The other night, after a hard day’s (or night) shift, I walked into a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf branch near our call center office. All I wanted was to find a comfy seat, read something about diet pills review and relax in one corner.
When I walked to the counter and ordered my usual caffeinated drink, I noticed a pie-looking fare inside the glass counter with all the sweets and breads. It said ‘quiche’ on its name tag. Out of curiosity I ordered a piece as I felt the hungry rumbling of my stomach. I didn’t want a full meal so I opted for that quiche.
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I am not sure if there are already call center operations in South Africa, I just read somewhere that the government there is considering creating the infrastructure for outsourcing businesses.
Should the Philippines worry if that’s the case? I don’t think so because the expenses for call center operations will still be cheaper here like for office space rentals and of course, manpower. Plus, the infrastructure is already set up, a new entrant in the business will find that all he needs are ready.
South Africa is an English speaking country, perhaps that is why such an idea came up. It will definitely be an added source of income for their government. Especially nowadays that the trends for outsourcing is very healthy and that there is no slow down (at least a significant one) in sight.
I have been working on a lot of stuff lately, both on my work in the call center and in my personal life. I even have to trade some hours of rest because of this but I am not complaining. I love what I am doing and I have learned to find ways to bring the balance in everything that I do.
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To my fellow call center employees, let us be extra careful whenever we’re out on the road at night.
The Inquirer.net reported that a call center agent was robbed while she was riding a jeepney on her way home. It happened at around 11pm in Quezon City.
The robbers were able to get her backpack containing 2 cellphones and some identification cards. The police were able to arrest the suspects but the stolen items were not recovered.
Cops were able to act fast but the suspects were quicker in dispensing of their loot.
While nobody is safe in the metropolis even during in broad daylight, let us still be extra careful especially at night when we’re out there either going to or from the office.
A lot of non call center folks do not understand what these call center agents have to go through to finally let them be on the operations floor and take calls.
That is why I strongly disagree their opinion especially when some people think that this job is a no brainer. You need to always open yourself to learn about the product that you are supporting and ready to be trained so you can enhance your skills.
I can proudly say that I have known a lot of new things like when I took calls for a telecommunication company before. Aside from that, I got to know more about how to fix a fax, answering machine and other phone line systems when I worked in an account supporting those lines of businesses.
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The United States’ transition from the analog broadcast of television stations to digital broadcast has kept the phones ringing at the call center of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Calls peeked on Friday, the day of the DTV transition, at 317,450 calls. The call center received 145,403 calls on Saturday and 62,949 calls on Sunday, with 28% of Sunday callers looking for help setting up their digital converter box. Twenty-six percent of calls on Sunday were about difficulty receiving a specific station, while 23% had broader reception issues.
Over 235,000 calls seeking convertor box coupon information were transferred to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s call center.
Why? Simply because there are still a lot more who are not familiar with this major change in television technology. And Americans indeed will call the FCC because their favorite pastime is going to get affected.
The U.S. government has started distributing the converter boxes that will allow old television sets to receive the new digital signals. This new technology will give clearer pictures and will free up the airwaves for other uses, particularly for telecommunications.
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Tags: FCC
If you have read my previous post, I mentioned that a lot of call centers nowadays have their own recreation rooms to aid the stressful working conditions of call center agents.
The available recreation channels may depend on a lot of factors like the budget that the company can allocate for this or machines and gadgets that call center employees requested so they can really enjoy their free time.
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A lot of call centers boast of being equal opportunity employers, while some has a different way to impose some of their rules.
Just like what happened to some call center employees of Startek in Henry county. According to this article, nearly 70 employees were laid off due to “change in service conditions”. But some employees have different opinion about these changes.
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Tags: Startek Henry County
Call center agents are known to be resilient, no matter what happens on their call, they should always do their best to help their customers.
Just imagine if you have to sit down and take calls for almost seven and a half hours everyday, then no matter how resilient you are, you won’t avoid feeling stressed and tired. When call center agents are all stressed and they need some ways to relax, they just want to have a good laugh and conversation with their friends, drink coffee, play PS3 games if their call center has some units in their recreation rooms.
Well, these are just some of the things they want to do to liven their senses again, which will result to a more positive call experience with their customers.
What a day it has been for me. I did uncredited overtime work because I needed to assist a colleague with some of her tasks. I’m not complaining about doing that extra work. We do that all the time whenever someone needs a little helping hand. It’s a give-and-take world after all.
Anyway, it was actually some easy stuff that I did for her, but it’s just that I have been in the office for more than 10 hours already and my mind and body were starting to complain.
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