, there are some cases that agents do not get inspired to work. Some of them remained stagnant, or worst, some of them decided to resign already. Hence, here are some facts or tips on how to keep every agent going in their career. Nothing is too hard to achieve once people know these things:

Manage your time very well. Basically, this pertains to the time management. If you are one of the people who work in graveyard shift, you should be more vigilant in managing your time very well. This means that people should still be productive even if they work at night. There are still some activities that are done better in the morning.

Keep an eye on your health. Sitting and answering calls for too long can surely make you sick physically. Hence, make sure that you still have proper exercise in between your job. There are some exercises that you can still do while sitting down. At home, you may do certain exercises that certainly improve your physical aspects.

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition to this, be mindful of the food you eat. Your lifestyle should still include eating of fruits and vegetables. Avoid eating too much in fast food chains. It will just make you fat and unhealthy. Make sure to have a balanced diet so you will not worry about your future. Keep yourself hydrated and always drink plenty of water as well.

These are just some of the facts that you need to know once you work in a BPO industry. Always assure yourself to have healthy body and sound mind. Of course, stress is inevitable in any work places. Therefore, keep yourself professional. Always mind your own business. Sharing is nice, as long as it will not keep you down. Moreover, when the time comes that you are totally tired of what you are doing, looking for a new career path is suggested. Who knows? You might be able to look for the job that you really long for once you step out of your comfort zone.

Confidence or the belief on oneself is very important in any endeavor including at work. In a call center company, an agent’s confidence is crucial because it constitutes part of the nature of customer service. Confidence is important in communication in order to impart messages with clarity and sincerity. This is especially true because agents usually communicate with foreign clients who could be intimidating and demanding. Boosting the confidence of call center agents is therefore an essential function of managers and supervisors.

Provide training. The most apparent way to boost confidence level of agents is through training. Training allows agents to reach a certain level of communication skill which makes them comfortable in communicating. Training can also be used to directly address deficiencies that can cause an agent’s low level of confidence. The best training that can help agents gain confidence in communicating with foreigners is a practice training in which agents actually talk to foreigners.

Peer coaching. One can supplement the training of agents in building the relevant skills need for effective customer service and communication through coaching. A buddying technique helps a agent to have a peer with whom one can receive advises and tips. Agents tend to be more responsive with peers because they can immediately relate to their experience.

Provide counseling. Self-confidence is something that essentially emanates from oneself. Counseling agents can help create a positive self-image. When a person feels good about himself and what he is capable of doing, one can perform work more effectively and productively. Counseling should be geared towards focusing on one’s strengths and capability to succeed. Managers and trainers should create a positive image of agents both in the personal perspective of themselves and in the perspective of those outside themselves. Instead of being critical to oneself or comparing oneself with other people, one should focus more on oneself.

Create a positive environment. Another way to approach counseling is to focus on creating a positive environment for the agents. Instead of seeing hatred and desperation, agents should be able to see the positive side of things. Apart from providing positive feedback and counseling, this can also be achieved by providing fun at work. Managers and supervisors should think of creative ways to make work fun and something to look forward to by giving concrete incentives and awards to agents.

Many people think that working in the call center industry is like a dream come true. Most of them are under the impression that the job is so easy – you will just sit back, and answer every call that will come in. Also, the job pays much, higher than the usual salary of a regular employee, not to mention the incentives and perks that you will receive for a job well done.

However, what these most people didn’t know is that call center jobs are not as easy as they think. Sure, you get to answer calls for the entire eight hours of your shift, but that’s not the only thing you do. There are factors which need to be graded and gauged in order for you to keep your job as a specialist.

Attendance. This is one of the easiest and most attainable metric, because all you need to do is come right on time. You are actually expected to come to work earlier than your schedule, because you have to ready yourself and the tools you will need to take calls. Besides, this is the basic requirement that any job would expect from an employee.

AHT (Average Handling Time). This is the length of each call you take. Normally, the AHT for inbound calls (those who take and receive calls) is no more than four to six minutes maximum. By the end of the day, you have to make sure that your handling time averages in the number of minutes required by the management. In some companies, failure to do so in three consecutive months may result to termination.

