After
you sign your contract in a call center, you will already know what account you
will be. But what you don’t know is what it is all about until you start your
training. You don’t know either whether you will like it or not. Is it easy or
difficult? Is the Trainer good enough for you to comprehend?
Thus
I am presenting here a partial list of some of the account in several call
center to give you an idea as to what it is all about so that when you start
your training or when you are desiring a specific account, you know where to
find it. It will also help you solidify your career in this industry especially
if you are hunting for the “Fab Four” accounts in a call center.
If
you are reading this blog and you wanted to add information that is not listed,
just name the account but do not disclose the location but rather give a brief
description of the account. Disclosure as to where that account is “in house”
should be just a plain “word of mouth.”
Here are some of the
types of account:
(1)
Telecommunications
Account or Telco
This is the largest and most common account in
all call center. It is further divided into Prepaid or Postpaid account.
In Prepaid account, you just need to remember
that if it is a cellular phone, it has the same function as YOUR CELLPHONE. And
what are those function? Text, Call and Internet. The only difference of one
cell phone Company over the other is the price for each of the services and the
price if they are bundled together & the perks they will be receiving for
topping up. How much is it to send a text message locally? How about abroad?
How much is to call per minute locally? How about abroad? How many gigabyte can
I get at this amount? How much discount will I get if buy your bundle? That’s
where the difference is coming in. You will also be doing troubleshooting for
basic phone function under this. That includes Porting In, Porting Out, and
providing PUK for locked phones via their IMEI number.
In Postpaid account, customers are lock in a
contract in exchange for cell phone unit. What are the provisions in the
contract? One contract varies over the other. A customer may have 300 text +
300 minutes + 10 gigabyte internet per month all for local consumption only.
What is your job then? Handle the dispute. What are those dispute? Excessive
charge for calls. Eh ubos na pala yung 300 minutes niya di pa tapos ang buwan
kaya regular rate na siya. Another would be excessive charge for internet. Surf
pala ng surf yung anak niya sa internet kaya di pa tapos ang buwan, ubos na si
10 gigabyte. Another would be excessive charge for text message. Eh nag–send
naman pala ng text abroad ang gaga eh wala sa provision ng contract niya yon.
Your job then is to either explain what’s happening with the charges or offer a
better deal that is more tailored to their phone habits. If you are in postpaid
account, chances are that’s either Billing and Collection or Retentions. Post–paid
Telco Account is the most difficult account in the call center industry. Very
few newbie survive in this account.
Here is the partial list of cell phone providers,
you might be profiled in one of them:
Expedition
(2)
Media Account
Media Account is the second to the largest
account in a call center setting. It includes cable, internet & landline
phone. Also included in this category would be the satellite radio.
Two of the largest competitor of the
industry would be Uverse and Comcast. Uverse has cable, internet & landline
phone which comprises their “triple play bundle”. Their cell phone is known as
AT& T Mobility. Comcast also has cable, internet & landline phone. To
keep afloat with the competition with AT & T, they bought Verizon which is
now their cell phone company.
You may be profiled for cable only or
internet only or both if you fall for the triple play providers. It just
depends on what line of business you will be. The line of business would either
be (1) Retentions were you will be attempting to save the customer from
cancelling the service by providing an alternative (2) Billing and Collection
were you will be processing payments from delinquent subscriber or if they
can’t pay and on the verge of disconnection, you process payment arrangement.
You will also breakdown the charges on customer’s bill (3) Technical support
for those who are not receiving signal or connection or problem with their
devices (4) General Inquiries
For cable only, it is important that you
know the Channel Line Up for different cable packages as well the prices for
each. You should also be familiar with cable boxes and the features and
differentiation from one another.
For internet only, it is important that you
know the different speed of internet you are offering as well as the different
types and models of modem and their features and to whom a specific speed is
intended for (i.e., heavy gamers, home–based online worker, etc.)
Triple
play providers:
AT & T Uverse
Bell Canada
Comcast
Virgin Media (UK)
Independent
Cable Service Providers:
Independent
Internet Service Providers:
Sirius FM (satellite FM)
(3)
Financial Account
If you will be profiled to this account, either
you will be working as Financial Support Representative or Fraud Analyst or
Online Stockbroker. As Financial Support representative, your task is to
register card details, activate the card, process request for increase credit
limit, provide information regarding the breakdown of card transaction and if
there is a suspicious activity on the card or if the card was used without
authorization, you will transfer them to Fraud Analyst. As Fraud Analyst, you
should be very meticulous and has a very strong hunch regarding fraudulent activity
on the card.
If you will be an Online Stockbroker, your job
is to process orders for shares of stocks in a publicly traded company and each
shares of stocks is represented by a ticker tape. You need to pass the FINRA exam to become a registered online stockbroker
which you can also use abroad.
