My first job after I came out of quarantine was being a Customer Service Specialist at Stellar. It is a call centre and I believe some of their clients include Telstra, TransLink, and My Aged Care.
The interview process begin with an online AI interview and a typing test. I guess I must have done alright since they called to do a non AI interview. I was waiting for my online students to come and I did have about 10 minutes before the lesson started. They asked the usual kind of questions such as working under pressure, meeting KPIs, computer skills and dealing with conflicts and agressive customers.
I received a formal offer 2 weeks later along with some readings to be done before the starting date. Training was hard and I must say quite tiring. There was a lot we had to process in such a short time and the trainer reassured us that most of the skills and knowledge would be picked up when we are on the floor.
Now, those who are unfamiliar with call centres, let me tell you what their expectations are. Average call time should be within 600 to 700 seconds, this includes authenticating the caller and recording what the call was about. You can do this if the caller is already a client and has their client number, and not requiring an assessment of any kinds. However, if the caller is a new client, required an assessment and would like to nominate a family member or a friend as a representative, you could spend at least 15 minutes on the call.
The next part of the KPI is about how on time you are. From the time you logged in to the system, taking your break and ending your shift. The calls you get on the day does impact on your tardiness. Say you were scheduled for your first break at 11am. You took a call at 10:30am and the client wanted to have another assessment, register her husband and had him take an assessment following the suggestion of an aged care worker. When you finished the call, you were 15 minutes late. This 15 minutes magically became 30 minutes…. WHAT???? Yes…. the first 15 minutes at the start of your break and 15 minutes after your break. As a result, you messed up both your average call time and break time.
During my time on the floor, I sat next to a guy named D. He worked for Stellar before, left and came back. He gave me great tips such as putting our calls on after call time (Stellars’s terminology for on hold) if our break or home time is about 5 minutes away. He also said that Stellar, like any other workplace, favours connections. The friendlier you are with the upper management or people who matters, the easier it would be for you to get noticed and promoted.
I didn’t think too much of this as it is pretty much the same in a lot of workplace. You can do no wrong as long as you are chummy with the boss. But he was right… He received a promotion not too long after he came out of his probation.
As for me, I left the call centre af the end of my probational period. I heard that out of 9 people that I started with, only 3 are still at Stellar. I know one is planning her exit as I wrote this.
I had no regret working for the call centre. It made me appreciate the work they do to solve our queries. The training they went through and the KPI they had to pass every month.
Living in limbo 