QA (Quality Assurance). Not only you have to take calls, answer them and address your customer’s concern as fast as you can, but also as efficient as you can. Quality assurance is where your calls are being recorded, graded and calibrated to see if you are telling the right things to the customers and you are in line with the company’s standard operating procedures. Failure in these QA sessions for two to three consecutive months may lead to termination in some companies.

Productivity. This is the number of hours that you actually spend taking calls. Take off the lunch break, coffee breaks and restroom breaks in between, that’s how many hours you are expected to be on the phone talking to the customer. Failure to meet the indicated number of hours, for some companies may lead to termination.

These are just the basic metrics that you need to meet, or client expectations that you are required to do so. Remember, no job is ever easy.

Don’t Be a Call Center Hopper

You might have been working in a call center for, say, a couple of years now. However, you resume bears names of at least five companies in which you have worked for the past two years, and your stay in each of them does not exceed four months. You can now call yourself a call center hopper.

Being tagged as a call center hopper is not good. Companies would be under the impression that you do not intend on staying with them, and so when they see you resume that have been in a lot of companies just for a short period of time, they might be reluctant to get you hired. How to avoid being a call center hopper?
Here are some tips.

1.       Research about the company before submitting your resume. There are a lot of call center companies these days because of the high demands of manpower for customer care abroad. Things is, not all of them are reliable, and some companies are dubbed a fly by night. So before submitting your resume, consider doing a research about that company. Is the management okay? Is the compensation package impressive? Also, you could never go wrong by asking people what are their recommendations and opinions regarding that company.

2.      Learn how to be content. Let’s face it. There is no perfect company. The management might be crappy, but the compensation is really good. Or, management and compensation are both good, but the leave credits suck. One company cannot possibly offer you all the things you want, and so be content and accept the fact that indeed, nothing is perfect.

3.       Leave for the right reasons. Whether you feel like you’re bullied by the company policies, or maybe you don’t like the way you team lead handles the team, chances are, you would meet worse company policies and team lead if you switch companies. Leave for the right reasons. If you think that call center job is not for you, then maybe it is really time for you to draft that resignation letter.

Leaving the company you work for is not always the right solution for your problem. Unless you believe that there is a different career path waiting for you in another industry, or you no longer experience growth in the company where you currently work, then think things over for a lot of times before submitting that letter of resignation.

Avoid Call Center Habits

Call centers have become the most popular source of employment in the country for several years now. In fact, working in one of these BPO companies already feel like a culture for some. Working in a call center can teach you some habits that can be so hard to break. If you are just starting, or a newbie, then these are just some of the known call center agent habits you would want to avoid.

Excessive smoking. Smoking cigarettes is one of the most famous habits of those who work in call centers. Some say it’s to relieve the stress brought about by different things like an irate caller, a customer who took so long to figure out what the agent was trying to explain, high volume of calls, and even a colleague being hard. Despite the danger it poses to health, most of them cannot just quit. Try to avoid before you become hooked.

Sunrise beer. This is very popular – after shift drinking session. Usually, this happens during the last day of the week, wherein everyone’s off work the next day. It might not be so bad if done occasionally. However, there are some who does this regardless if there is work the next night or night. Avoid this at all cost to keep yourself from being reprimanded for being drunk while at work the next shift.

Too much fast food. This is easier if you are on the day shift. However, you have very limited option if you are assigned to the graveyard shift. Your usual choices would be the fast food chains that are open 24/7, coffee shops, convenience stores, vending machines and pantry food which are not always guaranteed to be inexpensive and edible. So unless you pack your own food to work, then you have to brace yourself for all the junk it would be taking in.

Too much of the outgoing lifestyle. Yes, most people in the call center companies are known to be party animals, which is not exactly bad. Partying once in a while is good, but always remember that too much of everything is bad. You might want to allot sometime to catch up on sleep.

Of course, we do not judge those people who do the above mentioned habits. However, let’s face the truth that these habits are not exactly good, especially on your health and well-being. It is best for you to avoid these things before it’s too late.

Ace that Call Center Interview!

