Moving on from the call centre
Even though working in a call centre can be awesome, there may come a time when you may feel the need to look for greener pastures and explore career options after call centres.
And even if you aren’t looking to move, you may not get the option.
Technology has already disrupted many industries, and there is more to come.
Many jobs may soon be gone, forcing people to take up new skills and explore new career avenues.
The customer support industry has seen massive advancement, and Artificial Intelligence(AI) in call centres is continuing to evolve with AAMI recently trialling what they call ‘Digital People’ to handle customer enquiries.
The reality is much of the work in call centres involves collecting information and that lends itself to be ripe for automation.
That said, people have been predicting the demise of call centres for decades and we’re still here so it’s no cause for immediate concern.
Regardless, the good news is that by working in a call centre you develop some awesome skills that are easily transferable and will help you further your career.
Read on to know which industries you can transition into with 5 career options after call centres to consider.
5 Career Options After Call Centres
1. Become a marketing guru
Marketing is an invaluable skill that requires a human touch that can’t be achieved with machines or robots.
Call centre agents talk to people all day long, listening to their problems, answering queries, or offering promotions and selling products or services.
In the process, they learn a lot about people and how they think.
They learn about their likes, dislikes, and reasons for purchasing or ending a subscription.
To cut it short, they already know things that most marketing teams are trying to figure out.
If you have worked at a call centre and have enough knowledge about customers’ decision-making psychology, you can easily get on a marketing team once you prove your skills.
2. Become a management professional
As you advance the career ladder in your call centre job, you are promoted to a lead role where your job is managing a team and solving possible issues.
You are no longer required to answer calls all day.
Instead, you get the greater responsibility of task delegation and decision making, which is what most managers do.
You transition from being on the phones to a people’s person and develop management and leadership skills that you can easily transfer to any other industry.
Combining your industry skills with a relevant course can increase your knowledge and chances of getting hired.
3. Join human resource management
The human resource department is basically the internal customer support department for a company’s employees.
Working as an HR person requires active listening skills, understanding people’s challenges, and presenting new ideas or policies – similar to what most salespeople do at call centres when they deal with customers.
After you have worked at a call centre for a reasonable amount of time, you develop a good understanding of the human thinking process and how people can be handled better.
Hence, it’s relatively easier and logical for a call centre employee to shift his career to human resource management.
4. Be the perfect sales representative
Another excellent career path for a call centre person is customer service, i.e., become a sales representative.
Customer service is an integral part of many industries, including hospitality, retail, banking, airlines, and many more.
Typically, sales representatives welcome customers, provide them support by answering their questions, and handle their orders, making sure they have a superb experience.
The job requires you to have client handling skills that are a mix of emotional intelligence, listening, and problem-solving – something that call centre people have mastered during their course of service.
5. Switch to operations
Call centre agents get all sorts of inquiries and complaints all day long.
Some customers want to track their shipments, others want to know why his credit card payment was declined, and someone might complain about a mishandled package.
Of course, with the diversity of call centres, the reality is there are hundreds of examples assisting the customers with their queries that requires agents to gather information from various departments (or of course using a great Knowledge Management platform).
They query statements from Accounts, speak to banking officers for payment issues, and talk to the warehouse in charge for tracking and returns.
Essentially, call centre workers quite often work as a liaison between customers and various departments.
In doing so, they learn a lot about operations and internal company procedures.
This internal knowledge, coupled with their troubleshooting experience, proves to be a blessing when switching careers and helps them take up different operations-related roles.
These roles vary from company to company.
One might join an engineering support team, procurement and sourcing team, or even project coordination team in a construction firm – the opportunities are endless if you have the required set of skills.
Remember, when looking to switch careers, the key is to identify the skills you’ve developed during your time at your call centre, highlight them in your resume, and then apply for the right role!
Or… Don’t leave at all
If you enjoy the fast-paced life of contact centres there are a range of roles that exist within the contact centre industry.
The obvious ones are being a Team Leader or Manager, but there is also a range of support roles including Quality Assurance, Workforce Management, Learning & Development, Recruitment, Induction Leads, Process Analysts and lots more!
Upskill
There is a range of opportunities to upskill yourself with some ideas below:
- Attend an industry event like a conference or webinar. Find out what’s coming up on the Industry Events Calendar >
- View our courses for contact centres and customer experience on the CX Skills website >
- Learn more about CX – it’s growing in popularity and coming from a call centre background gives you a good head start.
- Do a short course to enhance particular skills (e.g. like a project management course with Monarch).
- Check out your local TAFE for a range of short courses across a range of different industries.
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