r/callcentres

The longer you stay in a call centre, the easier it is to get stuck. You build more and more experience in the same environment, and then that experience starts determining what you’re qualified for next. Before you know it, your next job is another call centre job, then another one, and another one.
Don’t let the fact that the job is available and you’re used to it convince you that you have to stay.** **

If you need to pivot, pivot. If you need to take a temporary step backward to get yourself into a completely different field, do it. If you need to go back to school, learn something new, take an entry-level role in another area, whatever, just do it. Staying somewhere you’re miserable simply because you’re already experienced at it can become a trap and the longer you stay, the harder it can feel to leave.

Don’t wait until you’ve spent five or ten years wondering how you ended up still taking calls.

Me: Hello this is (name) with (company). How many I help you?

Them- There is a slight echo when you talk

Me: Well can you understand me clearly?

Them: Yes

Me: Well what is the reason for your call? How may I help you

Them: I'll call back when there is no echo

Literally had someone had someone keep mentioning they can hear the person next to me with a loud keyboard typing. Kept derailing the conversation to bring it up. Like if you would just verify the information this call could have ended 3 minutes ago and you'd no longer have to hear it.

After dealing with so many people who just don´t read, who don´t understand, who want to pick a fight, who are so absent of logic... I understand why politics is such a mess, why nations go to war, why solving humanity's problems is so hard.

Because many of the people voting are our customers, the people driving in traffic are our customers, the business owners. the people running institutions or participating in them are our customers, the police are our customers, the people building a large part of society are our customers. I would not be surprised if even the CEOs that run your or my company are sometimes themselves the angry customers that don´t read. Don´t be fooled by them having a title or having to read a lot on their job because their salary depends on it. In fact, looking at some of the decisions taken where I work, they do not always seem wise.

I don’t care how old you are. I don’t want to tell you how old I am. I work for the company and you are calling me for help.

I'm so frustrated with this whole headphone bs. So I have a pair of headphones that all of a sudden it is saying there is a driver issue that causes issues with calls but you can't fix the driver issue can't be fixed so they are no longer approved. So they tell me to use the company provided headphones and I tell them I can't for medical reasons but I go to use my spare set and they are like those aren't approved either. So basically since they have specific requirements the only one I can find is $80 so I am expected to buy that just for them to turn around a couple weeks later and they will say it's no longer approved and expect me to buy a new one. That is one thing I miss about my old call center is as long as you were able to take calls they did not give a crap what headset you were using.

I understand that a lot of people go to the office just to get the job done and not necessarily to make friends. In my case, though, I feel like for this type of job, it’s necessary to have a couple of friends you can sit with and just chit chat between calls because it makes the day easier and less stressful and boring.

I’ve been in this industry for about 13 years. For the last five years (COVID), I was working from home and only had to respond to emails, so I didn’t have to interact directly with people but I was fired from that job this year. It was kind of hard for me because I had gotten used to being home and being somewhat isolated, but I was also excited to get out again, meet people, and potentially form some friendships.

That idea quickly went away when I started working at my current job and noticed that about 80% of the people working there are 20–26, while I’m a 34 year old woman. So obviously, I don’t have much in common with them. The only thing we have in common is the job. I don’t really have anything to talk about with them, and I’m feeling pretty lonely.

I had a friend I met during training, and we used to sit together, but we were separated, and now I’m all alone and just bored in my cubicle while everyone around me has their own clique. On top of that, the outgoing people who love to ask, Why are you alone? or Why don’t you talk to anyone?

I’m only three weeks into the job and already feeling out of place. I understand that some people don’t care about having friends at work, but for me, it’s important not to feel this way about my job because I already dread going to work.

Ever since I sacrificed my weekends and essentially my social life to avoid working Mondays, the job became more manageable. I also have Tuesdays off.

Obviously, I don't want to do this long term, but it's the only way I see myself here going forward.

I cannot and will not work Mondays ever again. If they force it on my schedule, I'll just call out.

Rant incoming:

I have a had a few callers lately where I absolutely see where they're coming from. It does not make sense for the bank to cancel your auto pay and require someone who has never logged in to log in to set up a new one.

However, what customers don't seem to understand is:

I'm not refusing to help you. I can't. The option is not there, there is not a button sitting here that I am refusing to press. Someone above me decided the option would not be provided and so it was not programmed in. Threatening to cancel your accounts will not make it appear. Escalating will not make it appear. Annoying me, even if I somewhat agree with you will not make it appear. It just makes me want to 'accidentally' disconnect the call.

I've taken your complaint and given you the available options. If you don't have any other concerns kindly get off my phone, goodbye.

I just took 3 days off because I was feeling the burnout. Now I'm back and it's worse.

I like the company, good managers, work from home, money decent, I don't feel like I should be complaining.

It's just the work itself has suddenly become mind numbing to do back to back to back. I'm close to drinking on the job just to see what happens.

What can I do?

I’m asking because during training or when a system is being sold, you always hear “you can see the customer’s full history here”, but in practice it often seems like a different story.

I’ve had customers call angry because they contacted WhatsApp, then sent an email, and then ended up with another agent. And I’m left trying to piece together what actually happened while the customer is already pissed off.

In your campaigns/companies, does the system really show everything in one place? Or do you still end up opening 5 tabs, searching through spreadsheets, checking another system, or asking another department just to understand what happened?

Sometimes it feels like no matter how expensive the system is, when a case gets complicated, someone still has to do part of the work manually.

What things do you still have to do manually when the system doesn’t give you the full picture?

Did a year at a financial call center, loved the people and as far as call centers go it wasn’t the worst, but was still a call center and after some particular nasty callers, and just general burn out, can’t do it anymore. Just can’t. Gonna be a server/busser while I slowly wait to find a job in my actual field of study now. I don’t care if I’ll make less money, I just want a job that won’t make me cry whether out of someone being cruel, or for a customer having an unfortunate situation and I have to tell them bad news.

Actual thoughts from return to office.

It used to be it was relatively easy to tune out over 200 people and still continue a conversation, even when they are all sat in the vicinity.

Now, even having someone sat next to me in office makes me want to go "oi, sit somewhere else." 😂

There's nothing that has changed that would mean I would have difficulty with it usually, so am I just getting old and grumpy? Or is this happening to others...?

My worst nightmare, Well the call center I used to work suddenly The company closed . And they tell us on Friday go to work like normal day but....

Divide us for groups like how many months or years you work, take our cellphone, refuse to let's us go out the room until 5 hours..

Then from time to time the supervisors or admin just check out.

When they told us first the owner of the company cried "the company have no money", the almost no one cares.

Then the second round, go some legal representative of the company and act like it's was our fault and said the same thing "we don't have money, you can take some computer and a chair" the computer and chair are all of them in bad state. they proposed also random less money than we work for m them...

Then they said to us , that they call us individual at monday.

They practically try use begged us for what is legally pay us...

But they never announced that they go to bankruptcy on the official page or media, even today no a word