What A Week!

Things are really getting crazy @ the office nowadays. To be honest with you - inspite of my promotion as Senior Tech Specialist and an increase in salary - I am not completely happy at all. Things are really getting tough @ the office. There are a lot of implementations that are really not feasible. For the first time, I felt as if the management are not listening to their employee's sentiments. I just hope there would be some changes that would happen to the way management run the company. I intend to stay till 2012 - 3 years from now so I could get my retirement benefit which I would use as a start up capital to a business - but I am now having second thoughts. I hope I could endure all the pressures I am experiencing right now and I pray things would be better in the next couple of days. The company is indeed the "Largest Call Center in the Philippines" today - I hope they would remember what brought them to the top...their employess. I know they would...I hope they would...

CALL CENTER DO'S AND DONT'S

1) You're having any problems, don't bring them to work. It's easy to get stressed out on a normal day at a call center, but if there's problems at home you'll find yourself treating customers poorly, so try not to stew on personal problems.

2) Always arrive a little bit early, this way you can gauge what the call volume will be like that day and prepare yourself if it's going to be busy.

3) Keep a pen and some paper nearby. Write down everything that isn't sensitive information. This way you won't have to ask customers to repeat themselves, and you can also reference this information even after the customer is gone. This helps eliminate customer hostility and keep you from having to call the customer back.

4) Walk the fine line between friendliness and professionalism. Always adhere to your companies guidelines for professionalism, but try and add personal touches to your call like using the customer's first name.

5) Avoid dead air when you have a customer on the line. Dead air often makes people uncomfortable, and this will make your job harder.

6) Relax, if you have a bad call close your eyes, breath, and calm yourself down. Don't ruin your next call because of a difficult customer.

7) Remember that you wouldn't have a job without customers, try to avoid complaining
about them and instead focus on why you need them.

I Passed my May Scorecard!

I am so happy as I was able to pass my scorecard for May. I received the good news at around 8:30 AM today from my friend Ice. She said I passed with flying colors and God knows how thankful I am for this miracle. For almost two weeks since I received a failing survey, I have always been striving to get a good one and to pass all the other metrics in my scorecard such as AHT (Average Handling Time) and FCR (First Call Resolution). You see, in the call center industry, you need to pass those metrics for you to get a passing scorecard at the end of the month. Failure to pass the scorecard for 3 consecutive months would qualify you for an ADP (Agent Development Plan) in which you need to pass 3 consecutive scorecards else there is a possibility of getting fired or dismissed from your job due to poor performance. Yup, that's the CALL CENTER LIFE. Actually, it's not one of my worries. Since I already passed my 5 consecutive scorecards, failing this month would mean not being eligible for any Internal Job position as the company requires us to pass 3 of your previous SCs befoer you could apply for any internal job openings. I am so happy that I still have a chance to be a part of CISCO - an account in our company that provides ADMIN jobs to their agents. Though it's a TIER 1 account as opposed to the TIER 2 account that I currenty handle, the benefits, tenure and the salary would still be the same. I don't care if I would not be a Tech Support anymore, all I want is to get an ADMIN work with the salary I am getting. I hope God would open a door for me to work for CISCO in the future. Thank you Lord for this wonderful gift and I offer you everything that I have in my life now and forever. Amen.

Introducing: PAUL'S TEETH

Hi everyone! I would like to introduce to you our team - PAUL'S PROPHETS! Actually, it's really not the "formal" name of our team. Our TL hates that name! Hahaha! But he can't do anything about it as majority of us decided to use that name for our team. This picture was taken at Chef De Angelo in Robinson's Galleria. It's a very rare chance for us to spend time with our TL out of the office for some reasons we do understand. Let me introduce my teammates aka dabarkads: Clockwise: Sam, Ice, Me, Melai, Mitch, Imee, Mamu, Dianne and our TL Paul. It's been a tradition on our team that we would spend lunch with each other every after payday and I am happy that our TL was able to make it this time. I am looking forward for more bonding moments with Paul's Teeth!

A Change Of Heart - An Introduction

Believe me, I promised myself I will never work in a call center after I resigned from my previous local call center job. The experience I had from that company was so tragic that I can't help but smile just thinking I am already out of the company. Well, don't get me wrong. I love the company, it's the biggest telecommunications company in the Philippines today and the compensations are superb! I am proud being a part of that company and I will always will. But - it's the job I hate! I don't know, it's not the job I thought it would be. I resigned from my first job (though my Supervisor already offered a me a TL position) because I thought it would be better for me to work in a different company with a different job description and not the routinary paperwork job that I used to have...but my dream of getting a better job had turned into dismay and I can't recall a day in which I did'nt wish to resign. I really felt that I am not mentally challenged with the job and I told myself that I will not go back in the call center industry...but here I am. Almost 3 years working as a tech support in one of the leading call center company here in the Philippines. Why? Well, I would have to let you see for yourself. I would let you take a peek through my daily experiences with the company, with my co workers, with my superiors... and hopefully through that - you will find the answer why I am still working as a call center girl and why I again took the job I once dreaded so much.

Enjoy!