|
Fil5000 posted:How many people you got on that line with you? Also do you know if the client has agreed a specific service level target? It might be that the penalty for failing to hit the agreed service level outweighs the cost of having you on the phone with ten percent occupancy.
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2016 03:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 00:20 |
|
|
I gotta say, back when I was taking inbound calls all day I probably would have murdered someone to get that kind of time between calls, but my company isn't as restrictive about downtime activities as yours.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2016 13:49
|
|
|
Currently working customer service for company that can not link an increase in sales and not expanding our department with an increase in abandoned calls.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 17:58
|
|
|
Dropping in here for possible career advice. I'm nearly halfway through a part time MBA program in finance. I'm a career changer, so while I have a math background, I don't have any banking/investing/general finance experience. I am good at and love crunching numbers though. Career goal is a financial analyst role. I've been applying for entry level roles at bank branches (such as personal banker, relationship banker) as I have client relations and account management experience. I kept getting rejection emails so I asked for resume feedback from the HR person listed on the rejection email. She wrote me today and said I don't have enough direct sales experience for relationship banking but their call center would love to have someone like me working there and would provide me with the banking/finance experience I would need to advance. *groan* I am not loving the idea of a call center, but I also realize I can't really be picky because I don't have experience. My biggest fear is getting trapped. I don't want to take a job that's $15/hr or something and be stuck with it forever, unable to advance out of it. Also, I've never earned more than $15 on average since I graduated from college, because reasons (I don't want to give away too much info due to internet detectives), and I've been out of college for nine years so I'm kind of over making a lowball salary because I've been stuck at $14 or $15 per hour since I got out of school the first time, but I also understand I may have to put up with it just a year or two longer to gain needed experience and then move on. Should I: a) pass on looking at their call center jobs and hope for something better b) apply for call center job, see if they want to interview/offer, then if offered, decide based on what the offer is? c) If I do get a job offer and accept, should I then sit down with my manager and indicate that I plan to do the best I can in this role but my ultimate goal is to move into a financial analyst role in the same organization? I was thinking maybe I could treat the call center like an internship, and take advantage of working there to make as many contacts as I can and get people to like me so that as soon as I graduate I can move into the job I actually do want? Help? e: by comparison, in my neighborhood a financial analyst job pays $65,000 a year on average. A heck of a lot more than $15/hr call center job. I need to make sure I can meet my end goal and not get stuck. Nine Five Four fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Feb 18, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 19:42
|
|
|
Nine Five Four posted:I'm nearly halfway through a part time MBA program in finance. I'm a career changer, so while I have a math background, I don't have any banking/investing/general finance experience. I am good at and love crunching numbers though. Career goal is a financial analyst role. Start studying for your CFA tests if you haven' t already. Edit: I guess if you're looking into finance (rather than banking/lending) then you should clarify exactly what you'll be selling. Selling credit cards and home mortgages is not the same as selling securities (which would require a Series 7 certification). The closest you would get to that at a call bank is possibly making calls to find leads for the in-house Financial Advisor (think B of A and Merrill-Lynch). And I doubt that would be the case, since any sales agent would want to know who is making their lead-generating calls. At least in the (admittedly short) working experience I have had in finance. cumshitter fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 18, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 20:14
|
|
|
cumshitter posted:Start studying for your CFA tests if you haven' t already. Great idea except: "Investopedia: posted:Before you can become a CFA charterholder, you must have four years of investment/financial career experience.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 20:17
