Employee Testimonial
When you first tell people you work at a call centre, it’s hard to guess what kind of reaction they might have. At worst, pity; at best, a knowing nod. Working the phones all day can be a tough job, and in the wrong kind of atmosphere, an uninspiring, thankless job. Many call centres have an outrageous turnover of employees, a revolving-door sort of workforce of newly-trained employees who are just there “until something better comes along.”
Telelink is not that call centre.
There is a marked difference between an employer who strives to keep their staff happy, motivated and in-tune with company goals, and one who puts profit above personnel. An employer who can’t balance between keeping their customers satisfied and their workforce motivated may soon find themselves in trouble when their unhappy employees take less and less care of the calls. Everyone’s had to make a customer service call at some point; whether it’s to the bank, the phone company, the insurance company…and many of us may have been upset customers for whatever reason. Thankfully, with the kind of business we do at Telelink, those “bad calls” are minimal, but it’s only human to have a rough day every once in a while – and when you do, you want to be able to say “tomorrow will be better,” rather than “I hate my job.” Motivation, I believe is the key.
This post is written by a real Telelink employee who’s worked in a half-dozen call centres across Canada, and come home exhausted many days from those places wondering why I continued to go in every morning. (Or in some cases, evening, then morning, then morning, then evening – with so many employees, we were all subject to terrible fluctuating schedules and required overtime.) I applied to Telelink on a recommendation from a friend who promised me it was different from the other places I had been, a smaller centre where the managers knew their employees by name and bad days were few and far between. I knew immediately after meeting the human resources manager and hearing her speak about Telelink’s Painted Picture that she had been right.
Since then, I’ve had the fortune of seeing firsthand a call centre that treats its employees well; the kind of job where people rarely take sick days and have a genuine smile on their faces when they’re on the phone. We enjoy nice facilities with large workspaces and up-to-date equipment; each station has a double monitor, plenty of legroom and are kept clean and tidy. The atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. The managers, rather than being faceless people who never emerge from their own offices, walk the floor and get involved firsthand with incentive programs. We have a nice kitchen, a staff lounge, big windows with plenty of sun. The Telelink mission statement winds around the perimeter of the room. Looking around from where I sit now, I can see hand-lettered posters; “happiness,” “respect.” In the last few months alone we enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner, Halloween costumes, “Survivor” and “The Biggest Loser”-style contests, a Chili Day, many boxes of pizza, a Christmas party with wonderful food and gifts for all and plenty more creative and fun holiday festivities. Telelink employees enjoy two weeks’ vacation after a year, great health coverage and their birthday off – with pay! A far cry from those days when I counted the minutes until the end of my shift.
In a job where you interact with a new customer every few minutes, it’s more important than ever to greet each call, good and bad, with politeness and empathy. It only makes sense that you treat your employees with the same amount of respect and dedication, if you want to have a staff that is punctual, friendly and motivated. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone out there really cared about their jobs and felt devotion for their workplace, not just obligation? Many call centres haven’t yet gotten the memo, but I believe we here at Telelink could teach them a lesson or two.
Ashley Haley – Customer Success Agent
www.TelelinkCallCentre.com
1.888.693.2255
ahaley@telelinkcallcenter.com
