Customer Service

Training to work in a customer contact center can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending upon the project one is being trained for. Almost all customer contact centers use computers with integrated telephony so there is always a segment of training that has to do with operational functions. However, most employees that work at customer contact centers are expected to already have a basic knowledge of how to operate a computer as well as a working knowledge of business telephone systems.

Since many and varied industries use contact center solutions to manage their customer service, training in one facility or even in one area of one facility could be very different from training in another facility or in a different area of the same facility. For example, a customer contact center may have a contract with a particular company for their customer service representatives to answer inbound calls regarding wireless phones and yet in another area of the same building they may have agents answering inbound calls regarding hair care. Thus, the training for the job could be vastly different, depending upon which contract the employee is hired to work on.

Employees will be trained on how to respond to customer service inquiries and much of the time, will be engaged in role play activities so they can practice different scenarios before taking live calls from real customers. They will also be trained on the product or service for which they are answering calls and there will also be a certain amount of computer training as it relates to the particular job for which they were hired. Customer contact centers, for the most part, pay employees while they are in training and employees are expected to be able to demonstrate they can perform the job for which they have been hired before moving on to the "floor" as it is often called, which is actually, much of the time, a very large room with cubicles where customer service representatives take calls from customers and provide solutions to their problems or answers to their inquiries.

Working in a customer contact center is a relatively easy job; however, it can be difficult at times, especially if you are dealing with angry customers. In the United States, customer contact centers, for the most part anyway, provide a very comfortable workplace for employees. Many of them have complete kitchens with adjoining break rooms where employees can eat their meals. Since some customer contact centers are open 24 hours a day, a particular employee could be eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner at work, depending upon their shift. Shifts are typically eight hours long unless the employee is working part-time; part-time hours vary among centers; however part-time could mean that the employee would still work eight hour shifts yet only work 2 or 3 days per week instead of the usual five day work week, eight hour day.

Employees who work in customer contact centers take calls from customers and, depending upon the company or the particular "campaign" being worked, these calls typically come one right after the other. In fact, in many customer contact centers, employees are "graded" on how fast they can resolve customer issues, so it is to their advantage to resolve each call quickly and move on to the next one. This grading system often has its roots in the fact that most customer contact centers are paid per call; that is, the company that has hired them to provide their customer service pays them a set fee for each call they take so it is to the customer contact center's advantage to take as many calls as possible.

It can be difficult to provide excellent customer service on every call, especially when you have to deal with angry customers who may have had to wait on hold for an hour or more before they even get to you. Often, the customer service representative has only to answer the phone and is immediately met with the escalating voice of an angry customer.

As tempting as it is to go on the defensive, it is far better to go ahead and let the customer have their say. Angry customers who feel as if they are truly being heard will diffuse much faster than customers who may feel as if the customer service representative doesn't truly care about their needs. Customers who are angry are going to blame you for whatever their problem is; don't take it personally; instead, assure the customer that their struggle ends now, that you care about their issues and you are going to resolve them if at all possible.

It's important to realize that the customer believes he or she is talking to XYZ Company. They don't realize, or may not even care, that they might actually be talking to a very nice lady named Maria who has three children to support while taking night classes after work. All they know is that they have a problem, you caused it, and they want to know what you are going to do about it. Of course, this isn't the case with every customer or every call; many customers are quite pleasant and just have a question about their service. The key to providing excellent customer service regardless of the situation, though, is to completely focus on the customer you are speaking with. If a previous difficult customer has irritated you, you must be able to let that irritation go before talking to the next customer or it will show through on the call.

If you are the one calling a customer contact center, it can be disconcerting to have to go through the telephone menu that is common to many customer contact centers in the United States. However, by being patient and listening to the prompts and selecting the corresponding key or number, you have a better chance to get to the right customer service representative who can help you to resolve your issue. In addition, many customer contact centers now have automated menus, which can assist you much more quickly if you just need to know your balance or pay your bill.

If you are on hold, it may be tempting to tune out the recordings, but try to listen to them at least once because these recordings often have valuable information that can either assist you or inform you. If you do hold on the line to speak to a customer service representative, try to be patient with them and give them the time they need to look up your account so that they can properly assist you. One of the things that often angers customers who call into customer contact centers is that they provide identifying information to the automated system, such as their telephone number or account number and then the moment a customer service representative comes on the line, he or she asks you for the same exact information. While this can truly be annoying, try not to take it out on the customer service representative, as he or she did not design the system and is only trying to do his or her job. They will need this information in order to access your account so just try to comply with their requests so they can assist you.

