Call Center Tips

Challenges of being in a BPO?

2010-08-02T11:38:00.005-07:00

Many people feel the work is relentless, family life and health is affected,

The main problem with BPO jobs are changing shifts which causes great stress on your mind and body, it can cause mood swings, insomnia, low pressure, backache, throat infection and burnouts.

Sometimes working extra long shifts could be taxing for body and mind, the concentration level goes down and one is likely to make errors.

The solution is to take frequent breaks to retain concentration. you also have pay a lot of attention to your mental and physical health. Avoid junk food, smoking, alcohol, late night activities to relieve tension, take enough rest and sleep and not depend on sleeping pills or sedatives.

Try to maintain a balance between personal life and your working life, you have to find time for your friends, family and socialize at your workplace too.

What are the advantages for freshers in a BPO?

2010-08-02T11:38:00.001-07:00

If you are a fresher, BPO’s are great for starting out as a career option. Being in a BPO enhances your Personality, something that you can’t really learn in classrooms, you can only learn on the job. It teaches you professionalism. Punctuality, team work. Hard work sincerity.
With some experience in call centers, you can always have better opportunities in future, whether you stay in this industry or switch to another industry your experience in call center will help you in other fields as well.

Performing better as an Call Center Executive

2010-08-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

The executives are graded by their performance and such gradation is the stepping stone for an agent to be eligible for a promotion. In short better performance on job leads to better growth opportunities and possibly greater incentives.

So, In order to perform better you need to know the general criteria on which the agents are graded:

Average Call Hold Time(ACHT)
Calculated by the formula

ACHT = Total Time / Total Calls Taken

In general the team leaders/managers would want you to take as many calls as possible. So a low ACHT is a sign of a good performer.

Quality
The quality of a call is marked on a scale of 0-100, where a score of 0 means a Fatal Call, where the agent has made a dreadful mistake.

Your call will be marked on following factors too
Good opening/greeting/salutation and closing
Clarity of voice(no fumbling)
Accuracy of information
No repetition
Taking security check(authenticating a customer before providing the customer account related information)
Polite and helpful attitude
Accurate tagging

Customer Satisfaction SMS’s(CSATS)
After a call randomly customer satisfaction SMS’s are sent to the customer seeking their response in yes/no whether the customer was satisfied with the Executive. The more CSAT YES response means your rate of customer satisfaction is high and you’re doing well.

Attendance
Remember that the time of your login is logged in the system and therefore you need to be punctual, even if you’re couple of minutes late, the system will mark you as late login.

Tagging
Tagging means entering the details of the call into a CRM software and a central database. Proper categorization of the call and complete information of the call details need to be entered in order to keep your quality score high

Sample Resume of a Call Center Executive

2010-08-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

Here are two sample resume of a call center executive, both have a unique and distinct style.

American Style

British Style

What are the growth opportunities in BPO?

2010-08-02T11:23:00.001-07:00

After the appointment, you will be on probation(sometimes upto six months) after which you will be given a confirmation letter, confirming your appointment.

The opportunities for growth vary from company to company and department to department. In a typical organization an agent can apply for a quality supervisor as early as 8 months or as a team leader after 12 months of taking calls as an agent. After which they can go on to other posts such as group leader, assistant manager and managers.
There are however certain criteria for the agents to apply for the Internal Job Postings (IJP), such as proper attendance record and good quality score.

Additional benefits for Call Center Executives?

2010-08-02T11:22:00.001-07:00

Insurance and medical benefits
Residence or guest house facility for the first month
Canteen
Pick-up and drop facility

How to prepare for an interview of a Call Center Executive?

2010-08-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

HR Questions

Why should I hire you
What do you do in your spare time
Why are you interested in this job
What do you understand by BPO,KPO?
Why not any other industry?
Why call center?
What is a call center?
What is BPO?

Resume based questions

Introduce yourself
Meaning of your name
Say something about the place you live/hail from
What are your hobbies
Why is there a gap in you education

What is the Call Center work culture like?

2010-08-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

It’s a young workforce, a lot of new people get recruited everyday. It is a professional work environment. Skillful agents use patience, compassion, empathy to tackle calls. Good performance on the floor gets you standing ovation and applause(sometimes).

What really goes on inside a Call Center?

2010-08-02T11:18:00.001-07:00

The floor has many agents sitting besides each other and taking calls. Each one is given a computer where Customer Relation Management software is used to key in the details of the calls, as well as some customized software tools are given for the purpose of providing accurate information to the customers.
There is a phone answering device attached to every terminal which generally flashes on incoming call and displays the number. A microphone-headset is attached to it and the agents have to keep it on all the time.
All agents work in teams and there is a team leader, who gives important notification, updates as well as manages the team. There are group leaders who supervise team leaders and Assistant Managers, Managers and Zonal Managers.
In many cases most calls are logged and quality supervisors listen to random calls of the agents and give them a quality score.

How much does a Call Center Executive earn?

2010-08-02T11:17:00.003-07:00

In an inbound domestic call center, an executive can earn somewhere between Rs. 5000-8000($110-$180) per month and in an inbound international call canter an executive could earn around Rs 12000-15000($270-$340) per month(However, in different cities there are different pay scales).

In an Outbound call center, the Executive earns a fixed salary as well as incentives from every sale, He can earn 20,000 or above per month

Institutes that offer BPO training?

2010-08-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

There are a number of BPO training institutes like Franklyn and Orion CallTech and some other local ones too.
The courses include basic grammar, personality development, accent training, computer knowledge and familiarization of basic BPO terms. They also offer placement assistance.

How to prepare yourself for a job in BPO?

2010-08-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

This is a speaking job, most of the time you need to hold a conversation with your customers. If you want to be in an international call center and English isn’t your first language then here are a few tips that can help:

Believe in yourself, remember that most of us in non-english speaking countries do not get that atmosphere where we can achieve the linguistic fluency close to the native speakers of that language, believe that you can still get the job, and improve your fluency when you are on the job.
Read newspapers regularly, and mark out words you do not understand, search their meaning in the dictionary and write it down on the newspaper itself.
Listen to English songs to get accustomed to the accent, you can also download the lyrics.
I used the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, to learn about the new words and their pronunciation and accent’s
Watch English movies, you can use subtitles to be sure of the content
If possible, practice group discussion, debates with your friends

What are the essential skills for a Call Center Employee?

2010-08-02T11:14:00.001-07:00

Call centers give opportunities for experienced persons as well as freshers, In fact most agents are freshers when they join a call center.
The essential requirement of a Call Center Executive is - good communication skills

In international call centers, fluency in English is compulsory, you also need to possess basic computer knowledge and fairly good typing speed. For domestic call centers you need to be fluent in the local language and should have at least some knowledge of English and decent typing speed.

Call Center Concepts

2010-08-02T11:13:00.001-07:00

What is a Call Center?
A call center is a physical location where incoming calls are received and out going calls are made for the purpose of telemarketing.

What is a BPO?
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task such as payroll to a third party service provider.

What is the difference between Inbound and outbound Call Center?
Inbound call center handles calls coming from the outside, generally from existing customers through toll free numbers.

Outbound call centers generally make calls for the purpose of telemarketing and sales to the prospective customers.

What is the difference between domestic and international Call Center?
When the call center and the it’s customer base is based within the same country it’s a domestic call center, however when a customer base of the call center is based in a different country then it is a international call center

What is Outsourcing?
Outsourcing means shifting the business operations of a company to an external service provider for the purpose of lower costs and better customer satisfaction.