Most of us know what a call center agent does.

Have you ever wondered how long a call center agent talks? How long does his saliva last? Does he injure his tonsils? Hmmm….

As soon as the agents arrive in the office, the first thing they do is to chat with their colleagues, with the employees in the company or with any people assigned in that site. However some sleep first as they arrive in early but as soon as they’re awake, expect to hear their non-stop talks wafted everywhere. It’s like they never ran out of gossips or stories to tell. Endless, indefinite, limitless that’s how I can describe it.

As their shift starts, you can see everyone turning on their pc’s, getting their headsets in their respective lockers, preparing their coffee, filling up water in their tumbler, putting on their headsets and still chit chatting with their seatmates.

In my experience, the length of the operation in this contact center is 9 hours inclusive of an hour break and two 15 minute breaks. Agents should be seen on the floor 7 hours and 30 minutes comprising the entire shift. But how do they talk to their customers? Is there any pattern or any time limit that should be followed? Well actually there, is especially in the inbound call center department. In Inbound, most of the scripts are verbatim while in Outbound it depends. Inbound and Outbound have lots of accounts and in every account there’s a respective script. A script that should be followed most of the time due to its sensitivity and a script that is being used as a guide to close the call properly and to not mislead the customer. Also, the length of the scripts vary. Some are short, some are long and some are average in length.

During the operation, contact center agents converse with the customers using their respective scripts. Some encounter short conversations, few have long interaction with the customers and others converse with the customers for a middle length of time. So when you enter a call center operation site, expect to hear the non stop talks of the agents.

But do you have any idea if what an agent does during his break or lunch? To tell you the truth most of the agents used their 15 minute break for smoking with their colleagues and chit chatting with their coworkers. Thus, some used their 15 minute break for napping, eating and discussing stuff with each other. It’s the same way during the 1 hour break. Also at the end of the shift you can still see them talking with each other. Talking about their experiences with their worst customer for the day and a lot more things that will pop up in their mind. That’s how they maximize their voice in a single day.

We better be careful in using our voice because it is our primary means of communication. Once it’s been abused, we might get difficulty in winning it back.

resource of article from:  http://www.infoplease.com/homework/listeningskills1.html

You probably spend more time using your listening skills than any other kind of skill. Like other skills, listening takes practice.

What does it mean to really listen?

Real listening is an active process that has three basic steps.
1. Hearing. Hearing just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is saying. For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras, and the speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact, then you have heard what has been said.
2. Understanding. The next part of listening happens when you take what you have heard and understand it in your own way. Let’s go back to that report on zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that might mean. You might think, “Maybe this means that the pattern of stripes is different for each zebra.”
3. Judging. After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? You might think, “How could the stripes to be different for every zebra? But then again, the fingerprints are different for every person. I think this seems believable.”

Tips for being a good listener

1. Give your full attention on the person who is speaking. Don’t look out the window or at what else is going on in the room.
2. Make sure your mind is focused, too. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your mind wandering, change the position of your body and try to concentrate on the speaker’s words.
3. Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance to say everything they would like to say without being interrupted. When you interrupt, it looks like you aren’t listening, even if you really are.
4. Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You can’t really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next.
5. Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with phrases such as “My point is…” or “The thing to remember is…”
6. Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said so that you can be sure your understanding is correct. For example, you might say, “When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean that the stripes are different on each one?”
7. Give feedback. Sit up straight and look directly at the speaker. Now and then, nod to show that you understand. At appropriate points you may also smile, frown, laugh, or be silent. These are all ways to let the speaker know that you are really listening. Remember, you listen with your face as well as your ears!

Thinking fast

Remember: time is on your side! Thoughts move about four times as fast as speech. With practice, while you are listening you will also be able to think about what you are hearing, really understand it, and give feedback to the speaker.

Like most jobs, listening is an important skill to have when working at a call center.

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn’t know and may or may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.

You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the same people on a constant basis.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you’d just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

how do you deal with it? share your views, people…