One thing I find “ironic” for those being
profiled to this account is, do they have credit card by themselves? Or do they
even have shares of stocks at the Philippine Stocks Exchange?
Warren Buffet is true when he says, “Wall Street is a place where people on Lexus
car seeks advise from those taking the subway”. Do you get the punch line?
Ledger is your best friend if you are in a
financial account. Fortunately, ledger is also used by Billing and Collection
whether they are in Telco or Media account thus consider it a sub–financial
account. Thus if you were once in a Billing and Collection, it would be easy
for you to be on a Financial Account.
When I was in a Billing and Collection, my
classmate in College told me with brows lifted, “Girl, account ko Capital One. It’s a financial account”. Barahin ko nga
with eyeball rolling, “Girl, Billing & Collection naman ako. We’re
collecting ASSETS, not LIABILITIES”.
Here are a partial list of Financial Accounts:
And these are the “in–house” financial BPO’s:
(Pssst!!!
Di daw sila call center!!! BPO’s daw sila!!! O Sige na! Parepareho na tayong
magaganda!!! Bwahaha!!!)
If you are in a financial account, you should
know the following information:
Card verification code (CVC) or security code
MOTO 6
Reporting Requirement CIP
(4)
Healthcare Account /
Insurance Account
Oftentimes, this is a Business to business
(b2b) transaction. When you say b2b, you are not dealing directly to customer
but rather a representative of the customer working in a hospital. For this
account, you will check the insurance coverage for a specific patient, why a
procedure was not approve? Was the insurance active or not? If you are a
medical graduate, this would fairly be easy for you much more if you previously
work in a hospital.
(5)
Electronics Account /
Technology Account
Oftentimes this is a Technical Support account.
It is a broad range of consumer goods like television, copier, cellphone, game
gadget and a lot more.
Dell
Hewlett Packard
Lenovo
LG
Nokia
Samsung
Sony
Toshiba
Xbox
(6)
Automotive Account
These account deals mostly with cars. It could
pertain to a device for the car, a gadget for the car, an insurance for the car
or even sales or rental for the car. If you are a car enthusiast, this is the
account for you. Usually boys are the one who are enthusiastic about cars.
Ford
Mitsubishi
Mercedes Benz
Nissan
US Autoparts
(7)
Logistics and
Transportation Account
For this type account, your job is to track
order that is supposed to be delivered by one of the listed company. You will
have a database of information as to what is the progress of the delivery. Was
the item already shipped? Was the item returned? Was there a recipient when it
was delivered? Is it outside the timeframe already? The account could be a B2B
too.
(8)
Software Account
There are several sub–classification for
this account. It could be an accounting software or an office software or an
anti–virus software. Your job is to guide in the installation process or how to
use the program itself. You might also engage in some troubleshooting steps.
Microsoft
Inuit
Symantec
(9)
Publishing Account
This is the ideal account for those who are
graduates of Mass Communication or Political Science. You might ask, “diyaryo lang, kino– call center pa ba yan?”.
Yes, because for this type of account you will be processing vacation hold,
payment for subscription, editorial content feedback, delivery schedules and a
lot more. This is a hard core retentions account because most customer will
tell you “I don’t read newspaper, I get news online”. There are also customers
known as “snow birds” wherein they have two houses in different State. If it is
winter, they will go to another state and when winter is over, they return back
thus holding the paper for some time is a necessity because if the paper is
piling up in front of their house, outsider will know that nobody is in the
house and you know what will happen next.
For this account, you will have access to the
electronic edition of the newspaper which is provided by the client. You will
be able to see the news daily in the US or the regional news if it is
concentrated in a specific state only. If you are MassCom graduate, you can take
advantage of those privileges for you will be able to see how the paper was laid–out,
how they balance the editorial content of the paper, how they handle
advertisement, how they embed advertisement to make it appear like an article
and a lot more. Huwag lang kayo mapunta
sana sa mga bobo, inutil at buwakanang–ina Team Leader!!!
Here are the partial list of Publishing Account:
Boston Globe
Financial Times
New York Times
Seattle Times
The Washington Post
Thomson Reuters News
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Click here for more listing.
(10)
Retail Account
Usually this are order processing. It is fairly
an easy account. You will just have challenges when the order was not ordered
successfully where you will be communicating with one of the representative
from one of the above mentioned card companies under #3 to release the
authorization. Diyan galit na galit ang
mga customer dahil sa lecheng authorization na yan na inaabot ng ilang araw!!!
Amazon
Ebay
Macy’s
Sacks 5th Avenue
Sears
Zappos
(11)
Hospitality Account
This deals mostly with booking of passengers
destined for a specific country. Your challenge here is if you will be booking
a “group passenger” where you have to spell their names one by one which is AHT
intensive.
Expedia
Homoway
Tiger Air
United Airlines
No comments:
Post a Comment