Vantaggi
The pay is substantial. Do what you're told (like a good little call center robot..) and your raises will come rolling in. Health insurance/benefits package is pretty great. Profit sharing comes every year usually, as long as the company grows and is a great bonus right around tax return time. Job security is high. Again, do what you're told, and you will go far, if you can stay business-minded and thick-skinned.
Svantaggi
I played the part for 6 years and did really well. But taking so much crap off of angry customers day in and day out at such high volume (100 calls in a 10 hour shift) and keeping the fake smile on your face and upbeat tone really wears on you. I had anxiety all the time. In general, customers seem to be more brutal over the phone than in person, assuming this is because they dont have to look you in the face as they tear you down. Your every move is monitored and timed. If you take 10 minutes off the phones to take a crap, you get asked about why you were away so long. If there's a foot of snow on the ground, it doesn't matter--you better throw the chains on the tires and show up for work so that the customers can still call in for their all-important billing complaints and id card requests which are available online (says the auto insurance company..so much for safety first) or else it counts against you. If your supervisor is working on their own promotion, they will coach you to death on any little thing they can pick out of your call that's being monitored and make you feel as if you can bever do anything right, even when you thought you were. Do not take a job here if you consider yourself a sensitive person or someone who is passionate about delivering utmost quality in their work and making good connections with the people you serve. This line of work will make you very callous over time. Call center work is relentless. You are allusively penalized if you spend too much time following up with your customers on any unique problems they call in with, because it shows later in your stats that you didnt take as many calls that day or that your call length was especially long. They have nit-picking down to a science. If the inflection in your voice isn't just the right octave.....its deemed a 'no' on their customer interaction rating and then you, your colleagues, and all of management get to stare at your bad score all month on a big board across from your desk. Stay away from this place. It'll suck the life out of you.