Call Center Jobs

Call Center Jobs

Want to have a call center job? Tired of getting your salary but it is still low? Working in a call center seems to be a good idea but there are reasons why the call center industry gives high amount of salary for their employees.

What is a call center?

- It provides customer and technical support services for the customers of their clients based internationally. Agents give support by phone, email and chat based on account that they will be assigned to. For example, if you are assigned in a telecommunications account as a customer service representative then you will most likely get calls regarding account and billing concerns.

Call Center Positions

- The most common positions are Customer Service Representative and Technical Support Representative. 

1. Customer Service Representatives (CSR) usually handles account and billing concerns. Most calls that you get will be customers asking explanation of charges of their bills or their due date.

2. Technical Support Representative (TSR) usually handles Technical concerns. Calls that you will handle will be customers requesting for help on why they could not connect to the internet or problems with regards to their mobile phone or desktop and laptop computers. 

Technical Support Representatives are usually paid higher than Customer Service Representatives since TSR's usually have a wider support. They would instruct customers and guide them so that they can fix technical problems that the customer is having. Calls handled by a CSR may take less than 5 minutes while a TSR may take up to a couple of hours depending on the problem of the customer. 

There are different levels of CSR and TSR. Front liners are usually called Tier 1 and then those who will receive escalations will be called Tier 2.

Promotions and Career Growth

After a few months you can be promoted or apply for a promotion when you are regularized and are doing very well with your job. You may apply for a Quality Analyst (QA) position that checks the quality of work of each agent or a Team Leader (TL) that  handles a team of 15 to 20 agents.  There are more call center positions but these are the 2 most common.

Benefits / Advantages 

1. Salary - This is the main reason why most of us want to apply as a call center agent. Each agent would at least get 7,000 up to 15,000 pesos every 15 days. This includes allowances, Night differential bonus and program benefits. Sometimes you may even get more if its commission based (sales accounts)

2. Medical Benefits - Some call centers would give you medical benefits on the first day of your work. But others usually give this after 6 months or after being regularized. Also, other call centers would allow you to add dependents like your son, your daughter or your parents. 

3. Vacation Leaves - Usually you will earn your vacation leaves after 6 months. You will be getting at least 10 to 15 VL's per year.

4. Sick Leaves - Usually you will earn or get your sick leaves after a year of service. 

5. Other Benefits - Some call centers gives you refunds on your tuition fee, some also gives you hazard pay that will be given to you in a daily basis. 

  

Disadvantages

1. Work Schedule - Your schedule can change on a weekly basis. Since call centers need agents to answer calls they need a specific number of agents logged in on an hourly basis. So you can be given any schedule since operations is 24/7.  You may also need to work during weekends and even holidays.

2. Stress - Stress in this work kind of work is high. Since you will mostly get upset customers and need to pacify and resolve their issue, you might hear unnecessary words so you need a lot of patience to handle these types of customers. Always remember that they are angry at the company and not specifically you. 

3. Calamity - Some call centers will still ask you to go to work even if there is a calamity (Flood, heavy rain etc) since they need to have as many agents logged in. Although they can give out free food or extra pay during calamities.

4. Health Risk - If you are going to be working on a night-shift your body needs to adjust with your work schedule. I have seen agents that fall asleep during calls. Most of these agents are new in working in a call centers. Most of them have gotten sick because they are having a hard time adjusting.