Reality of careers in Contact Centres

Call centre staff are being poached, according to Australian Teleservices Association executive director Michael Meredith. Library image.

The hunt is on. Call centres increasingly labelled contact centres are becoming the poaching ground for many organisations, according to Australian Teleservices Association executive director Michael Meredith.

Meredith said call centre consultants often had a more thorough knowledge of products, services and business operations than many department-based staff in the same organisation.
They have become attractive targets for corporate poachers, particularly as the skill shortage continues to bite.

"About 80 per cent of all interaction between a consumer and a business is done through the contact centre,'' Meredith said. "Australian centres handle 16 million calls a day and considering we have a population of only 20 million, then that is a lot of contact.'' The ATA has introduced the Diploma in Customer Contact Leadership program to retain consultants and boost their career prospects.

Launched a few weeks ago, the education program was designed particularly for those who aspire to senior management roles. The ATA also has a national awards program for consultants. Teleprofessional of the Year Jeanie Bayliss, 24, is an acting team leader at Australia Post, managing eight people.

"A lot of major organisations are the same and they recruit out of the contact centre when looking for people, because they really understand the business,'' said Bayliss, a former teacher.
And what of those pesky sales calls in the middle of dinner?

According to Meredith, those calls were likely to be from consultants in India working for US-owned companies. "The reality is that 80 per cent of Australian contact centre consultants never do outbound (sales) work and of the 20 per cent who do, only 6 per cent do business-to-business work within normal working hours,'' Meredith said.

Next year, Australians will be able to register their numbers on a Do Not Call List. "I think it's those calls from overseas that give us a bad name. Our customer satisfaction ratings are 90 per cent and that is high for any type of business,'' Meredith said.

* For more information go to http://www.ata.asn.au/ and click on Call Centre Careers

By Kate Southam, careerone.com.au