The technology housed in many of the customer contact centers in the United States is state of the art and fascinating. Agents usually wear a headset so that their hands can remain free to access a customer's account information on a computer. The headset may cover both ears, or, as is increasingly popular, only one ear. They have a microphone with volume control and they also have a mute button, although most customer service representatives are strongly urged to remain cautious where the mute button is concerned. Agents could inadvertently say something not intended for the customer to hear, thinking the mute button was on, and then face severe consequences when it is learned that the customer had indeed heard their conversation. Also, when the mute button is on, customers can no longer hear the representatives typing or making any noise, so some may think their call has been disconnected and hang up.

The technology working behind the scenes in customer contact centers is impressive. Managers can tell exactly how long each call takes, how long the customer waited on hold, which screens in the computer were accessed, and what changes, if any, were made to a customer's account. Moreover, most customer contact centers have quality checks in place, which means that calls are randomly monitored for just that: quality. This way, customer service representatives know that at any time their calls may be monitored but they never know which ones so it is to their advantage to be polite and helpful to each and every customer.

Many companies provide their own customer service and others outsource it to a third party. Customers cannot tell when they call a call center if they are actually speaking with someone from the company they are doing business with or if they are speaking with a representative that is an employee of the company hired to perform customer service. At any rate, it is to the representative's as well as to the company's advantage to provide the best customer service possible.

To some companies, it makes good sense to outsource their customer service relations to a third party company. They may either pay a flat fee or pay so much per call, as is common for large volume customer contact centers. This way, the company can concentrate on other aspects of running their business, such as product development, yet at the same time they are ensuring their customers are being taken care of. They don't have to hire the staff to take the calls or provide health insurance or other benefits; they just pay another company to handle it and they are provided with detailed reports so they can gauge how well their customers are being taken care of.

Inbound customer service, as opposed to outbound customer service, occurs when customers call in to a customer contact center in order to resolve issues or to ask questions about their account. They may have a problem with their bill or they may need to add new services. Call center agents take the calls and perform changes on the accounts or answer questions in order to assist customers. It is important to note that if you are the one calling a customer contact center that you may have to hold on the line while the customer service representative makes any requested changes to your account or looks up information. You may also hear the agent typing while you are on the phone.

Some customers get annoyed when they have to wait on hold or hear the customer service representative typing. Some customers feel that the representative should perform those duties after they have gotten off of the phone but it is because they don't realize how the technology in customer contact centers works. The fact is that the moment the representative hangs up with you, the customer, that another call comes in and then he or she is unable to keep working on your account. That is why they have to place you on hold to look up information or take a few moments and type instructions or notes into your account. It is important, too, to realize that many of these agents take hundreds of calls every day and it is likely they will not remember what it is you wanted done a few minutes later. So it is to every customer's advantage to wait patiently on the phone, if possible, while the customer service representative completes their requests.

Customer contact center applicants sometimes fear the word "outbound" when it is concerning call center calls. They mistakenly think they will be telemarketing, which is a much different type of job and difficult in the best of circumstances. However, there are customer service representatives that call their customers to offer them a better deal than they have or to make sure that their service is satisfactory. It is far easier for customer service representatives to call customers and give them something or to make sure they are happy than it is to call strangers and try to sell them something.

Outbound customer service is also steeped in technology. Customer service representatives don't actually dial the numbers manually but rather an automatic dialer, which has been pre-programmed, dials the numbers for them and once the customer answers the phone, their account pops up on the computer screen and the agent has to have quick wits in order to begin talking. Now, this is really not as hard as it might seem because most agents who work on this type of campaign are already well versed as to what to say. For example, one agent may be working a campaign to ask customers if they are satisfied with the service they received from a field representative who was sent to their homes. Since the agent already knows what to say, the only surprise information that will pop up on the screen is the customer's name, which can be a bit of a struggle if it is hard to pronounce; however, a well trained agent is able to pull this off without much difficulty.

There are various types of customer service calls that a customer service representative will take in a shift. Some calls are very easy, where the customer just has a quick question and other calls can be quite difficult, especially when there is a problem with the customer's bill. However, depending upon the type of industry in which you work, some of these calls can be really interesting. Customer contact centers serve customers in a wide variety of industries from wireless telephones to personal products to how to baste the Thanksgiving turkey.

Many of us call customer contact centers every day and yet we don't even realize it. Most of the customer service representatives are friendly and helpful and we don't even get the idea we are talking to a huge corporation, perhaps even in a different country, unless we hear a specific accent.
Working in a customer contact center can be a fun and rewarding job. Customers need dedicated and talented people to assist them with all types of issues.