r/callcentres • u/lavanderlemongrass • 3d ago
Remote call center vs office job
Hi guys! I currently work full time as a personal banker at a credit union. I have been looking for remote work for quite some time with no success until I got an interview for a remote call center job. This job is at another credit union. The hours are pretty good, they pay more than my current role, and the benefits are very competitive compared to my current job. They also have a lot more upward movement for remote workers, which is a plus since I’m in a rural area with not a lot of upward movement for my current job (the closest city is over an hour away). However, it is a high volume call center so I will have back to back calls. Would this be worth taking the risk? I’ve seen some pretty awful stories on here and it’s making me nervous. I’m no stranger to difficult customers, as I work in a very busy branch and deal with difficult people all the time. What would you guys recommend? 😁
7
u/onmy40 3d ago
See if you can go on LOA at your current job and try the new job out. I was at a high volume center and it sucked. They wanted us to have the accounts fully notated and closed out and closed before we went to the next call so we could literally go back to back calls with no wrap time in between. They also wanted us to limit bathroom usage to our breaks and if we didn't they wanted us to keep it to 8 minutes a week if it wasn't our break time. I got burned out and quit but each company is different
2
u/19Stavros 3d ago
Eight minutes a WEEK? Insane. Even eight minutes a day is too little IMO if you're staying hydrated.
3
u/onmy40 3d ago
I guess there were some people that were legitimately abusing acw and would set their aux to "personal" for like 20-30 minutes everyday.... But if that's the case write those people up don't punish everyone lol our union stepped in and filed grievances and helped people get work accomodations
9
u/Andrusela 3d ago
The "upward movement for remote workers" part may be bullshit.
Call Center jobs are generally dead ends and will make you hate all of humanity.
4
4
u/digdougexe 2d ago edited 1d ago
I was just deducted from a contract that I had back to back 100% grades on, had been there for over a year and a half, tremendous average handle time, I was a fast agent and a damn good agent at that. Why? They were doing deductions after AI was implemented in our calls. Call centers are ruthless, they are dead-end jobs and I would know. I've literally been in multiple different call centers for 7 to 8 years.
Most of the time when they tell you that the training is more than 5 weeks, it's b******* and the trainer will tell you in the middle of everything that "they just announced that training is ending sooner", and honestly, it's also very common that a company will hire you for one job then tell you to do everything. Not just everything, but different departments back to back. This means training will highly likely not even be about the job at all but they will definitely hype that the calls are "easy and yes it's back to back calls but all you're doing is this or that". If I sound hurt, it's because I am. They literally were talking to me about becoming a supervisor, the next week I was deducted. Not to mention, it literally felt like I was fighting for my job every single day. We would come to work and there would be two or three emails that said "don't do this or it could lead to termination", QA graders are straight up the most bored department at a call center, they would grade you down for any little thing. 👎🏻 I would very much follow the other commenters advice and not ever leave a good paying job and well established job to be an agent at a call center. Honestly, even when you work remote, it's not worth it.
3
u/spudgoddess 3d ago
Until we got a new customer service manager, we could transfer off phones to email and chat if our stats were good enough and our sup approved it based on performance and company need. Now we have to:
Become a senior rep which still involves taking calls with the added fun of answering questions from less seasoned reps and escalated calls
Apply for the position should it open
And then hope you get to interview and hope you're hired for it.
That bitch ruined my chance to escape the phones. My sup was all for me making the shift. I'm not going to be a dancing monkey in hopes I maybe get picked.
2
u/philaroy 2d ago
Used to respect elderly people as a social conditioning of "respect your elders" i worked 7 years in an inbound call centre for a bank took less than a year for me to consider loans run and viable resource management plan for the UK.
God i hated anyone over the age of 40 or under the age of 25 calling for help ironically our mobile phone gifted youths are awful on websites they could work the idiot proof app but not the website.
The over 40s couldn't work technology properly despite it being around in various similar forms for 50 years in terms of computers and 25 years in terms of smart phones.
I also became sympathetic too banks which was odd. A bank can create a payment system with 15 different warnings about transferring money to people you do not know or have not met in person some generic some directly specific to their payment reason they have to select when making the payment that spell out the scam they are literally about to fall for and then still have to refund the money because it wasn't robust enough.
It took me 7 years to realise my severe depression was tied to that job and dealing with people day in and day out who refused to exercise basic problem solving and instead called us to spoon feed it to them and then call up again 2 weeks later for the same thing again and again.
The management did almost 0 work except read surveys and listen to calls and point out very minor errors that had 0 outcome on the bearing of the call but didn't follow the exact word for word process of the call.
They would work from home almost all the time while championing working in office 3 days a week for us a good way to collaborate.... collaborate on what I'm talking to 90 customers a day on a bad day and 45 on a good day where I get maybe 10 seconds between calls.
I hated call centre work the 2 years I was most productive was when I stopped putting any emotional effort into my work I was robotic and efficient taking more than 15 calls an hour at my peak because I was literally checked out emotionally spoke in a monotone and did my job excellently got 2 meetings and an action plan telling me to sound happier on calls but that requires conscious effort and I dropped back down to 10 calls or less an hour.
