Blog of a Contact Center Agent
By Ken Ng

Friday, March 31 st 2006

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of when I first donned the headset and resigned myself to a life as a contact center agent. It’s been an eventful 2 years, I’ve seen countless agents, close friends, move on; some to other contact centers, others just unable to take the charade of “pretending” to be polite to even the most demeaning of customers anymore. Me, it’s my 730 th day of the same arduous routine; day in, day out.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been days where this can be the most rewarding job. The times where you are actually able to help and callers are sincerely thankful can give you the most exhilarating emotional experience. Times like these, you smile for real while on the phone and the headset feels like a lopsided halo making you feel like someone’s guardian angel. But those times are rare…

The reality of it is, this is a thankless job.

Sure, I’m paid well and I don’t really do much except sound “great” to countless strangers whom I imagine are my best of friends in order to meet my quality monitoring scores. Truth of it is I’m bored out of my brain! My TL and OM are great people and I wouldn’t dream of leaving them but the other contact center is offering more money and less calls. So, why am I still here?

They say the contact center agent’s lifespan in a contact center is 2 years and I am beginning to believe that statistic but I find myself hard pressed to make the decision to leave. Why do I stay? Here are 20 reasons (although some hard to believe):

  1. I’m paid well – for what I do anyway
  2. Although inbound call volume is high, it’s not that difficult to handle all of them besides, the Jusco vouchers I get every month pays for my groceries.
  3. I love the people – you don’t just leave people who’ve been through tears and laughter with you for so long
  4. I love my cubicle
  5. I don’t have to take work home – when I log out, there’s really no thinking about cases or calls.
  6. I get to dress casual when I go to work
  7. I get plenty of time with my TL who does a great job with the coaching sessions where I’m the focus of his attention
  8. I have great fixed working hours – as much as I am tracked for all the time I spend after I log in, I also get to leave on the dot. Everything is measured in seconds you see and I’m conditioned to watch the time constantly
  9. It actually feels very good to give good service and customers’ are happy
  10. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge
  11. I love the contests that are held monthly
  12. I’m dating someone here
  13. The break room is great with all the biscuits and drinks I can consume
  14. I love watching the TLs and OMs stress out when calls are queued
  15. I love the people – I think I’ve said this but Hey! I do!
  16. There’s no feeling better than when I walk out of the contact center after my shift
  17. I’m not pressured to climb the organizational ladder – it’s comfortable where I am
  18. I get to surf the net all day when there are no calls
  19. I have so much power - I determine how much a customer gets helped… OR NOTT!
  20. Best of all, JOB SECURITY - I can go to any contact center out there when I leave this one!
So, it looks like there will be more Blogs from me on the contact center after all. For tomorrow, I will begin year 3…

 

 

Last updated - 1 June 2006

 

  
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