You might be too anxious after submitting your resume to that call center company where you wanted to work. There are lots of possibilities that could happen – what if your answers during the interview are not good enough for you to get hired. Just like applying for a job in the corporate world, applying in a call center is pretty much the same thing. Here are some tips on how to ace that call center hiring interview.

Prepare an impressive resume. This is very important, because you should be able to sell yourself as soon as the HR personnel looks at your profile. If you already have call center experience, make sure that that is the first thing that can be seen in your resume. If you are a fresh graduate or it’s your first time to apply in a call center, then make sure to put emphasis on your skills related to job (e.g. good English communication skills).

Be on time. This is a very simple tip. No one wants to be late on an interview, and that should include you. Do not just arrive right on time. Make sure you have a few good moments to yourself before facing your interviewer. Use this to compose yourself or make sure that you still look presentable and professional after fighting off the traffic.

Be confident. This is also very important. You might not be confident enough with your English skills if it’s your first time. However, you should keep in mind that HR personnel won’t really expect you to be fluent in that language. So all you have to do is practice speaking with confidence and worry later about your grammar and subject-verb agreement.

Be yourself. You do not have to pretend to be someone else just to ace the interview. All you have to do is consider the possible questions that might be thrown at you and think through of your answers as diligently as possible. Also, if possible, establish an eye contact with your interviewer while answering questions to show that you really mean business.

These are just basic tips but sure they can help you in acing that interview. You may also ask for help from your friends who already have experience working in the call center to give you some insights on what it’s like to be in there. Good luck!

Ways to Surpass Your Call Center Training

If you are just landed your call center job, you might be worried of what awaits you at the operations floor. Will your very first customer ask you to transfer him to a supervisor? Or maybe the customer will yell at you at the top of her lungs while demanding why the bill is so high. Before you worry about how to handle these kinds of calls, let yourself relax a bit, and maybe, worry about something that should be on the top of your priority list now that you’re finally hired.

How to survive your training.

You see, not all people survive the training stage in call centers, may it be speech training or product training. Here are some tips on how to survive both.

Always be on time. If you are prohibited to be late on your actual work, in trainings this is one serious offense. You will miss a lot of learning if you arrive late on your training sessions. What’s more, it’s going to reflect against you as an employee. Remember that during your training days, you are already a hired employee, and therefore, you are expected to go to work on time.

Never skip a class. There is a major impact in your overall performance if you skip even just one session of your training. There are a lot of things that you will miss regarding what you should know, and you cannot expect your trainers to review them for you. Sure, you can review, but you will be very behind when it comes to system navigation.

Make sure you are well rested before going to the class. Just like when you were in school, training sessions are actually a classroom setup. In order for you to function well, make sure that you are properly rested, especially if you trainings are held during the graveyard shift (which normally happens). You don’t want to be caught snoring in the middle of the class, do you.

Read your manuals and review them before each assessment quizzes. All of these quizzes count, so make sure you ace all of the exam. Training sessions are crucial, because the results will determine if you are qualified to hit the floor or not.

Call center training sessions are most probably the most fun part of being a call center employee. Enjoy it, while taking it seriously as well, because that could make or break your budding career in the call center industry.

Life of an Agent

If you have been working in the call center for a while now, you would know that there are lots of different comments from other people regarding your job. Some of them appreciate the fact that it is not easy to take customer calls and help a total stranger over the phone whop doesn’t even speak your vernacular. There are also some who think that sitting in front of the computer talking to customers for the whole eight hours seem so laid back that does not deserve a mean salary. If you are not a call center agent, you might be one of those who wonder what really is like to be inside the operations floor and be involved in the action. This article will provide you with some ideas.

Queue 24/7 . It’s true – call center agents sit in front of the computer and take calls eight hours straight, sometimes even more. However, it’s not as easy as it seems to be, because for the entire shift, there will be non-stop talking especially if the volume of calls is too high that the agents cannot accommodate them all sometimes. Just imagine yourself talking for eight hours with a deep breath as your only rest. Not that easy, right?

