A Customer Service Representative (CSR) and Telemarketing Service/Sales Representative (TSR) is a great entry level position to prepare future managers and leaders. Primarily this is due to the training they receive in communication and computer skills that are essential to compete in today’s growing service sector economy. Those whose career choice remain within the Telemarketing-Call Center Industry and persevere through the many challenges that lay ahead, could one day find themselves in one of the highest paying and rewarding positions in the industry!
With these committed individuals seeking newer heights in their career path vying for a call center position, companies now have an equally important role helping them to chart out a way to achieve their career goals. TSRs/CSRs need to know how they can advance themselves. A company can accomplish this by having the call center manager or HR person:
- Verbally communicate the various career opportunities to the candidates during the interview process or to a new recruit during the orientation session.
- Provide a written organizational chart to clearly show the path that leads to other positions.
- Clearly identify the areas of responsibility, required job skills and duties of the various offered positions.
- Discuss the various company provided trainings opportunities they can participate in that will help them achieve their advancement goals.
The following is a career path you may want to incorporate into your organization:
CSR TSR QA Team Coach Floor Supervisor Assistant Trainer Project Manager
Assistant Shift Supervisor Shift Supervisor Project Management Director
Assistant to Call Center Director Trainer Call Center Manager Call Center Director
VP of Operations President of Operations
Notice that the first position in the career path is the CSR. Typically, a company’s first entry level position is either the CSR or the TSR. This provides new employees with time to learn about the various products and services the company represents while becoming familiar with their customer base. On the other hand, some companies may choose in-house advancements such as; a receptionist, switchboard operator or perhaps a field sales rep that may not be effective in face to face sales and would be more suitable for tele-sales. Therefore, it is advisable to keep in mind that the CSR is not always considered as a new employee entry level.
Based on the individual’s ability, he or she can advance to tele-sales, field sales, marketing or other positions such as; lead person, confirmer, dispatcher, quality assurance monitor, floor supervisor, shift supervisor or call center manager. Eventually if they have the education, expertise and qualifications, some can even advance themselves to Vice President of Operations or as a Corporate Trainer. Not everyone will have these goals in mind or the qualifications to meet them. For those who have the desire to advance themselves while remaining in their same position can achieve higher levels of job satisfaction by the support of their company. This is easily achieved by increasing the employee’s responsibilities and diversifying their job functions. Of course, with these additional responsibilities and duties come more pay, bonuses and incentives.
How does one begin taking positive steps to guide employees in the right direction to advance along a career path within the company’s organization and provide the company with higher levels of achievement? By offering diversification in their job.
Job Diversification–For most,diversity in a job function is as important as a salary. For those who wish to advance in their career, look to job quality to meet their own personal level of satisfaction. This can be a real challenge in an outbound telemarketing position where the job and different campaigns can be tedious. This especially occurs if the company is not interested in expanding their call center to include other versatile campaigns. Next we will talk about how you can add diversification to an employee’s job function that gives them a break in their core job as well as you decide if they are suitable for other advancement opportunities.