| It’s your call: the facts about call centres
Blessing or blight, call centres are here to stay. Find out what you need to know before you think of joining up for the telecom frontline Call centres – a fun place to work with good promotion prospects or a dead end job where humiliation and excessive scrutiny are routine? Recent bad publicity has damaged the already poor image of call centres. It’s not a new problem. In November 1999, the first national call centres strike saw 4,000 operators employed by BT walk out complaining of bullying managers and unreasonable targets. This year’s It’s Your Call campaign run by the TUC encouraged those unhappy with working conditions in call centres to ring in with their stories. The 733 complaints received during the two-week campaign echoed those voiced in the past – extreme monitoring and lack of breaks. Callers reported three-second breaks between calls, having to ask permission to go to the toilet, then being timed. One of the worst stories was of a call centre manager who took disposable nappies into work saying staff that used the toilet the most would be told to wear one. However, TUC General Secretary, John Monks, recognises this episode is extreme. ‘Many call centres already treat their staff with respect and others are making a real effort to clean up their act. But there are still too many using bullying tactics to pressurise and intimidate employees.’ Facts, figures and futures Call centre work appeals to those with family responsibilities because it can be flexible and fit around other commitments.
It’s a big industry and likely to keep growing. As more of our everyday transactions are made via phone or the Internet, the number of people who process them will increase. Next page: what does the future hold? Kevin Lucas of AMR Research, which monitors developments in customer relationship management, is writing a report on the future of call centres. ‘The call centre as a concept is dated and being replaced by Contact Centres where the telephone is not the only means of communication. We’re seeing a growth in highly skilled operators dealing with queries by email, SMS, WAP phones, chat or even ‘browser sharing’. This is where the person assisting you takes over your browser and clicks you through.’ His findings have shown that employers are realising that restricting the length of time operators spend talking to a customer may be counterproductive. ‘It’s easy to measure call duration but harder to measure customer satisfaction and the value that call has added to your business. Employers are becoming more aware of this and dropping the sweatshop approach.’ Lucas also believes that as self-help systems on the web become better able to deal with simple queries, fewer people will use telephone helplines to get the easy answers. ‘This means the volume of calls decreases but their complexity increases. With adequate training and support it has the potential to turn a routine operator’s job into the much more satisfying role of problem solving.’ Good practice Kevin Tasker, director of customer services at Vartec, doesn’t measure call duration. Staff are encouraged to talk for as long as it takes to get the job done. This multinational company selling low cost phone calls employs 149 people in Northampton. He expects them to spend 80% of their time on the phone. ‘The rest is for breathing, having a drink or something to eat. We make drinks, fresh fruit and cakes freely available to keep energy levels high. Breaks and lunch are on top of this. There are times when it does get hectic and people work harder, but if they know it’s temporary they accept it. When it gets really busy the management join in and help out by answering calls too.’ Next page: making it work Tasker is all in favour of term-time only working, ‘It fits well with my business. Holiday periods are quiet because everyone’s away.’ Like many call centres Vartec aims to encourage increased productivity through competitions, but these are not based on the number of calls answered. ‘What’s important is how effective they’ve been. We aim to reduce the number of repeat calls by answering the questions well first time and reward performance that attracts, pleases and retains customers, not speed.’ He admits that some of the recent adverse publicity has been deserved, ‘There are bad call centres as well as good ones. It can be a tough environment at times, but not as tough as a checkout in a busy supermarket and no one thinks of that as a sweatshop.’ Michell McCafferty worked in call centres in Scotland before moving to London. She chose to stay in the industry. ‘The work suits me, it’s flexible and offers career development’. Now a team leader at Onetel’s Chiswick call centre, she gained promotion after nine months as a customer service rep. ‘It’s a friendly, fun place to work. The whole building has been feng shui-ed, we have on-site massage, fresh fruit and regular competitions.’ Meetings, known as huddles at Onetel, take place in an area called The Beach, which has been fitted out to look like the real thing. ‘All this contributes to a really energetic working atmosphere,’ according to Michelle. BT have worked hard since the strike to improve conditions through training and other initiatives including a ‘People Charter’ which states zero tolerance for any form of harassment or bullying. Jim Spears, HR manager for BT’s Customer Service Call Centres, says: ‘Although there is still much to be done, the benefits of these initiatives are already being felt. We’re in no doubt of the strong link between a positive working environment and improved customer perception.’ In other words happy workers create satisfied customers. Next page: make sure you get the best deal Points to check Despite the improvements in working conditions, staff turnover in many call centres is still high, so there are lots of jobs to chose from. If you’re looking to work in one, make sure you end up in one that offers the best. Here are some questions to ask during an interview:
|