|
|
|
Passing the CFA test is not the same as becoming a charterholder. Having passed it will look very good on a resume.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 20:21
|
|
|
cumshitter posted:Passing the CFA test is not the same as becoming a charterholder. Having passed it will look very good on a resume. Ahhh - understood! Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 20:34
|
|
|
You're welcome. Please see above for my edit in case you missed it, knowing what you're selling will give you an idea if you're actually going to learn anything about investing. It's probably best to ask your professor for a little guidance. I know one of the sales VP's at my office taught a finance MBA program for a bit. It's not unlikely that your professors have finance employment backgrounds, so they can probably give you a little guidance on where to apply and get your feet wet.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 20:37
|
|
|
cumshitter posted:You're welcome. Please see above for my edit in case you missed it, knowing what you're selling will give you an idea if you're actually going to learn anything about investing. I read the edit - this particular call center is inbound customer service. No cold calling, but from what I understand you're still supposed to try to push additional products when people call in. It would not be securities or anything else that needs a Series license. Those roles exist in branches and pay well though - 15K above what a call center role would be annually. The annoying thing here is that I do have sales experience in my current and past roles, it just wasn't highlighted enough on this version of my resume. I'd emphasized instead my client relations and account management experiences. If I redo it to highlight sales achievements and resubmit for future jobs I might have a shot. But if not, judging from LinkedIn it seems like people were able to move around in the organization after starting in the call center so I might be all right if that's what I have to do. I will also ask my professor tonight. He worked at the company I'm trying to get into for a few years.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 21:14
|
|
|
I was in my banks call centre for about 4 years. I still work for the bank now but I'm not client facing. I learned a ton in the centre, lots more than people did on the phones. But drat it was a rough four years. It directly got me where I am now though. And a lot of people I know went to be hired by the branch in non-CSR roles aka managers and such. Just my two cents on the experience on moving on from the centre.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2016 22:37
|
|
|
Nine Five Four posted:Dropping in here for possible career advice. Based on your avatar are you in Orlando? If so I have a great job opening for you. You can PM me or if you don't have PM reply and I will post my email. Zero One fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Feb 22, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2016 18:30
|
|
|
I strongly advise against taking a call center job. That HR person just has to fill a spot and is offering it to anyone.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2016 19:58
|
|
|
That reminds me, I was at a job I ended up absolutely hating and was desperate to get out. I made the mistake of putting my resume up on Monster and the only non-insurance response I got was from McMaster-Carr to be one of their sales reps (just a call center job in reality). They caught me on the drive to work so I scheduled a call back later that day. Before calling them I did a little research on Glassdoor. Usually it's not that helpful and there are barely any reviews. McMaster-Carr had 400+ reviews, nearly all of them negative and the closest they came to positive was still middling. To give you an idea of how bad this company you've likely never heard of is, Rite-Aid has 1.8K reviews and Ford Motor Company has 1.5K. A quick rundown of the major complaints: -90+ page handbook for writing emails to customers. -Weekly performance evaluations in which you could get written up for making a typo in an email. -Constant management turnover. -All managers were recent college grads with no work experience, no promotion from within -General feeling of suicidal depression in the office This led to the following conversation: "I saw your Glassdoor page and I was a bit worried by the reviews, which were largely negative." "Well, those tend to be written by unhappy employees." "Yeah, but I've never seen 40 plus pages of bad reviews on any company I've ever looked at." (Angry silence) "Is it true your handbook for writing emails is over 90 pages long?" "It is comprehensive." "I'm looking to get out of my current position, but I'm just not interested in what you're offering. Thanks for your consideration."
