How to Survive (& Thrive) in a Call Centre
by Alison Mathiebe I am interested in helping call centre agents to maximise their potential. Writing this book after many years experience in call centres, is a way for me to assist even more agents.
My beliefs about call centre work:
• Call centres are a fantastic opportunity to earn (not too bad, thank you) money, start or renew a career, develop marketable skills, become a specialist in an area of interest, and gain experience in an industry where there is an abundance of work available in many locations.
• The call centre agent role can be stressful (sometimes very stressful). I provide strategies to help reduce the pressure that agents may feel.
• For some agents, taking calls for 5, 10 years or more suits their lifestyle, but the majority of agents need and deserve significant skill development and career progression.
• There are opportunities to work in call centres, advance within call centres, and gain marketable skills that can lead to work in other sectors.
• Slackers and disinterested personnel are going to weed themselves out. My book is not for them. My aim is to teach agents to be brilliant and help them excel in all areas of the role so that their time as an agent comes to its natural end when they are either promoted or have the skills and confidence to make a sideways step out of the call centre into another area that excites them.
My background
• I have worked as a call centre sales and customer service agent, call centre team leader, call centre supervisor and trainer, and as a contact centre manager. I have also done workforce management, taught technical college call centre classes and worked in call centres of all sizes, in-house and outsourced.
• I am a graduate of Macquarie University, The University of Melbourne and The University of Technology, Sydney and also hold an Advanced Diploma in Contact Centre Management.
• While working as a call centre manager, I received a company award in staff leadership, state quality awards (two years in a row), a state management innovation award, and a national call centre management award.
If you have any questions or comments about How to Survive (& Thrive) in a Call Centre I would love to hear from you