Carving a career in the call center industry

A call centre or call center is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone.

A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call centre, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact centre.

A call centre is often operated through an extensive open workspace, with work stations that include a computer, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI).

Most major businesses use call centres to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue firms, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions through call centres. Examples of this include help desks and sales support.

How did it start in the Philippines?

The call center industry was introduced to the Philippines in 1998 when Sykes, a foreign based firm which specializes in an end to end customer care management solutions, launched the business of hosting customer support service patterned after their Sykes Call Center in Edinburgh, Scotland which takes calls from all over Europe. This customer support service is now known as the Call Center.

Call centers, according to management professor Chip Hunter of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, are .workplaces where the primary activity comprises employees communicating with customers on the telephone.. Call Centers can be internal, inbound or outbound or can handle all these functions and are thus referred to as contact centers.

What are the processes involved in becoming a call center agent?

The recruitment process for new call center agents may include (but is not limited to) the following:

• phone screening - this stage determines the voice quality over the phone and how the applicant responds to the call;
• initial interview - conducted by the company human resource department or another outsource staffing firm to test the speaking skills, attitude and how confident the applicant responds to questions;
• examination - this includes aptitude tests, computer-based call simulations and emotional quality (EQ)/ attitude tests; and
• final interview - to assess customer service, technical, or sales skills.

What are the preparations needed before and on the interview?

Things You'll Need

• your complete resume - be sure to highlight your experiences involving customer service or people relations.
• a pen - make sure that it writes clearly and doesn't blot, as you might be asked to write an essay about something during the evaluation process.

Find the company that is looking for what you already have.

First of all make sure that you scan the call center listings and see which company is looking for the qualifications that you already have. Some would require technical expertise regarding computer know how, some require that you have to have a background on finance and so on. There are other criteria that you would have to check before going and sell yourself to the recruitment department of that company.

All business

Once you found the company that is tailor-made for you, the next step is preparation for the interview. Normally, once you made contact, the recruitment department will process your application all within the day, so you will know right away if you passed or failed.

Make sure that you are well-oiled for this day, as you only have one shot for that position that your gunning for.

Personal grooming is always important. And if you don't believe in lasting impressions, well, now you better be. Dress appropriately, I suggest corporate would do.

Be confident!

Create some interview questions and try to answer them in front of a mirror so you will know how you will deliver and project the answer if that question rises up. Interviewers have a lot of different questions that they can throw at you, starting from details on your resume, experiences and family to clincher questions that are only being asked during beauty pageants. They are looking for diction, pronunciation, how you enunciate the words and accent (neutral or no).

Confidence and being conversant is the key here.

Focus.

Next, if you passed the initial interview, you will be presented with a lot of exams. Most of these exams are psychological, reasoning, logic and grammar tests.

For psychological exams, make sure that you are consistent with your answers, some questions have the same answers presented differently, so be aware.

For grammar and other tests, I hope that you paid attention to your teacher in grade school for this.

Be firm.

Next stage of the hiring process is the Final Interview, this is where the interviewer lets you know that you have passed and makes sure that they are not hiring the wrong person. This is also the part wherein you talk about your expected salary and negotiate. Be firm on your offer, they will try their best to meet your request.

Congratulations

And lastly, the job offer itself, this is where your pen does the talking for you. Make sure that you read the contract thoroughly before signing it and make sure that you have a copy of your own. This is also the stage where they will tell you when and where your training would start.

Welcome to your new job!