Either for selling (outbound calls) and customer care (inbound calls), a telemarketing company will have separate projects for both. Each project will be handled by a call center manager. Hence, telemarketing not only opens job opportunities for potential agents, it also opens up great opportunities for managerial positions such as call center manager jobs. A call center manager will be the one responsible for finding agents to work; training and introducing the agents to all the leads and data that is necessary in facing all types of customers and potential clients; monitoring the call data, both for evaluation, case studies, and call back information.
Tips of becoming an effective call center agent:
• Tone: It is important that to maintain a smooth and exciting tone to keep your client or prospective buyer engaged with the conversation. This makes you agreeable, making them stick to your word through the entire conversation.
• Patience is a virtue: In this job, you are to face different kinds of people, of various nationalities or ethnicities. It is important to keep your cool to stay effective and efficient in attending to the concerns of every customer.
• Facts: You must be aware of everything that concerns your reason for calling the customer. If it is to promote a product or a service, be prepared answering all the questions that he or she may ask. If it is about customer care, be ready to attend to the problem, ready with access to the company’s transaction history as well as product and service details.
• Be confident: Your confidence, in manner of speaking and carrying out conversations, will make persuasions more effective. For instance, if you are to coax a client to try out a new product, you must sound as if you yourself are convinced with the product too. Through your voice, a client can easily determine whether or not you are anxious or sure about the product you sell.
• Make it a habit to take down notes: If a customer calls because of a problem, regarding a product or a transaction, it is important to take down the facts that he presented. It often annoys a customer to be asked of the same question or information over and over.
Being a call center manager or a call center agent is actually a tough job, as it also demands an excellent skill for multi-tasking. However, all the trouble is compensated for the salaries in these jobs are as competitive as in other corporate positions. Aside from that, an agent or a manager may even be awarded with commission incentives for high yields or simply a job well done. Although it appears that being telemarketing agent is simply conversing with people on the phone, it poses a lot of pros and cons.
Cons
Because call center agents are to handle different types of clients and buyers, they need to be patient and agreeable even if the customers are argumental or mean. They may be prone to rejection. In call center jobs, customer service and satisfaction is of utmost importance in this job. Keeping you cool is the key to staying in this job. Although the pay and benefits are typically above average, agents may be facing high yet often manageable stress levels.
Pros
Being a call center agent is actually different from being a plain telemarketer. In fact, a professional call center agent is a highly trained type of telemarketer. A professional agent is also trained to be a proficient communicator with killer persuasive skills. Credentials for such skills will be proven by track records of closed sales and a record of call center and customer service review. That is why in hiring call center agents, it is a common requirement to have excellent communication skills. Such skill is gauged through the course of hiring.
For some companies, call center agents are paid by the hour. Some are paid by commissions. What makes this career more interesting is that it welcomes the possibility of working at home. Also, finding openings for hiring call center jobs is usually not a problem. Call center agent hiring is always sprawled in the classified section of the newspapers and features in many of the online job search sites which are extremely helpful in finding a competitive pool of agents.
