Every company sooner or later faces questions: how to better organize communications with customers and how to improve service? Often the best solution is to open a corporate call center.
The call center operator performs a variety of job duties such as these:
- provides reference information;
- advises clients on various issues, receives certain information from them (complaints, answers to surveys), and informs them about promotions;
- sells services/goods, etc.
When considering the position of an operator, professional subgroups should be distinguished:
- working on incoming calls;
- working on outgoing calls (additional qualification is required);
- who are engaged in sales (incoming or outgoing calls).
The requirements for the operators, who are engaged in sales, coincide with the requirements for sales specialists/managers.
The specifics of selecting call centre operators depend on what the company needs its employees for: to provide or collect information.
The search for employees for the position of a call center operator has its own specifics.
Firstly, these candidates rarely have special requirements in terms of knowledge and skills; besides, the requirements for personal qualities are quite high (meanwhile, not all applicants are able to adequately assess themselves).
Secondly, for many candidates, the call centre is a first job or additional part-time job. Since people do not have work experience (as well as the skills to search for a job), the recruiter should be prepared for the text of the vacancy announcement to be read inattentively, the requirements are not understood/ ignored, etc.
Phone interview
Primary selection of candidates for an interview is done by telephone. Taking into account the specifics of the vacancy, it significantly saves the time of the recruiter and increases the efficiency of his or her work.
Firstly, the telephone interview checks the candidate’s ability and willingness to work in this particular position. It is often necessary to repeat the information specified in the advertisement: work schedule, salary, availability of internship, etc. You need to be prepared for the fact that 20 calls out of 100 will be unproductive: someone did not pay attention to the job advertisement or the need to know English, etc.
Secondly, it is possible to check the suitability and stress tolerance of a person to work “on the phone”: the timbre of the voice, clarity of speech, speed of speech, literacy.
Thirdly, it is easy to check some knowledge and skills during the first phone interview – for example, the ability to speak English. I know from my own experience: after warning that now the recruiter will switch to English, and a simple question in this language, seven out of ten callers refuse to continue the conversation.
Similarly, the availability of special knowledge and skills (e.g. in medicine or IT) is checked using a series of simple questions. This will help filter out candidates who do not even have basic knowledge.
The clear advantages of the applicant should also be noted:
- impeccable courtesy throughout the conversation with the recruiter, knowledge of business etiquette;
- professional voice (intonation of speech, “smile” in the voice);
- the ability to locate the interlocutor, to “sell” yourself.
