Job Responsibilities
I am responsible for a small customer services department which
handles complaints and queries in relation to a Dorectory
Assistance line. This involves managing the team members,
maintaining a complaints database and overseeing Customer
credits etc. Daily reporting is also done based on complaint
traces so that each complaint can be traced back to an
individual agent and the necessary training or development
provided. Handling the day to day running of this department
takes approximately two hours of each working day.
Secondary to this I also manage two teams of Quality Asessors
across two centres. They monitor all call centre staff based on
in house or client specifications. The results are fed back on a
daily basis with monthly and weekly reporting undertaken by
myself to identify areas of strength and weakness and highlight
any potential trends.
Based on this information, I hold regular meetings with all
operational staff to ensure consistency of standards and provide
recommendations for improvement and benchmarking of staff in
comparison with main competitors.
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Job Requirements
Entry level for a basic Customer Services Agent position is
fairly straightforward. No formal qualifications are needed,
although good typing and spelling are essential. In order to
progress within the company, promotion is normally from within
and in order to gain my position, I first worked within several
different areas including Team Leader, Co-Ordinator and Ops
Manager.
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Uppers
There is a lot of autonomy involved in my role which is something that I
appreciate. I have an excellent working relationship with my staff and I enjoy
seeing their passion in their work develop.
It is often very satisfying to have a direct impact on the level of service that
is provided to customers and having the ability to implement and carry out staff
motivation programmes.
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Downers
Working within the area of Quality Assessment, the department
can be viewed as 'Big Brother' and it can often be diffciult to
get buy in for new projects. If bonus targets are based on in
house quality scoring then it can sometimes become a little
personal.
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Lifestyle
Hours are officially 09.00-17.30 monday to friday although a dgree of
flexibility is needed. I will often work from home in the evenings or weekends if
I have a lot on. There can be some degree of travel involved - meetings with
clients, travel to alternate centres etc although this usually less than every
other month or so.
Dress code is smart casual, although management tend to be a little more formal.
Every friday is a dress down day when anything goes! There is a very relaxed
atmosphere throughout the company and there is no formal divide between
management and staff. Social events are few and far between - although there are
industry related events two-three times a year which are often worth attending.
Development opportunities are plentiful although there is a culture of picking
the 'favourites' first and it can sometimes be difficult to bypass this.
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Compensation
Base salary is ??23000 a year - with a yearly bonus of between
??2000-??5000 depending on company profits. There are no other
benefits offered at this time.
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Advice to Jobseekers
It is a position that you need to be passionate about in order
to undertake and you definately need to be a strong character.
There will be vast amounts of criticism thrown at you from both
customers and collegaues and you will need to be strong enough
to handle this in a professional and calm manner. In many cases
you will be the only sounding board that people have and they
will take all of their frustrations out on you often before you
have a chance to offer any kind of explanation - however if you
can get past this, it is often very satisfying to be put in that
situation and to be able to turn the situation around and have
the customer thank you for your time and understanding.
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