Customer service slash shock absorber. Irate callers have already become a chunk of the call center agents’ lives. There are even trainings conducted on how to handle these irate and difficult customers. Although they really are not dissatisfied and annoyed with the agent, but with the situation, agents can’t help but recognize their disappointments through empathy and patience.

Metrics for Performance. Metrics like average handling time, productivity and quality assurance are all recorded and graded, and each agent must be able to hit the required level of performance. Thus, there is no room for slacking and being laid back. Every call should be treated the right way, for one wrong move might make or break your career as a call center agent.

These are just some of the major things that happen inside the operations floor. Being a call center agent is not an easy job, unlike what some people would like to think. It requires a lot of patience and a certain amount skills in order to keep the job. So the next time you are being asked how do you think it’s like, keep in mind that it’s not that simple.

How to Land a Job in a Call Center

Just like any other job, applying as a call center agent requires a bunch of things that you should do such as job hunting, resume building, interviewing etc. All of these processes contribute to the slim chances of you being hired, frankly speaking. This is due to the fact that numerous individuals, hundreds perhaps, will be applying and vying for the job. Competition will be fierce, and in the end only a handful among hopefuls will be hired. Although this is indeed a very dreadful statistic, there is no need to worry since there are plenty of ways to make yourself stand out amongst the crowd. Here are some tips which you could use to increase your chances in landing your chosen job.

Create a killer resume

What better way to showcase your abilities and capabilities than to make a resume. Not any kind of resume, but a killer one. Killer in a sense that your resume gets to lay down all your relevant personal and work information in the shortest way possible.

With the numerous hopefuls that queue up in a single job opening, it would be exhausting for the human resource department to sift through in detail all submitted applications. This is where your resume comes in. Focus only on relevant information that can help you in landing the job. For example, if you want to apply as tech support, you should not include your previous work experience as a food telemarketer. Rather, you could say that you have experience as a computer technician.

Additionally, make sure that your resume can be read in just 10 seconds without compromising content. This would greatly increase employer’s interest in your application. Let your creativity run wild in making your resume. There is no single template for making one. Just make sure that it would help in getting across the information that you want conveyed.

Study, Study, Study

Assuming that your resume was successful in getting through the preliminary stage, you should now be invited for your interview. Don’t be cocky and charge off to the interview without preparation though because frankly, having superb English skills is not enough. How then should you prepare for the interview? Simply enough, you should study the company’s profile in which you are applying for. Study its line of expertise and services offered. If possible, familiarize yourself with the company’s mission, vision and core values. By knowing all of this, you will be able to give an impression to your employers that you really are passionate and excited to work with them.

Aside from that, you can also prepare on potential questions that maybe asked by the interviewers. Websites such as Quora and Forbes provide material and articles that you can read to know common and likely questions that maybe asked, proper approach, proper posture etc. It is also interesting to note that Quora has access to numerous professionals who have had experience in applicant interviewing. This would be a great opportunity for you to ask some relevant questions to highly qualified individuals.

Dress for the Occasion

Not only do verbal and written skills get you the job, but also physical appearance too. In the interview, you should wear appropriate clothes that will give the employers a professional impression on you. Since this is for a call center job, then it will be appropriate if you choose semi-formal attire. Being too casual, will call you off as unprofessional while being too formal will make you look like a try-hard. Proper grooming and an appropriate haircut for men would be a plus. For women, light make up and of course, proper grooming is essential in giving out a good first impression to employers.

Polishing Your English Communication SKills

You might have heard that the call center industry is blooming – the people who apply for a job are mostly getting hired. Apart from the promising salary and the better benefit packages they offer, call center companies are often open for diversity and guarantees rapid career growth. You want to be a part of it, but you’re not confident with your English? Grammar could go left and right as you speak, but that could easily be managed. Read along and find out how.

Be ready to unlearn. Believe it or not, most of what’s been taught to us when we were at school as regards to grammar and pronunciation are incorrect. This truth somehow hurts, especially if your English teacher’s way back in grade five and in first year high school were your favorites. You have to be ready to forget some of what they said, and start clean.

