Making a career out of making a good call
A customer service advisor, you could work in a wide range of sectors
Call centre operators answer enquiries from customers by telephone and email. You could also do this by text, fax and post.
If you are looking for a customer service role and you are keen to be part of a team, this job could be ideal for you.
To be a call centre operator, you will need to have excellent customer care skills. You need to be clear and friendly on the phone.
You must always have a professional attitude when dealing with customers.
Employers usually look for people with personal qualities like confidence and a good telephone manner.
You don’t usually need any formal qualifications.
You should have a reasonable standard of literacy, basic maths and IT skills.
You could work for mail order companies – dealing with customer orders, credit and debit card payments, enquiries and complaints financial institutions – advising about products and services, telesales and market research IT helplines – support for customers to try and help them fix computer problems advisory services – offering callers services such as counselling, welfare and benefits advice, legal information or help with careers.
You should have the following skills:
Excellent customer care skills, a clear and friendly telephone voice, good computer skills, excellent communication skills, good teamwork skills and the ability to work unsupervised the ability to work quickly and under pressure, a professional attitude when dealing with customers .
You would usually access and update customers’ records on computer databases.
With experience, you may gain extra duties such as mentoring new staff, training, call monitoring and quality control.
You would often have a choice of full-time or part-time hours.
Many companies offer flexible working, sometimes on a shift system. Full-time jobs are normally 35 to 40 hours a week.
Starting salaries are normally around £13,500 to £16,000 a year. With experience this can rise to around £19,000 a year.
Salaries for team leaders can be between £19,000 and £24,000 a year.
Employers usually look for people with personal qualities like confidence and a good telephone manner.
You don’t usually need any formal qualifications, although you should have a good general standard of literacy, numeracy and IT skills. Job interviews often include practical telephone and keyboard tests.
Many colleges offer introductory courses in call centre techniques and although they aren’t essential, they may give you an advantage when looking for work.
The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and the Customer Contact Association (CCA) offer a range professional development and networking options, which you may be able to get access to through your employer.