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2016 20:47
|
|
|
cumshitter posted:That reminds me, I was at a job I ended up absolutely hating and was desperate to get out. I made the mistake of putting my resume up on Monster and the only non-insurance response I got was from McMaster-Carr to be one of their sales reps (just a call center job in reality). They caught me on the drive to work so I scheduled a call back later that day. Before calling them I did a little research on Glassdoor. Usually it's not that helpful and there are barely any reviews. McMaster-Carr had 400+ reviews, nearly all of them negative and the closest they came to positive was still middling. McMaster-Carr is a weird company. They do everything maybe the dumbest way a company can but they are still one of the better supply companies you can work with.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2016 15:57
|
|
|
Selling Barclay cards over the phone has got to be worst job, even bellow sucking dick for money. That is what i have to say about outbound call centers. Indbound is cool as hell tho.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2016 21:26
|
|
|
So until fairly recently I worked in the inbound call centre for Canada Post, tracking packages, arranging parcel pickups, helping people set up marketing campaigns, that sort of thing. My outsourced call centre got underbid when the contract renewal came up last year, and everything got transitioned to them at the end of January. I just had to call in to check something about a parcel I'm expecting, and found that not only has the IVR become unredeemably terrible but when I finally got through to an agent she had literally no clue what I was looking for, to the extent I had to guide her through the process to find the information I wanted. And she wasn't able to find it. They've been doing this job for something like six months. By the time I'd been doing that job for six months I had been cross-trained on three other lines of business for Canada Post. If you work for Atelka in Cornwall or Montreal it's probably a good idea to get out now before the service failure fees get to be too bad. Also, you know, both your client and customer base are awful.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2016 01:46
|
|
|
Mad Hamish posted:So until fairly recently I worked in the inbound call centre for Canada Post, tracking packages, arranging parcel pickups, helping people set up marketing campaigns, that sort of thing. My outsourced call centre got underbid when the contract renewal came up last year, and everything got transitioned to them at the end of January. Every single outsource company is terrible because the sole reason for their resistance is asses on seats at cheap prices and the absolute bare minimum customer service skills.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2016 15:47
|
|
|
Goals went up this month, call count went up this month, my resume went out this month. Got a new job at a very low key, low stress, no goals/call time, dispatch for a small company where most of the time I'll be playing my DS while waiting for a call. Put my two weeks notice on monday. Wednesday I realized I just didn't care enough about the job to finish my two weeks. and I'm enjoying this little mini vacation.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2016 14:22
|
|
|
I work at Rogers, a service provider in Canada. We serve cable in Ontario and every province east except PEI and Nova Scotia. I happen to live in Nova Scotia so I can take advantage of all the employee discounts available for internet and television in a province that doesn't receive them from my employer  I've worked there for about five months now, and in my experience, it's not the customers that are the problem. The customers are generally nice at best and agreeable at worst, although you do get the fringe cases where customers are just mad for the sake of it. In my experience, the worst thing about working at a service provider are your superiors. So I got this one customer a couple of days ago. Her account was a mess. I had never seen any account quite so slipshod. Here's the story:
So, the thing that made me so upset is that I had reached out to my supervisor about this loving circus of an account and see if she could make heads or tails of it. She ignores me. She tries to tell me that the system is correct and that she owes $206, even after, in the exact same breath, acknowledging that she shouldn't have had the business promotion and that it made no sense that she had it. I gave her the account number so she could look over everything herself but she didn't even look at the loving thing. Now, we have multiple supervisors trying to help multiple people at a time, but this was at 9:00 PM, the floor was quiet as a ghost. She had no excuse other than she just didn't loving feel like it. She had the gall to tell me to tell the customer that, despite none of it making any sense, the system was right and she owed the whole 170-actually-206 amount without trying to come to any sort of conclusion. When you call your service provider and you speak with tech, or billing, or (in my case) customer care, you're speaking with the very bottom rung of the ladder. We can help you with what you need, but when it comes to things you want, like better promotions, our hands are extremely tied. There are a shitload of promotions available within Roger's systems, but us agents only have access to an extremely limited pool of them, and they're all terms, which leaves a bad taste in customer's mouths. We used to have a term that saved customers around $30/month, and then the Prime decided that that was too good for us, so they gave us one that saved them just $15. Does saving $15/month for a two year contract sound like a good deal to you? But, the one thing we can do is give credits. And we have no shortage of reasons to give credits: credits in the name of goodwill, or credits due to a system error, or credits to cover a customer's overage if they happen to go over their allotted bandwidth for the month. For any credit we apply, it has to be less than $50, no matter the reason. Any more than that requires supervisor permission to go through. So, I just credited her $41.20 five times, to cover the entire $206 bill. I thought that the system was in error and I disagreed with the half-assed excuse my supervisor gave me to cover for the system. gently caress it and gently caress them. The customer was very grateful, though, so all's well there.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2016 21:22
