I was one of them (reminiscing BPO moments)!

I was on my way to DBP last Nov. 8 and the service that I rode decided to take the route in Burnham Park. While waiting for the traffic light to turn green, I noticed 2 people (one that looked like a lesbian and one that looked like a gay **i concluded it based on their appearance and clothes**) The thing that got my attention when I looked at this two individual is that the one of them is wearing the Sitel ID and both of them are carrying a box and I know that it contained the coveted Plantronics Headset. I smiled when I saw them, I immediately remembered my Sitel days. I know that the 2 dudes are still on their OCP period/Training Period (laymans term). I know the feeling of being on the training period, its actually the best part of being in the call center industry. This is period where you will just sit for 8hrs and listened to your trainer talk and talk about the product, experiences and other stuff. This also the period where trainees are very special, because everyone on the floor (Coaches, QAs, Mentors, and the upper Management) are always visiting the training room and welcoming them to the account, giving them expectations about the work that they are going to do. 

I stayed in Sitel for 2 years and 3 months and 29 days. I can say that its a one of a kind experience. I can say that my experience made me who I am today, I have learned a lot and most especially, I have learned to be myself and not to be pretentious in front of other people. Whenever I go to work at Sitel before, my mantra is that this is going to be another challenge. A challenge to wake up at night to prepare for work, challenge to survive the 8-hr shift, without having too much escalation and released calls (not for me! hah!), challenge not to be sleepy during the shift, challenge to be patient with my customers and the list just go on and go on. For over 2 years, after my shift, my dialogue would always be "I don't like this job, it sucks, I don't deserve to be treated like this" I always complain, regardless, if I have a good day or bad day. From the time that I started at Sitel until I resigned on April 26, 2013, I know that I have been complaining about my job. If I will describe my call center experience in one word, it would be "extraordinary". Extraordinary in a sense that I have lived to the expectations of my superiors when I was still working there. I was a good agent. I was meeting my metrics and even exceeding it. I was in the World's Class Agent's list for 2 consecutive months, I was named Top agent for one quarter and always on the top for having high CSAT (Customer Satisfaction). I never thought that I would have these awards. My goal when I entered Sitel is to have job and I guess having these awards is just the perks of it. Jamming sessions with my co-workers/team mates is also extraordinary, we always talk about the bad calls that we have and most importantly the bloopers (the agents and the customers). Having this post on my blog is not actually enough for me to describe my whole experience in the call center industry.

Many people would like to enter the industry where I came from. They say that you can have high salary when you there and also the perks and benefits of it.

From my point of view, there are my advice if you really would like to be in the call center industry.

1. You need to be independent (you will be alone during breaks, most of the time)

2. You need to take criticism constructively (don't complain if your coach/TL is giving feedback/barbar sessions)

3. You need to be a certified vamp! (stay alive at night)

4. You need to be flexibe (schedules are sometimes being change weekly)

5. You need to have strong body resistance (motto: bawal magkasakit!)

There you go, those are just some of the things that you need to be for you to enter the industry. Actually, I did not intent to have this post on my blog this month, its just that when I saw them walking on that day, I know that I have to do this, and this is also for me to reminisce the days when I was still an agent solving customer issues. Now that I have been out of the industry for almost 2 years now, I realized that at the end of the day, we need not to complain about the job, because the job gives us the bread and butter to use to buys things for ourselves and for our families. We should be very thankful that we are blessed that we are given these job.

So that's it folks. Hope you like it.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

marj:)