Call center career: what are the possibilities?

What are your opportunities if you want to make a call center career?

As businesses try to keep up with growing customer demands, the call center industry is becoming ever more important: today’s customers require effective and exceptional customer experience while being valued by the business they choose.

As the industry grows, so do the opportunities to start a career at a call center.

Although most people still think it’s not possible to move up in a call center, the truth is that call center employees have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of career opportunities.

So, are you thinking about starting a career in the call center industry? In this article, we’ll discuss the different career opportunities a call center offers. Don’t delay, check them out!

Call center agent

As it’s said, start at the bottom if you want to reach the top. It’s true that call center agents start at the bottom of the call center career ladder, but if you want to develop a career in the industry, it’s an excellent stepping stone to higher positions. In fact, as we already discussed in a previous article, 80% of call center supervisors start as call center agents.

Working as a call center agent means being the first point of contact for customers getting in touch with the company. In principle, you’ll either handle incoming calls and provide customer service, or make outbound calls and sell the company’s products or services.

Furthermore, as these days many call centers utilize the technique of call blending, meaning that agents handle both incoming and outgoing calls, highly-skilled agents are often required to carry out both activities. For further information on call blending, check out our previous article about it here.

As most call centers support their customers using a variety of communication channels, agents are often required to communicate with customers via phone, email, SMS and web chat.

Of course, it’s not very likely that you’ll be required to deal with all the duties above during your first day at a call center. Responsibilities vary greatly, based on the nature of the company, and the agents’ experience and personality.

The biggest challenge for agents working in the call center environment is to stand out from the crowd. True, it’s difficult to get noticed, but it’s definitely not impossible. So, in brief, always keep track of your performance metrics! Hitting your KPIs is probably your best chance to get noticed by the people on top.

If you’re too an ambitious agent and want to build your call center career, then check out our 6 handy lifehacks on how to excel in your agent job.

Call center supervisor

If you’ve already tackled step one in your call center career, then it’s time for you to take your skills to the next level and continue your career as a call center supervisor.

The main responsibility of a call center supervisor is to coordinate a team of call center agents. In addition to this, the position requires strong technical and people management skills.

Amongst other things, you’ll have to cope with escalations on a daily basis, set targets for your agent team, measure their performance, offer them guidance and feedback, and report to the call center manager. So, it’s no surprise that being a multi-tasker and tech-savvy is a prerequisite for call center supervisors.

Furthermore, as a supervisor, it’s more than likely that you’ll be involved in the recruiting and hiring process of new agents. So, in brief, call center supervisors deal with a lot.

Call center manager

The next step in the call center career path is occupied by call center managers. By the time you reach this level, you’ll really have to see the whole picture as managers are responsible for the overall performance and budget of the call center.

In brief, call center managers cope with processes, technology, customers, and employees. As for daily responsibilities, the list is definitely long, but it’s worth mentioning the following tasks: setting objectives, reviewing KPIs, evaluating call center teams, preparing performance improvement plans and creating a business strategy for the call center. Sounds tough, huh?

In addition to this, call center managers are responsible for all agents working in the call center, and also have several supervisors reporting to them. As the call center’s backbone, they keep in contact with other departments and make sure that the call center machine keeps running.

Head of call center

So, finally, here we are: at the top of the call center career ladder. But what does a head of call center actually do?

The head of call center oversees the call center as a whole. The duties and responsibilities of this position involve a wide range of activities, including handling budgetary management, measuring call center efficiency (click here for pro tips on that), improving customer experience, developing plans for the future operation of the call center, and overseeing the recruitment process.

Being a call center manager requires a high level of knowledge of the industry, along with a deep understanding of technology and data. Although the head of call center is a position that comes with huge responsibilities, in return, you’ll be able to actively participate in decision-making processes, improve customer experience and shape the future of the call center’s operations.

Sum up

As you can see, there is plenty of potential for a career in the call center industry. Of course, building your call center career won’t be easy, but with continued excellent performance, your efforts will definitely pay off. If you really make the effort and excel in your duties, chances are that the call center industry will fulfill all of your expectations.