Plan on Working in a Call Center? Here are Call Center Tips you Should Know

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Call centers are among the many professions here in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, last May, there were around 70, 000 BPO jobs opened in the country only for this year. Imagine the number of people who are able to go on everyday because of having call center as their jobs.


It’s common knowledge that people who work in a call center are people who do not know anything; they’re the people who were not able to finish school; and other more stuff that actually degrade them. To tell you, what their jobs are are actually difficult and it takes a lot of effort. Imagine working late at night and going home early in the morning. Your sleeping habits will be regularly changed and your health will slowly decrease. So, the job’s not a joke. I’ve worked in a call center myself and all I can say is that it’s stressful, it’s toxic, and last but not the least IT’S NOT EASY.

Read: Over A Thousand Jobs For Filipinos In Singapore

Although they get paid more lucrative than most corporate and regular jobs, the mental strength they have to put up and the effort they need to exert is substantially more than what you’re expecting.

There are a lot of questions about being a call center representative. As a matter of fact, we gave you some of the most useful and best tips on how to pass call center interviews. In this article, we will be giving you call center tips if you are scheduled to start training soon.

Call center tips and the most useful advice you can use if you’re planning to enter the call center industry:

1. Training is something that each company looks at seriously. Most tenure agents know the strategy of being “holy” during training. However, once they get into the production floor, the devils within them would make it look like they just came out of jail.

2. Jackets are necessary. Some call centers are hassle if you want to control the toggle of the air conditioning unit. So, to be safe, always bring a jacket with you.

3. Call centers are smoking areas. Most of the people in the call center industry are smokers. Moreover, a lot of them drink A LOT. So if you’re the church-type of person and you’re not into any of those vices, then you better prepare because you’re going to be exposed to those kinds of things.

4. If you are going to work in a call-type of setting, having something to drink every now and then is a necessity. You can always purchase water bottles everyday but that can be a bit costly. What you can do is to have a tumbler since most call centers have water dispensers for their employees.

5. A lot of people tend to underestimate the fact that passing call center interviews is easy. That the only requirement is that you have to be well-versed in the English language. However, that is untrue. Contrary to the belief, you need to have good social skills; you need to have good temper; and most especially, you have to think fast. Most companies have strict requirements in terms of the average handling time (AHT) or the duration of a specific call. Why? Because the more calls you get, the more revenue the company gets. So, having a good value of your AHT is a good thing to consider.

6. One of the most important call center tips you should know is that they consider time as everything. Some centers consider not being able to time-in on time or if you are a few seconds late as late. Moreover, there are 15-minute breaks and 1-hour lunches everyday. Going over even for one (1) minute is crucial.

Other than call center tips, you must also know what the pros and cons are coming from a tenured call center representative:

Pros

Lucrative pay

One thing that most call center agents are proud about is their compensation. In reality, you’d really just have to be able to speak and comprehend in English confidently and you get premium pays. On top of your basic salary, you also get night differentials, hazard pays, and incentives based on your performance and some companies.


Read: High-Paying Part time jobs in the Philippines

Opposite schedule

Most call centers actually have their schedules at night. This is good especially if you reside in places far from central business districts so you avoid congestion in particular areas and traffic. You also get to travel during the night so you’ll feel comfortable traveling even while you’re taking public transport.

A lot of call centers

You have a ton of choices to choose from. There are call centers scattered everywhere in the country and as we said cited earlier that this year alone, around 70,000 BPO jobs were opened.

Good benefits

Since you’ll most likely be working the night shift, companies also make it their way to assure that their employees get the right treatment in terms of pay and benefits. This is why most, if not all, call centers have health cards on or before their 6th month in the company.

Read: Top Paying Jobs for Fresh Grads in the Philippines

English skills enhancement

There are call centers that cater local companies so they really don’t have to be confident speaking in English. However, a majority of call centers cater foreigners so you being able to communicate in the English language is a must. By constant practice and usage, your skills in speaking, composing, and in writing English will definitely improve.

Pool of good-looking people

Probably not an advantage for some people but working in the call center industry will open doors for you to meet a lot of new people. The god thing about that is the people you’ll meet are not just regular people, they’re good looking, they have good and outright personalities.

Cons

Night-shift

Although it’s an advantage to travel without a lot of vehicles on the road, it’s difficult to work at night. Even if you’re used to it, our bodies are not naturally made to work when the sun’s out. So, the tendency is that you’ll only feel tired and sleepy even if you’re doing it for years.

Read: Are You An Information Technology Graduate? Be An Information Technology Officer – Here’s How

Slow growth

Although it pays big, the growth of an individual’s career is slow. If you think about it, there are thousands of call center agents in companies and only a few selected individuals get promoted.

Stressful environment

Most people think that working in a call center is easy but in reality, it’s a struggle. The fact and thought that your goal is to satisfy angry people alone makes you feel stressful. What more if you encounter other issues especially with your employment?

You can develop health issues

Since you work at night and your environment is somewhat toxic and stressful, your health is at risk. This is one reason why most call centers offer good benefits in terms of health insurances and health aid.

Read: Advantages and Disadvantages of Work from Home

These are the more common call center tips and although these seem like simple things to accomplish, they’re actually things that most call center “pros” tend to forget.

Are you planning on working in a call center? Are you curious as to what type of environment there is? In the event that you do, remember these call center tips to take a piece of the pie so you can enjoy it.


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