Working in a Call Center

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Call center agents and customer service heroes are asked to do so much in today’s competitive and customer-centered world of business.

Not only do they need to answer questions, become experts on services and products, and resolve customer-related issues, but they are often asked to represent the brand and name of a company.

While organizations ask for quite a lot from their customer service representatives, they also create work environments that allow call center agents to gain valuable training and work skills that can carry into their careers and lives.

Skills for Working in a call center

Most of what we talk about when entering a workforce or industry focuses on the skills or requisites that a particular job requires. What is often overlooked, however, are the kind of skills and training that can be gained through a job.

And when it comes to working in a call center, most people don’t realize just how much training and valuable work skills are gained through customer service.

Working in a call center helps develop and hone soft skills, organizational skills, adaptability, and communication skills, among others.

Below we’ll get into all the ways that working in a call center will help you for the rest of your life.

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Call center skills that will help you for the rest of your life

Time organization

From the moments leading up to a call or chat box to those final exchanges that end an interaction, customer service heroes need to be ready and prepared for their customers at all times. This means customer service reps will be well-versed in utilizing their customer service software to learn about their customers, be able to juggle multiple chats at the same time, and make sure they’re allotting the proper time required for each issue and exchange. Time management translates to pretty much every facet of life, and gaining these skills will help bolster your time management skills in nearly any other field or industry.

Social skills

Social skills, soft skills, and communication are important for, again, pretty much every facet of life and work. And it should be no surprise that communicating with customers, some of whom might be frustrated or disappointed with a recent purchase, is a great way to gain valuable experience and practice in communicating. Listening skills, becoming more understanding, communicating empathy, and getting your customers to see you as someone who is working in their best interest–these are all essential social skills needed and gained in a call center.

Dealing with pressure

Professional athletes, military personnel, and medical professionals are often described as being cool as a cucumber, having “ice in their veins, or simply being cool-headed, and these descriptions can all apply to call center agents. Again, after working through a number of frustrated callers of sifting between multiple chat boxes, you’ll have gained the kind of skills to help prepare you for the most tense jobs out there.

Short term memory skills

Call center agents have to learn and retain a lot of information in a short amount of time. They rely on their CRM systems to regurgitate information to their customers, and they have to be actively listening to their customers so as to not repeat themselves and to build off the conversation. Additionally, cutting-edge customer service software solutions will provide a customer profile and purchase history, which allows agents to build on previous customer service interactions and flex those short-term memory skills when needed.

Flexibility

Working in customer service can be a thankless and challenging job on your schedule. Especially when certain markets and industries get busy, a lot is asked of customer service and call center agents to keep up with the demand. This requires customer service heroes to get ahead on their work, be open to new ways of interacting with customers, and be creative in order to meet their goals. Are their ways to streamline some of the steps in your script? Is there a way to use your network within the call center to help spread the workload? Being flexible and creative with your demanding work environment will help you find smart solutions for all other areas of life and work.

Final thoughts: Working in a call center

Whether you’re thinking about your career, marriage, friends, or work/life balance, working in a call center will provide you with the training and skills to help improve all other arenas of your life. And with the help of cutting-edge, state-of-the-art customer service solutions, you can gain all the skills you’ll need to navigate through the kind of technology that’s becoming more and more prevalent across every industry.

Gladly’s customer-centered approach will allow your representatives to gain the skills they need and help their customers in the most efficient, organized, and human way possible. Try Gladly today.