Jobs in Call Centres: Skills, Outlook, and Salaries

If you excel in communication and are passionate about helping people, working in a call centre could be an excellent fit. Many people work in call centres for their flexible working environments and customer interactions. For some call centre positions, you may earn a commission on products you pitch and sell to customers. 

To excel in a call centre position, you will typically need to use a mix of interpersonal skills, communication skills, problem-solving, and technical capabilities. Working in a call centre creates a great opportunity for you to expand your transferable skills and prepare yourself for many future professional opportunities.

What is a call centre?

A call centre is typically at the core of a business or organisation and handles its communication services. If you work in a call centre, you might:

• Reach out to customers to market products 

• Respond to customer questions 

• Help with technological difficulties 

• Perform consumer research 

Various options are available in the call centre space, and depending on the type, your responsibilities may vary. 

Inbound call centre 

If you work at an inbound call centre, you’ll receive calls directed to the company. This typically includes customer service calls, such as calls from customers asking about repairs or specific products. You may also be responsible for fielding staff calls about company processes and news. 

Outbound call centre 

If you work at an outbound call centre, you’ll typically market a product to potential customers. You may reach out to an identified list of numbers and convince consumers that your company’s product will benefit them. You may also perform surveys and conduct market research to inform future products. 

Remote call centre

While inbound and outbound call centres are the most common, additional variations and career options exist in this field. For example, remote call centres often let their employees work from home and call from their personal cell phones (usually through anonymous software). This type of setup can be a great option if you’re looking for a more flexible work schedule or if you don’t live in the same region as the call centre.

What skills and qualifications do call centre representatives need?

Typically, the most important skill for a call centre worker is communication. Most call centre workers directly interact with customers, so you want to be able to build trust between you and the customer and ask specific questions to ensure you understand their needs. Depending on your role, you may also interact with agitated customers. If you’re in this position, having the communication and interpersonal skills to remain calm and compassionate are essential.

A bachelor’s degree, or in some cases, even a high school diploma is the minimum requirement to work at a call centre. Experience in consumer support, especially via the telephone, is usually essential. Having job experience where you directly interact with customers might also help you negotiate a better position in a call centre with more responsibilities. Being fluent in English may also earn you an advantage.

Additionally, experience using technology and working as part of a team can help you build a strong resume for this type of position. As you gain experience, demonstrating active listening skills, adaptability, and showing initiative in the workplace can help you show growth within your position and open opportunities for promotion.

Call centre agent job duties

Your job responsibilities will vary depending on the type of call centre and organisation you work for, but across most call centres, these are the job responsibilities you can expect:

• Manage incoming calls or make outgoing calls

• Actively listen to customers

• Identify customer needs

• Research customer problems

• Answer questions and inquiries professionally

• Offer solutions to customer complaints

• Manage and track customer calls

• Make updates to customer databases

• Maintain call centre equipment and systems

• Adhere to company policies and regulations

• Transfer customer calls when appropriate

• Work quickly and efficiently

• Take opportunities to upsell to customers when appropriate

• Train new members of staff on policies and procedures

Working at a call centre: Pros and cons 

As with all positions, you’ll want to consider subjective pros and cons of working at a call centre. Remember that every person will view different aspects of careers as positives or negatives, so take what resonates with you.

 Some pros of being a call centre worker include:

• Building skills to transfer to other professional endeavours. This includes communication skills, problem-solving, data management, marketing, and interpersonal skills, among others.

• Indoor work that’s not physically taxing. Working in a call centre could be a perfect fit for those with movement difficulties or who prefer sedentary jobs.

• No student loan debt and minimal degree requirements. While advanced education can often increase pay, most call centre positions do not require a college degree. This is good news for those who would like to avoid costly student loans.

• Flexible working hours. Often, call centres work on shift schedules, and workers can determine the shift schedule that works best for them. Another perk: Some call centres will allow you to work from home.

• Excellent bonuses and opportunities for growth. Call centre workers often enjoy cash bonuses, commissions, tips, profit sharing and convenient working hours. 

• Improved patience and interpersonal skills. Consistently working with customers may help you increase your ability to understand others' perspectives, speak empathetically to those in distress, and communicate with people of different backgrounds.

On the contrary, some reported disadvantages of working in a call centre include:

• Professional burnout. A call centre is a fast-paced environment, and often call centre workers have milestones they must meet. These milestones can rely on nonstop customer calls and work, which may lead to feeling burnt out, particularly when dealing with emotional customers.

• Working with difficult clients. Some call centre jobs include interfacing with customers who are unsatisfied with the product they purchased. You might find that consistently dealing with angry or frustrated customers can be emotionally stressful over time.

• Lack of physical movement. Those who prefer an active profession may see the sedentary nature of call centre jobs to be negative.

• Repetitive tasks. When you work in a call centre, many of your days will typically involve the same types of responsibilities. 

• High transfer rate. Many people work at call centres for a short time before moving to another position. Attrition rates for Indian call centres can be over 30 per cent, according to ClearTouch, a cloud contact center platform based in Chennai [1]. This high number affects businesses by having them hire and train new employees; it would be helpful for you to understand why employees leave the company before you sign on.

Are call centre operators in high demand?

Many companies rely on call centre operators to take important customer calls, manage customer relationships, and collect consumer data. Because of this, many jobs are available in the call centre space. Even with AI sharing the space, the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is in demand, with business owners in countries such as the US looking to hire a live person to meet their needs. The prediction of revenue growth from BPO in India is 8.33 per cent from 2024 to 2029, according to Statista [2].

What is the average salary of a call centre agent?‎ 

The average salary for a call centre agent is ₹24,042 per month, which includes cash and stock bonuses, profit sharing, commission sharing, or tips [3].

Career paths for call centre operators

Call centre jobs are typically entry-level and are a great way for you to gain experience in the customer service industry before seeking higher-paying professional opportunities. Call centre hiring managers often look for demonstrated communication and computer skills. You will also stand out to employers if you have additional customer service experience and are multilingual. 

Many call centres promote from within, and after a few years in the call centre, you may be able to begin managing other call centre employees and making strategic business decisions for the centre. With a good amount of call centre experience, you may be able to grow into mid-level customer service positions such as customer service specialists, product experts, and customer service management positions.

Getting ready for a call centre job

Call centre jobs provide a great avenue to gain customer service experience and build communication skills. Build the job-ready skills to land a role in call centre customer service with the CVS Health Call Center Customer Service Professional Certificate on Coursera.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)