Oh, gosh, I don't even know where to start there were so many things I couldn't stand.
1. THE DIRT. Filthy equipment, broken and stained chairs, filthy rugs and cubicles caked with dirt and grime.
2. OUTDATED SYSTEMS. Too many "systems" to learn, most of them DOS-based relics from the 1980s that have never been replaced or upgraded. You can have as many as 10-12 screens in use at one time for just one call, which slows down handle time and lowers quality (which management was always squawking about). These clunky old systems aren't well coordinated, so there is conflicting information and customers told me all the time they'd get one answer from one person and a totally different answer from another. This leads to a lot of irate customers, frustrated agents, and escalation of calls. I remember so many trainees and new OCP agents being so overwhelmed by the overload of complex information and systems they'd quit--the turnover for new agents is very high who feel (rightly) that the amount of work and learning involved is not worth the low pay.
3. Systems and computers constantly breaking down or not working properly--in our call center we had ONE IT person for over 300 employees. If something went wrong, you were supposed to have your coach submit a "ticket" and your problem could take weeks to get fixed, if it ever did at all.
4. "Passing the buck"--when systems or passwords don't work and you are unable to set a new one yourself (which happens often), you are supposed to call the "help desk" at a different location, who tell you they can't help you and to tell your supervisor or IT person, who in turn say it isn't their job and they tell you to call the help desk. Obviously this became an endless cycle of frustration for everyone involved. It's also infuriating when supervisors and some of the agents with mentoring duties act like these ancient and clumsy systems are perfect and somehow YOU are at fault for it not working properly or that you just don't understand how it works. It's NEVER the equipment, systems, or management that are at fault. :/
5. Passwords have to be changed every 30 days, and sometimes randomly stop working for no reason at all. When you are working with about 5-6 systems that all use different login IDs and passwords this can make you want to bang your head against a wall. More than once I got locked out of one or more systems DURING A CALL.
6. THE PAY SUCKS. The level of work in our department has a difficulty level and learning curve far greater than that of someone just taking catalog orders, tracking packages, or explaining credit card deductions. The training itself takes 2-3 months and requires regular "uptraining" as well as knowing about ever-changing laws and mandates germane to the service we provide. Yet the pay isn't much better than that of a fast food worker. For the level of work , which involves analyzing sensitive and confidential information, and being familiar with aspects of the law, the starting pay ought to be at least $12-$14 an hour. Non-outsourced jobs of this type usually pay in the $30-$40K range. The chump change paid to Sitel agents is UNACCEPTABLE, even for an outsourced company.
7. FAVORITISM and AGEISM. Some agents in our center, almost always very young, became tight with the equally young coaches and supervisors, and seemed to be given extra opportunities and promotions older agents did not get. So you'd get a bunch of kids running around doing offline work, not having to answer calls, "mentoring" new agents, working the assist desk, or watching the monitor to make sure you were not violating your break schedule. These kids could get very loud, talking to each other and laughing among themselves while you were trying to take frontline calls. Promotions or even higher level CSR duties were almost never given to older workers, no matter how hard they worked or how high their metrics. The supervisors were almost all in their 20s. Some of the young agents who mentored or worked the assist desk had a surly, flippant, or impatient attitude. They seemed to have earned their positions due to nothing more than their young age and being BFFs with the coaches. Older agents (over 40) were for the most part treated like invisible "drones" incapable of doing anything other than taking orders from kids and answering frontline calls. It's pretty insulting to have some 20 year old hired 6 months ago who knows nothing call you out for being 5 minutes late from break when you've been employed for several years, have consistently good metrics, and are still doing nothing but taking frontline calls. :/
10. Attendance policy is too strict. There should be sick days, not just "paid time off" you have to apply for weeks in advance to get approved for. Sometimes things happen you can't plan for, and you shouldn't get an "occurrence" every time you or a family member gets sick and you can't come to work.
11. POOR COMMUNICATION. You are supposed to have a meeting with your coach every week or two, but they'd be so overworked sometimes months could pass by with almost no feedback. It' was also very difficult to talk to the coaches if you had an issue since they rarely had any time to talk because they were usually in meetings or training sessions all day. Sometimes there weren't any coaches around at all, so if your system suddenly decided to shut down or your password stop working you were pretty much on your own.
12. EVERYTHING IS MICRO-MANAGED. This may actually not be Sitel's fault but the fault of its client. There are way too many insignificant details to remember when documenting calls and if you forget even one tiny detail, or document one incorrectly, your quality for that entire month can really suffer based on that one error. These documentation details are for tracking purposes and mean next to nothing when it comes to the actual level of service to the customer or quality of the call.
13. YOU HAVE TO BE A ROBOT. Management doesn't want you to be too chummy with customers, as it drives up "handle time" and you get points off for being "inappropriate" even if you ask how their day or the weather is. Sometimes we'd have to give customers bad news (due to the nature of the job) to but there was no room or time for any compassion or easing the blow . It's all about the bottom line and moving onto the next call. This could be very stressful. There should be "combat pay."
14. The internal "online support" information system is very difficult and inconvenient to use.
