Job Responsibilities
The major job responsibilities for this position include
responding to inbound calls or making outbound calls to the
current customer base. The objective for each call will depend
on where the customer is in their life cycle: new, nearing the
end of contract or completely out of contract. Customer contact
is made using several vehicles, which could include short
message (SMS), virtual dial or letter. The main goal will be to
either upsell the customer or renew their contract, and you must
meet sales objectives in order to perform well. You will spend
*ALL* 40 hours of your week doing this, more than likely, which
will lead to a rather rapid feeling of burnout. The job is
repetitive; there will be an occasional meeting or training you
are required to attend, but for the most part, you are hooked up
to a phone day in and day out.
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Job Requirements
I was very overqualified for this job; you only need H.S.
diploma and customer service experience as far as qualifications
go. You will not necessarily be rewarded - via compensation or
promotion or otherwise - for any other levels of education
and/or experience. On the job training is adequate. There are no
set career paths, and no mentors, so even if you wanted
to "path" yourself at this company, it would be very difficult.
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Uppers
If you like talking to people, selling or problem resolution, these would be the
only uppers.
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Downers
1. Boring - repetitive jobs do not appeal to a great many of
people. If you knew you were going to do the same thing day in,
and day out, would you take it? Probably not.
2. Aggressive sales goals are sometimes too aggressive due to
the fact that your success might depend more heavily on the
quality of the marketing campaign the company has created than
it will on your ability to sell.
3. Angry customers on the phone are no fun - if you don't mind
being exceptionally nice to a person who is swearing at you or
being completely rude and condescending, you'll love this job.
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Lifestyle
The ultimate lifestyle for this position is...no life. Your schedule will always
change, whether you like it or not, whether it fits into the day care schedule
you have for picking up your child or not. They don't care. Work hours are M-S,
any time they feel like scheduling you. Schedules are based on seniority, but not
guaranteed. There is no business travel or company social events. Diversity is
lacking somewhat (my opinion). Dress is casual, including denim. Most people who
enjoy working this job are young, because they have not had anything as good to
compare it to, and erroneously feel that this is the best job out there (as if
other companies don't offer similar benefits, e.g.). This might be the case
because, again, with the education requirements, most people will get paid more
than they could make anywhere else with just having a H.S. diploma. Typically
people with families, who are older and have more work experience do not find
this job satisfying.
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Compensation
Compensation was decent - I say decent because a great deal of
pomp and circumstance is made about it, not considering the fact
that the employees doing this monotonous, difficult and
stressful job deserve *every* penny and more for what they have
to put up with on a daily basis. Base salary will vary; I truly
can not speak to a figure on this. Bonuses include short and
long term incentives, which also vary based on the salary you
have to begin with, and are based on performance. Unfortunately
I can not narrow down a figure for this, either. Long term
incentives consist of something close to stock appreciation
rights. Benefits include health, dental, vision and prescription
drug, of course there is a cost for this. I believe that for a
single person, you pay somewhere between 10 and 20% of the cost.
Other benefits inclue employee assistance programs, discounts
(at other companies, e.g. a child care provider) emergency child
care assistance and fitness center (your cost).
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Advice to Jobseekers
My advice for newcomers is to do something else with your life,
unless this is your life's dream to have all this hassle for 40
hours out of your life per week. It is extremely stressful, so
much so that it is not at all unusual for a person to need short
term disability or FMLA to deal with the physical manifestations
of the daily stress of the job. You will need to seriously
consider the type of work/life balance you want from an
employer, and not be drawn in solely by benefits, etc. Ask to
shadow the job for a day or half day on the busiest projected
day when interviewing. This should give you more honest insight
then just talking with the recruiters. They will tell you it's a
great job, company, etc. I do not know about the job outlook for
this occupation, but considering that more and more companies
outsource these types of phone positions overseas, it would be
easy for this company to do the same if they wanted to. One
other thing I see that could possibly happen is jobs like these
going to 'universal employee' type jobs, where you are expected
to know every aspect of the job except for very specialized and
technical aspects. This cuts down on the number of departments
needed, managers, etc.
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