|
|
|
Maple Leaf posted:I work at Rogers, a service provider in Canada. We serve cable in Ontario and every province east except PEI and Nova Scotia. I happen to live in Nova Scotia so I can take advantage of all the employee discounts available for internet and television in a province that doesn't receive them from my employer My bosses are pretty good, but if they give me poo poo its real easy to get a customer to demand to be escalated. Just pick up the phone, tell them something that will piss them off, such as "I can't figure this out, it seems to be contradictory, but i checked with my supervisor and he/she assured me it is all correct and you owe the higher amount due." They will ask for your supervisor on the spot. I get written up if I suggest a customer speak to a supervisor, so I don't. I just tell them I spoke to my supervisor, and that reminds them that supervisors exist and they can ask to talk to them.  Works like a charm and then my boss backs down instantly to avoid talking to the customer.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2016 21:29
|
|
|
jassi007 posted:My bosses are pretty good, but if they give me poo poo its real easy to get a customer to demand to be escalated. Just pick up the phone, tell them something that will piss them off, such as "I can't figure this out, it seems to be contradictory, but i checked with my supervisor and he/she assured me it is all correct and you owe the higher amount due." They will ask for your supervisor on the spot. I get written up if I suggest a customer speak to a supervisor, so I don't. I just tell them I spoke to my supervisor, and that reminds them that supervisors exist and they can ask to talk to them. I try to avoid doing that because we have a managerial department, and if a customers says they want to speak to a manager, we get them there. However, we have to ask for a supervisor's permission to transfer to the managerial department. And the supervisors will do anything to make sure the customer does not go beyond their agents. They'll tell me to offer credits; they'll offer (through us, of course) promotions normally unavailable to the general public; just yesterday, they told me to transfer to our billing department instead. The customer was mad enough to ask to speak to a manager, and they told me to get her to billing. I thought it was a mistake, and reading the notes the billing agent had left on her account an hour later told me that I was right. Getting a customer to a manager is practically worse than death for my supervisors. That said, I do say something to this effect when a customer wants a promotion. I tell them that only retention has access to the really good stuff, and I can only transfer a customer to retention if they threaten to port out. Most are smart enough to say "uhh, I'm thinking of going to Bell Aliant," and then off they go. I don't need permission to transfer to retention, and I have to check back with the customer occasionally while they're on hold, so it's basically break time. Earlier today, wait times for retention were 40 minutes long, so that's a 40 minute break, hell yeah.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2016 02:44
|
|
|
I hope you insulated yourself from blowback with a judicious note such as "checked with manager, advised customer xyz". Even in the relatively decent call centres I've worked, it's always seemed wiser to do the wrong thing and be able to lay the responsibility on a feckless manager than do the right thing and be held accountable if issues ever arise from it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2016 22:23
|
|
|
I always try to detail my notes as thoroughly as I can, unless it's something piss-easy like them checking their balance or whatever. I left half a novel on the account from a few days ago explaining absolutely everything and what I had to do to come to my conclusion. One of my supervisors once gave me an unsolicited piece of advice: always do right by the customer. It doesn't matter what you have to do to make them happy, as long as they leave happy. Also, I frankly don't much care for my job security 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2016 05:04
|
|
|
Not sure if it's been said here and will seem like a shill but if you live in Arizona or Iowa and work at a call center not GoDaddy. Do yourself a favor and try to get in there. The pay is on avg 50k/yr (after bonus is included) and you can make 6 figures if you know how to sell in some departments. Company is pretty good for a main part of their jobs being call center employees. Also lots of opportunity to get off the phones and do other stuff if you're inclined. I worked there for about five years and was only on the phones for two. Then did something stupid and got fired. But it was a good time while I was there for the most part. gently caress loads better then 2wire(wireless modem/router support for AT&T) if anyone has dealt with them.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2016 17:38
|
|