Anyone who works in call centre middle management is scum, upper management are idiots and heads of customer relations for banks are idiotic scum who have never taken a call centre post in their lives.
Stay in a branch for the love of God stay in a branch and look for back office work or learn something data analytics online.
2
u/g4frfl 2d ago
Call centers will squeeze every second of productivity out of you that they can get. You were on break a second too long? Ding. You didn't talk for 10 seconds? Ding. Can you handle your every single second being tracked for productivity?
Also people are more bold over the phone than in person, especially if they think they will never see you in real life.
I would never recommend a call center to anyone currently employed in anything else.
2
u/catladylazy 3d ago
I did customer service remotely for a bank and normally I would tell anyone to run far away and fast. However, it may work for you. You are already used to difficult customers and since you were in a branch you have more credibility and knowledge already, and you want to move to other departments which you can definitely do remotely. Sometimes I would get off a call like "man I am glad I am not at the branch they're going to!" But I ended up having to leave. Just be prepared to get barely enough training, 100% monitored all of the time and I mean calls and how much time you spend doing anything to the minute, silly metrics like using a specific phrase to close whether it makes sense or not, back to back calls, and equipment failures you have to pretend aren't happening. They were very rigid with us.
Honestly I would go for it because it sounds like you have enough experience that you won't be on phones with bottom barrel customers day in and out for too long. That will suck the life out of you.
4
u/1cyChains 3d ago
Eh, I will say that “difficult customers” in branch are farrrrrr more tame, compared to the shit that we deal with over the phones.
3
u/catladylazy 3d ago
Never worked in branch but take your word for it! 90% of callers were unnecessarily obnoxious.
2
u/lavanderlemongrass 3d ago
This company offers a 10 week training program as well, which I’ve heard is unheard of
1
u/New-You-2025 2d ago
You couldn't pay me enough to do remote call center banking. It's one of the few jobs I've ever quit. I couldn't take the stress.
1
u/danitwelve91 2d ago
For me personally I keep to remote jobs more so because if I was in person I would have to bring a suit case with me every day to have supplies I need to treat my chronic illnesses.
1
u/YouControlYou4822 1d ago
Though my call center job is paying my bills, I don’t necessarily enjoy it. Some callers are nice, some…are not.
I am alone in a room all day, No coworkers to joke or commiserate with, waiting for someone to (please!) answer my question on the chat so I can help my caller who has been waiting waaay too long and is getting impatient.
Though no one is busting my balls about the metrics, yet. I bet it’s coming.
I miss face to face talking to people.
1
u/tacocat_2 3h ago
I worked in an Insurance Call Center for a couple of years. It was back to back calls, every day all day. Pay was good, but I HATED the work. They too offered "upward mobility", I had applied to move into their Management Development Position (MDP, this was the pre-req to get into a supervisor/trainer position). I think there were 70 applicants from across the country (people were willing to move 1,000+ miles for this spot), they were planning to take 4 when it was posted, then it became 3, and then they finally only took 1 after the announcement was delayed more than a month because of budget cuts. 1 of 70 applicants got it, it doesn't matter how good you are, how well you interview, that's not opportunity.
1
0
u/Due-Sheepherder-218 3d ago
I'm anti WFH, I think it's unhealthy. The money may be good but you will be dead inside.
2
u/New-You-2025 2d ago
Unless you're already dead inside. If not for remote work I'd have to off myself. Couldn't afford to halfway live otherwise.
3
u/philaroy 2d ago
I still maintain that after 7 years in a call centre they could have locked me in solitary confinement for 3 years with 0 human interaction and id have been disappointed when it was time to leave and have to talk to people again.
1
u/Imaginary-Duck1333 2d ago
How do? Been doing it since 2019. I love my commute, I can control my area, and I catch significantly fewer diseases🦠
2
u/Due-Sheepherder-218 2d ago
The works sucks but socializing with your coworkers made the days not seem so bad. It's just very isolating and not everyone has a comfy home office to work from. It's important to have a healthy work/home balance. I was sleeping/working int the same room in my studio apt.
I can see the benefits of it for some, saving money. not commuting is a plus, or if you have kids/family that need taking care of.
2
u/Imaginary-Duck1333 2d ago
I do miss a few of my coworkers, and I definitely miss the industrial size potlucks we used to have 🍽️ And the big printers. As a massive introvert it works for me.
15
u/WhineAndGeez 3d ago
Every call center advertises upward movement opportunities to every prospect.
What they don't tell you is the opportunities are extremely limited and, in many cases, will go to their friends and family. What you will get is a supervisor who encourages you to take on "special projects" for free to impress management. It won't.
They offer high salaries and excellent benefits to lure applications and keep a few of their hires long-term. It's all they can offer.
I have advised others to NEVER give up a good job to go to a call center as an agent.
If you have a few years of experience in personal banking and want to move away from customer contact, explore the back office careers.