Convergys - good / bad

[MadMonk]

Does anyone have any experience working with Convergys? Any good or bad experiences there? How flexible are the schedules?

My wife currently stays at home with our kids, but our youngest is going to start all-day kindergarten next year. So, my wife is thinking about getting a part-time job to help pay the bills. She is looking at Convergys' "Home Agent" position. She has an appointment with them next week, but I thought I'd try to track down some additional information prior to. She's degreed in MIS with a minor in Accounting, but she's not looking for a technical position (at least not right now). She wants something flexible enough so that she can still drop off and pick up the kids from school and attend their occasional class functions.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[ultimatesooner]

she'll like it if she doesn't mind getting yelled at all day by people whose satellites don't work, haven't paid their bill, husband's ordered $$$ worth of porn, etc

[MadMonk]

she'll like it if she doesn't mind getting yelled at all day by people whose satellites don't work, haven't paid their bill, husband's ordered $$$ worth of porn, etc

Thanks for your input.

Are your remarks from personal experience or a general impression of the work they do?

[Intrepid]

From what I hear, it's typical call center work. Having worked in a call center for nearly 5 years, I can confirm what ultimatesooner mentioned, only in my call center it's wireless phones, and not satellite TV.

I have seen the home agent position as well, but do not know anyone who has taken a position yet. From the job description I read in the paper, training is 3-4 weeks at the call center and then 1 month is spent working there as well. After a month, if all goals are met (I don't know what they are), work can be done at home with one day a week being spent at the actual call center. Sounds kind of intriguing to me.

[ultimatesooner]

my opinions were based on about 3 months of personal experience

[mranderson]

Call center= high stress = early burn out.

I have worked in two. The second in the beginning was good, however, it turned into the usual push, push, push. Rude callers, strict guidelines, no time to catch your breath, and longer hours than promised. I will starve before I go to a third. My recommendation? Stay out of all of them.

[MadMonk]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the information.

[OUman]

I've worked in a call center. They say to work there, you have to have a teflon personality. That's true upto some extent, but if you don't really care about people swearing at you over the phone once every now and then, it's fine. I worked at one here in Norman two summers to pay some tuition. Typical call center atmosphere, not too bad, not too great either. This is an inbound call center btw, so your experience depends largely on which product and company you end up selling. Besides, I really needed to have decent pay, which I got and I didn't mind the few customers who occasionally got excited. Then again, I wouldn't do it for more than two-three months, it gets way too boring.

[OUman]

^^Oops, should have said outbound call center, not inbound.

[designST]

...my wife is thinking about getting a part-time job to help pay the bills. She is looking at Convergys' "Home Agent" position. She has an appointment with them next week...

Hello, MadMonk, I am a new member. I actually found this forum by searching for information about Convergys Home Agents because I have an interview set up with them in Moore. I wondered if your wife took the job and if so, how she likes it.

Thanks in advance.


Oh yeah. And

[Intrepid]

Hello, MadMonk, I am a new member. I actually found this forum by searching for information about Convergys Home Agents because I have an interview set up with them in Moore. I wondered if your wife took the job and if so, how she likes it.

Thanks in advance.


Oh yeah. And

I know your question was directed towards MadMonk, but I thought I'd let you know that I am currently working as a home agent with Convergys. I started working from home last week and LOVE it. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

[designST]

Hey Intrepid, did I ever get lucky! Thanks for responding.

Should I just ask away?

Are you working full or part time from home?
What are the shifts?
I assume you trained for about a month and then worked at the center for a month, from what I have read.
Do you have to work one day a week at the actual center once you start working from home?
Do you have any quotas you have to meet?

[Intrepid]

Hey Intrepid, did I ever get lucky! Thanks for responding.

Should I just ask away?

Are you working full or part time from home?
What are the shifts?
I assume you trained for about a month and then worked at the center for a month, from what I have read.
Do you have to work one day a week at the actual center once you start working from home?
Do you have any quotas you have to meet?

I work full time, 1p-945p. There are no morning home shifts, yet. There are some part time shifts available, like 5-11p, 6-midnight, etc. Part time is 30 hours, which is good because you'll still get insurance, etc.

