Customer Service DC

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.