Austen Tassletine posted:I hope you insulated yourself from blowback with a judicious note such as "checked with manager, advised customer xyz". Even in the relatively decent call centres I've worked, it's always seemed wiser to do the wrong thing and be able to lay the responsibility on a feckless manager than do the right thing and be held accountable if issues ever arise from it. At all times C.Y.A. Hi call center thread! I haven't posted in awhile. I'm still living the "dream" of doing work from home inbound, the wages are still tasty and the benefits are still good enough to keep me dealing with this poo poo. Luckily I got migrated to a position where I only talk to technicians and field guys rather than customers basically ever, so the stress level is waaaaay down on 90% of my calls. I got put under performance review a couple months ago for disagreeing with a manager's decision and refusing to carry out the rest of the claim her way, lol, her whole stance was basically immoral and lovely and not supported by our contract, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The next time it happens, I'll probably have to suck it up and be evil, which I don't really like the idea of, but I like the idea of going back to an office even less. I'm stretching the boundaries of what I can get away with working from home, I casually asked my boss if it was okay if I worked from Canada for a couple months on an extended visit with my girlfriend, she said it wasn't an issue, but what she doesn't need to know is that i basically plan on becoming an illegal immigrant  On slow days, I get a lot of Stardew Valley played these days between calls.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2016 08:03
|
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:what she doesn't need to know is that i basically plan on becoming an illegal immigrant This seems like one of those things that you should not announce to the world at large.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2016 14:40
|
|
|
Volmarias posted:This seems like one of those things that you should not announce to the world at large. Already reported him to Canada ICE. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2016 15:40
|
|
|
Only for a short time, my chick and I are gunna get married once we clear up some stuff, but hey Canada says I'm allowed to visit for up to 6 months.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2016 02:55
|
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:Only for a short time, my chick and I are gunna get married once we clear up some stuff, but hey Canada says I'm allowed to visit for up to 6 months. ehhhhhhh we don't really care. come on by man! It's april and we still have snow 
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2016 14:24
|
|
|
Der-Wreck posted:ehhhhhhh we don't really care. come on by man! It's april and we still have snow Come to Vancouver. It was 20C yesterday. I was out in shorts and a tank top.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2016 15:08
|
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:Only for a short time, my chick and I are gunna get married once we clear up some stuff, but hey Canada says I'm allowed to visit for up to 6 months. The fact you have a job means that we will let you emigrate pretty easily.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2016 22:14
|
|
sbaldrick posted:The fact you have a job means that we will let you emigrate pretty easily. That's what I figure, I'm literally taking like, $49,000 a year canadian from America and dumpin' it all into Canada. I should be fast tracked 
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2016 22:50
|
|
|
Round 2 interview for Network and Systems Analyst coming up Tuesday. I feel good about this one. I am friends with the department head and the person I'd be working with directly was my first supervisor in our call center, and I did really well I think at the first interview.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2016 05:25
|
|
|
jassi007 posted:Round 2 interview for Network and Systems Analyst coming up Tuesday. I feel good about this one. I am friends with the department head and the person I'd be working with directly was my first supervisor in our call center, and I did really well I think at the first interview. I got it. I will be headset free in a couple weeks tops.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 18:53
|
|
|
Congratulations!
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 21:07
|
|
|
jassi007 posted:I got it. I will be headset free in a couple weeks tops. Great, now in a couple months take off to do it somewhere else.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2016 17:00
|
|
|
RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Great, now in a couple months take off to do it somewhere else. I may although I know and like everyone in the department. The nice thing is my wife is the administrative assistant to the IT dept. head in a other large company so if I want to shop around I can get my resume seen. Im happy now to be keeping all my benefits etc.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2016 18:36
|
|
|
Holyshoot posted:Not sure if it's been said here and will seem like a shill but if you live in Arizona or Iowa and work at a call center not GoDaddy. Do yourself a favor and try to get in there. The pay is on avg 50k/yr (after bonus is included) and you can make 6 figures if you know how to sell in some departments. GoDaddy is what I wish every company could be in the call centers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2016 07:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 00:20 |
|
|
photomikey posted:When you talk to somebody on the phones at GoDaddy, it *feels* like you're talking to someone making $50k/yr. You wonder how they can afford tech support that good when I'm paying $6/mo for hosting. I've called to try and figure something out that I *know* is on my end, they explain it to me, I gently caress it up further, then the guy says "hold on... i'll take care of it" and 45 seconds later everything's better. Ya the hosting guys know their poo poo for the most part. Stay away from the sales dudes. They'll try to sell you so much garbage you don't need.(most of them, not all).
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2016 07:30
|
|