Ten, fifteen or twenty years ago, who would’ve thought that one could earn a lot just by answering the phone? Maybe those who never thought that call centers could cause an employment bloom in the Philippines. Had those American companies never thought of putting up call centers here in our country, we would still wonder where a lot of us would get money to put food in our tables. But a lot of people still don’t understand call centers.

I work in one and it’s one of the top call centers in the United States and in the Philippines. I’m proud that I work in a call center. It’s cool and it’s an in thing right now. But why are there still people who look down on people working in a call center? I know coz I have first hand experience on this. Maybe they just don’t understand. Maybe they think it’s a mediocre job. Maybe they think all we do is just answer the phone. Maybe it’s about time I open their minds.

A lot of people mistake call center agents as phone operators. There’s a big difference. Phone operators only connect/transfer calls. Call center agents provide customer solutions whether technical issues, billing or other things. This is one thing some people are ignorant about. I remember when I was in our graduation practice and our dean announced that there will be a job fair in our school where we could apply and a lot of the companies will be from call centers. A classmate of mine snorted and said, “What would we do in a call center?” in a sarcastic sort of way. One more experience from a teacher. In a class of mine about computer programming, my teacher asked us what we plan to do after we graduate. A classmate of mine reacted and sort of said that she’ll be a call center agent. Now, whether it’s a joke or not, I’ll never know but one thing that will always stick in my mind is the look in my teacher’s face. I can’t describe it but it’s definitely not good. She even commented that probably my classmate was in a wrong course. Those made me wonder. What’s wrong with being in a call center?

Now that I’m working in a call center, I can’t find anything wrong with it. Aside from working in unholy hours and missing going out on weekends and working on holidays, there’s really nothing wrong with it. It could be hard but if you think about it, the pay is worth it.

So what do we really do in a call center? Simple. We provide solutions. The client for the call center I’m working in is a wireless telecom company. We handle billing and general customer solutions meaning we also do plan changes and other stuff that has to do with a postpaid cellphone. We also do a bit of technical solution like activating a phone, changing the number of a phone, programming and basic troubleshooting. Even transferring a phone number from one phone to another. You see, SIM cards are not really being widely used in the States so to be able to use another phone using the same number and plan, programming is needed. But I won’t get into the details coz it’ll just bore you. But let me tell you this, a big bulk of our job has to do with billing. And this is where all the headache comes in. A lot of our customers are really uptight when it comes to their bill. They can get irate and really upset because of this but then most of the time, it just comes to the point that they just don’t know how to read their bill. Let me tell you that there was a time when I had customers who are screaming at me because they were being charged for some services that they were supposed to get free for a certain period of time but when I looked at their bill, they overlooked the part where it says they were given a credit for that service. In the end, you’ll just laugh at their, well, stupidity.

There are a lot of horror stories like this when you work in a call center. There are even worse. You’ll even encounter customers who are really impossible to deal with. There are also who are very cooperative and understand what your job is. But whatever kind of people you encounter, it always feels good when they say that they are satisfied with the service you gave them. And of course, it always feels good when you receive your pay slip. You feel that everything is worth it. Nope, there’s no way I’m telling you how much my salary is. Let’s just put it this way. I was able to buy new clothes, new stuff, new cellphone and give tuition fee to my bro with my salary. Not in a month of course. But I was able to do it in 3 months. Interested? *wink wink*