PROFESSION

First of all, i would like to thank everyone who read my first blog, wrote comments and encouraged me to write another. Thought i would share a little of my call centre experience.


I finished my graduation and was clueless about my next step. i didn’t want to study further at that point of time. i wanted to work but again didn’t know in which field.

Since i was a day dreamer, i used to have high dreams. I imagined myself working a well known company drawing a high package. sometimes i would be an accountant, a lawyer or maybe a HR...it really depends on my mood!! when it came into the real world, i knew it is not easy for a commerce graduate to achieve a good job.


After a while, i learnt about Call centers. Everyone discouraged me to join it. i got through two companies but i knew that this is the job i wanted to do as it was about communicating with people. i knew it is going to be interesting. my parents agreed and i was soon landed in a totally unknown place working in a mnc.


I was with a computer manufacturing company. i had been selected for technical process. i wasn’t sure i knew what a motherboard’s functions were then!! But then who cares, i was selected... when i entered my first step into the corporate world, i expected a smooth journey but my experiences taught me that it cant always get smooth.


The company trained me well and i grabbed whatever my small brain could ;)! with the help of my colleagues and my trainer, i understood most of it. Though i found it a little difficult to cope with it. i managed to get through the exam which happens soon after the training. it was just the beginning.


Now the time had come to talk with the customers. i was scared as everyone in the team was. no one had the courage to start taking the calls. Then my trainer came and tried to motivate us but it didn’t help either. He was near my desk. He just came near the phone and logged me in. He did the same to others.


I got the first call in my team. i was nervous. i prayed and then answered it in a feeble voice. Due to my bad luck, it was an angry customer. i didn’t know what and how to speak. i felt like i lost all my senses. it was all in an American accent and i couldn’t understand everything what she said. i tried to convince her but in vain. i then asked my manager to speak to the customer. he sorted it out and told me it was fine. By now, i had the feeling that i was really useless.


I got my second call. the phone ring maddened me. i wasn’t prepared for this. He too was an angry man. i knew i had enough by then. i let him speak for a while and then interrupted. he got annoyed and told me i wasn’t fit to be working for the company. i took it as an offence. i again had to put the call to my manager. He assured me looking at the tension prevailing on my face. i then told him i wasn’t fit for the job and this is what the customer and i feel. he asked me to stop taking calls and explained certain rules of the trade.


I soon adapted them and did well. Infact, customers did praise me for my service many times. Today when i think of my first two calls, i knew where i was wrong. i know i lacked customer management there and i was too nervous to understand the customer.


But the fact that still hurts is that people look down upon a call centre employee. The outside world think that all we do is work (hardly) at night, party hard and travel in cabs.


This is not true. we have to fight against our body clock and work in the night. Offices are not Party houses. there are times when one doesn’t even get a deserved break and works for 5-6 hrs continuously. it is due to the work pressure, even when one is sick and he/she has to work.


we have to talk throughout and handle customers. Each customer has a different taste, demand and expectations. It is our duty to fulfill them or to set the right expectations. it is not just talking; there are places where we have to document the conversation. since it is a technical support, we have to probe and find out what has gone wrong. so our job is no less than a hardware engineer.


But still people think that it is a very less taxing job and employees are paid for nothing. My parents shared the same view but when i explained what exactly my work is and how the company evaluates me, they knew it was no easy job.


I think it is time people stop telling such things about a call centre employee rather respect him/her. Each profession has its own pros and cons.


Remember a good call centre employee needs good communicative skills, has to know how to handle different customers.


It is not so easy to put yourself into other's shoes and work always but isn’t that what we expect when we call customer care?? we really don’t care about that agent who we are talking to. we just need our problem solved. he/she might have just fought with a loved one and is not in a position to talk to you. but again that is what a call centre employee does - he/she keeps aside all his/her problems and tensions and think about Customer (You).

So its time You give some credit to them.