Call Centre Operators

Career options for women as call centre operator. Find out what is the job profile of call centre operator, how much salary do they get, what skills are required and how many hours do they work

The large population of educated English speaking people and the comparative low cost are encouraging more and more companies from abroad /inland to base or outsource their call centres to India. GE capital, American Express, Infowavz International (Mumbai), Reliance Infotech are some of the call centres which are on a recruitment spree. The wide area of services provided by the call centres makes it a lucrative career with a range of opportunities. The wide range of opportunities, comparatively well paid jobs for the minimum qualification it requires and the facilities that companies provides like to and fro transport, subsidized meals and medical facilities makes Call Centres a good option.      

Job profile: Call Centre operators receive telephone calls from people enquiring about a service or product that their organization provides, and deal with them accordingly. This may involve answering information queries, dealing with customer complaints or selling goods or services. In the process they also try to create further interest in the company’s services by inviting customers to use all services and products offered.

In outbound call centre services, for example tele-marketing, an operator identifies potential customers and makes outgoing calls marketing their organization’s product, occasionally following-up calls by sending letters, faxes or e-mail and also dealing with customer complaints etc.

A call centre operator’s duties depend on the type of product or service that the organization provides and the type of client he/she is servicing. Call Centre operators can work in contract call centres (a call centre that does work for other organizations), or on help desks in a variety of industries.

Working conditions: Call Centre operations are hectic and involve high pressure to respond to queries, calls, etc. Call Centre operators may work on full-time or part-time office basis. Working during evenings, weekends, at night or on rotating shift patterns is quite common.

Skills required: A call centre operator should be highly motivated, should have a friendly and pleasant manner, should enjoy talking to people, a good team player and have an aptitude for working with computers. Since the pressure to meet targets is high, call centre operators should have the ability to remain calm and patient in such situations. Work is mainly indoors and demands sitting for long periods. Hence, physical fitness is essential.

Ability to enter and retrieve information quickly from databases and ability to analyse problems are other useful skills that may come in handy. In addition, having an understanding of different culture and people’s expectations is very essential, as many call centre operators also interact with callers/customers from different countries.

Education & training required: There are no specific educational qualifications required to become a call centre operator. This is the entry level in call centres and hence proves to be a good option for plus two or fresh college graduates as well as even housewives and retired people.

Freshers who join as call centre operators undergo intense training in their companies. The training includes accent training, listening skills, 'slang' training, accent neutralization, telephone etiquette, telesales etiquette and cyber grammar. It also includes interaction skills, customer relationship, management skills, centre terminology, cross culture training, etc.  They are also given a thorough knowledge about the product of the company and how to deal with complaints from customers. These trainings are usually done by the company itself. However, there are many institutes that give training in this field.

Job prospects and career options: A call centre experience is regarded as worthwhile experience for customer relations, sales jobs or insurance sector. One has a better chance of moving on to other industries with experience in call centres. For example, insurance sector if you have had experience dealing with insurance clients.

Remuneration: As a fresher, one could start his/her career in an International Call Centre as a Call Centre Operator and earn highly attractive pay packages ranging from Rs. 6,500 to Rs.10,000 approximately per month other than bonuses for outstanding performances.

 

Other Jobs:

 

Loading...