Busting the myths of a call center job

A call center job requires you to do customer service tasks on a remote basis using latest technologies. This is broadly classified into inbound and outbound calls. In the former, calls are received and the latter involves making of calls. This kind of job can be home-based but most of them have an on-site location.

The business process outsourcing industry mostly caters solution to numerous service related sectors such as airlines, credit card companies, cellular service companies and cable and internet providers. Today, most popularly employed firms outsource their customer care services to a call center with the aim to save resources in terms of both time and labor. Although the customer care industry has a world-wide existence, India has been a destination of choice for many companies availing the BPO service.

In general, a BPO job involves working in a casual manner inside a professional set up. They are mostly centrally air-conditioned with a fine cafeteria serving all types of delicacies. There are also few call centers that boast of an in-house gym including other entertainment facilities for the employees as well. As a call center works 24-7, they are required to provide shuttle services to their employees.

A call centre handling outbound customer services places daily calls using a database of contacts and some form of a pre-written script. This is also called telemarketing. An outbound customer care center may be involved in direct sales jobs like promoting a product or a service, or in other cases, they may be used to fix appointments, which are followed up by the sales representatives. Nowadays, an outbound call centre also offers specialized services such as cross-selling, lead generation or voice broadcasting.

An inbound call handling center, on the other hand, employs agents to answer queries from existing customers. Unlike the monotonous nature of the outbound call center, an inbound customer care center worker’s job is quite unpredictable. The surprise element in this job is the uncertainty about the caller, the nature of the problem and the search for its possible solutions. Hence, it is of absolute necessity for an agent to have an in-depth knowledge of the products and parameters of the company. An inbound call center may offer various services such as helpdesk solutions, inquiry handling, chat or email support.

A BPO worker can also be referred to as a Customer Service Specialist or a Customer Care Executive. This job is often described as one where an employee is required to sit and speak over the phone for long shifts. But there is more to it than what meets the eye. Calling people with the same script or hearing complaints and troubleshooting a gadget on a daily basis takes a lot. Under no circumstances can a call centre agent lose his/her patience or temper with the callers.

But saying all these, a call centre job has its own benefits. It provides an exposure to people interested in public relations or mass media. This is one job that requires little or no experience as a prerequisite. Although the starting salary is not that high but it often doubles in quick time when a call centre agent gets promoted to supervisor or team leader.

Ivana Lewis has written a wide range of articles on business process outsourcing. Most of her write ups are about BPO, inbound customer service and inbound call center. –Ivana Lewis