In this section we will take a look at the type of jobs that may be available in a call center, as well as salary expectations and the kind of questions you might get asked at an interview.
When there is a certain problem with our cellphone in which we cannot solve simply, we always seek help from the system operator with just one call.
And then we relay our problem to him or her in the hope that we may be able to find a solution to the problem we are dealing as of the moment. Sometimes, we even get out of hand, getting angry at the call center agent if he or she doesn’t understand our problem or even cannot solve our problem.
We project our frustrations to the agent rather than to understand that he or she is just a mere human being with no superpower at all. But if the person on the other end of the phone helps us in solving our problem, we find ourselves thankful for the help. This situation actually shows of how call centers can be of big help to us. This is just one of the call center jobs in a call center.
About Call Centers
So what does an inbound agent do? What is a call center organization? And what are the call center jobs available in these organizations? These questions will be answered and discussed furthermore in the later section of this article.
But first, let us indulge ourselves with a brief history of call centers. Call centers of today actually got their idea from the technology developed by Rockwell at around 1973 named Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). This technology was purposely built to run a telephone booking system for a certain airline during that time.
It was built with a system that allowed the calls to be filtered and assigned to an available employee. Then as time passes by, the ACD technology spread widely not just for the purpose of booking but to aid in customer service. Other companies also developed better technologies but still with the concept of ACD. So much for its history, let us now focus on the call center jobs offered in these companies.
Customer Service
Positions available usually involve customer service with telephone or computer service facilities as their means of reaching out to customers and helping them. Many call centers serve as outsourcing operations for other companies. It means that a certain company can actually subcontract a call center to be the one to handle their clients or regarding their products.
A call center has to be aware of the products and services of the companies that they are handling. This is for them to be able to educate their employees the information and knowledge they need in handling with the customers. Employees in a call center are often called “call center agents”.
Since a call center handles a lot of companies, it is rather impossible for it to imply to its agents that they all learn the products and services of each company. So what they do is that they gather different group of agents and each group is assigned to a certain company. Each group will be the representatives for each company assigned. For a better picture, let’s look at an example.
Outsourced Jobs
If a company decides to outsource a call center to handle their customer service, this company will assign the work to a certain group of agents. This group of agents is to get a thorough knowledge of the company’s products and services to be able to understand their customers. This is the same with the other companies too.
There are actually two types of agents in a call center job: inbound agents and outbound agents. The inbound agent is the one who receives calls from the customers or clients while the outbound agent is the one making the calls. An inbound call requires an agent to answer calls from their customers.
He/she is required to be patient and respectful to the customers and must show to them that they are doing their best to help solve their problems or to satisfy them with the information they need. On the other hand, an outbound call requires an agent to make a call to a list of contacts provided by the company. With a written script, the agent is to sell a product or promote certain services. An outbound agent has to be persuasive and a good salesman to keep up with the quota of the company.
Call center jobs, nowadays, are the most sought out employment by a lot of people. Why? Well, basically a call center job may sound that easy but the real job is actually harder than what it seems.
Career Expectations
Taking calls and hearing out problems all day is never an easy job. Because of this, call center employment may provide a considerable well paid salary, although of course you may be expected to start on the bottom rung of the ladder before you reach the job titles such as call center supervisor or even call center manager.
Aside from its high salary, these types of roles also give opportunities to grow by expanding communication skills and training their fluency in English. So if you feel like you have the skills needed by an agent, why not give a call center job a shot? It might give you the career you have been looking for.