Watch a lot of English movies. Almost seventy five percent of an average call center agent’s knowledge in English were acquire through this. Watching English movies, regardless of the genre, is a totally fun way of learning how to speak English properly. Not only you would be able to perfect your grammar and pronunciation, but you might also acquire that American accent. Be careful though, because as much as Harry Potter movies are the best for movie marathons, you might want to opt for movies with neutral accents.

Read a lot. Reading a lot of English books can widen your vocabulary. Some novels could also give you ideas about foreign culture and the way their mind works, and having that knowledge is very useful.

Log on to foreign entertainment sites. It never hurts to know more about your favorite Hollywood actors. Watching videos of their live interviews can give you more ideas on how they speak naturally and out of script. Not only that, you can also use the bits of information you accumulated to build rapport to your customers over the phone once you’re hired.

Practice. Practice. Practice. Ask someone to speak English with you. You can assess each other regarding grammar and pronunciation, correct each other and give feedback and advice. Always remember that practice doesn’t make it perfect, but practice makes it permanent.

Not all things are born, some can be made. So start doing these simple steps and aim high for that dream job.

What to Expect During Hiring Process

One of the most in demand industries these days are business process outsourcing. There are lots of companies that even conduct job fairs and guarantee one day hiring process for applicants who wish to be part of the call center industry. You may be one of them – you also want to be a part of a dynamic industry which compensates fairly and where career growth is not only guaranteed but also quick. Do you already know what awaits you during the hiring process? Here is the general step by step hiring process in the BPO.

Submitting your resume. This is the most basic step in the hiring process of any industry out there. Although this is the basic, you should already start making a good impression. A resume with impressive background would look convincing enough that you are a candidate that is worth that phone call for the initial interview and that you mean serious business. Pack your resume with relevant information regarding your work experiences and attach that photo with the business look, and so when you submit it, either as you walk in or online, it will certainly be noticed.

Initial interview. So after you have impressed the human resource officer of your power resume, initial interview would follow. This is where you would be asked further regarding the information you put in your resume and a little bit more of something about yourself. This stage is not usually the make or break stage, but you are still expected to do your best. Make sure to wear business casual attire and put that confident smile so that the interviewer would see that you really mean business.

Call simulation. This stage could be optional for some company, but this may be necessary for others, especially if you are applying as an outbound call agent. Here you are being gauge on how well you converse over the phone with the customers. It is an advantage if you already have call center experience. If you are a newbie, don’t fret. Calm down because there would be spiels to read as you do the simulation.

Final interview. Usually this is just the formality. If you reached this stage, then you are most likely going to get hired. Normally the things discussed here are the essentials of the campaign where in you will be assigned, schedules and sometimes, you would get to speak with the client of the campaign.

Sound good and easy, right? Don’t stall upon applying. Prepare you resume now and start practicing your answers for the interview to ace that job.

Tips for Effective Questioning

Asking a question is one of the most basic ways to obtain right information from customers. Hence, it is important for call center agents to learn effective questioning techniques in order to facilitate better communication and better serve their clients. Below are ways to effective questioning.

Frame the conversation. This is achieved by simply telling client that you are going to ask some question as well as the reason why you are asking questions. In this way, client will be ready to respond promptly to questions.

Use different types of questions to dig deeper. Start questions with open questions, or questions that entail long answers and entails client to think and reflect or give opinions and feelings. Follow it up with probing questions or follow up questions to delve deeper into the customer’s responses to the open questions. Finally, use closed questions to gather facts (often yes or no answers) about customer. This also helps agent maintain control of the conversation as the questioner.

Explain and Describe. For probing questions, one way to gain insight about the customer is to allow him to explain and describe situations. In this way, agents are given information for analysis.

Listen carefully. When customers respond or answer questions, agents should listen carefully in order for them to flow their dialogue or conversation with client in a spontaneous and structured manner.

Avoid silence. Silence over the phone can be misinterpreted for many negative reasons such as the connection has been interrupted or the other party is not listening. As such, agents should avoid being silent over the phone as much as possible.

Use positive words. In asking questions, agents should use polite positive words delivered in an enthusiastic manner so that it would not sound robotic, insensitive, SOP which can upset a client. The use of positive words is also important to avoid making the questioning like an interrogation.