I had three weeks of in-class training, and then one week of transition training where we took calls but had coaches on the floor to help.

After transition, you spend 30-days in the center and then after that they give you the computer (flat panel LCD, cpu, etc) and you start working at home.

Each shift does have 1 day in-center. My in-center day is Tuesday and my days off are Thursday and Friday. Each shift also has different days off. In your interview, the recruiter should give you a list of available shifts. At least they did for me.

No quotas as in sales, etc, but there are stat goals (hold time, handle time etc) but there are a lot of coaches and the company knows that it takes time to ramp up.

Hope this info helps....let me know if you want to know more.

[designST]

Wow, you're a wealth of information! I just made my appointment a few hours ago and then started reading the horror stories about burn-out and also read something about quotas and almost canceled my interview, so I'm so lucky to have run into you.

So I'm assuming 'sales' are not involved. How do they monitor your work time? I assume they know when you are online working. What if you have to use the facilities or answer the door, etc?

You don't need to answer specifically because this is private, but I have seen the pay rates and if you have customer service experience, but not in call centers, do you get the higher rate? And also, is the insurance expensive?

Nice people, nice supervisor? It is high stress?

Do you need to have a lot of knowledge about cable tv and such beforehand or is it all pretty easy to learn?

[MadMonk]

Hello, MadMonk, I am a new member. I actually found this forum by searching for information about Convergys Home Agents because I have an interview set up with them in Moore. I wondered if your wife took the job and if so, how she likes it.

Thanks in advance.


Oh yeah. And

No, she didn't go to work there. She actually just started a work from home program last night working with Hertz. She has to go to training at their office three nights/week for a few weeks, then she will be working from home part time at night.

[TamarSW]

Ok I had to sign up on these forums so I could say a couple things. First if your thinking about doing the home agent program don't there are a ton of bugs currently in the system wich makes it hard to meet your quota on converted calls. This job is high stress and forces you to sell your products quite hard. The pay at convergys is barely above minimum here with agents starting off at $7.25 an hr with raises about every 6mo. Unscheduled time off your phone is frowned upon but a short time is alloted in your score card. Most of the agents you will work with are nice but you cannot communicate with them due to recent rule changes. I would sugest working in center over home agent just to cut down on the stress of this particular job. I have worked at convergys 2 yrs and am about to leave due to being put on the home agent program. I would strongly suggest looking for work else where before resorting to working at convergys.

[Intrepid]

Ok I had to sign up on these forums so I could say a couple things. First if your thinking about doing the home agent program don't there are a ton of bugs currently in the system wich makes it hard to meet your quota on converted calls. This job is high stress and forces you to sell your products quite hard. The pay at convergys is barely above minimum here with agents starting off at $7.25 an hr with raises about every 6mo. Unscheduled time off your phone is frowned upon but a short time is alloted in your score card. Most of the agents you will work with are nice but you cannot communicate with them due to recent rule changes. I would sugest working in center over home agent just to cut down on the stress of this particular job. I have worked at convergys 2 yrs and am about to leave due to being put on the home agent program. I would strongly suggest looking for work else where before resorting to working at convergys.

I am currently a home agent and actually find the rules a lot more relaxed than in center.

The starting pay at Convergys is $9.00. This is advertised on the building and on in-company memo's. Recent changes have also lowered the pay increase time frame to approximately every 520 hours worked (which equates to about 13 weeks, based on 40 hours worked per week). They also have tuition reimbursement starting from day one, which is something I am currently taking full advantage of.

Communication with team members is via a chat program, which does make it difficult for one-on-one interaction, but it's not THAT difficult.

I'm curious on how you were "put" on the home agent program? I applied off the street for it last November and was told that existing floor reps had to put in a request to transfer to a home agent position and that at any time can move back to becoming an in-center rep. I almost went to work as a regular in-center rep, but decided against it as working from home is FAR better.

As for the bugs, yeah, I agree with you there. They still have a lot of work to do. But overall, I do believe the home agent position is worth considering.

Is Convergys the best place I have ever worked? Absolutely not. But it is not that bad.....IMO

[rugbybrado]

I've worked in a call center. They say to work there, you have to have a teflon personality. .

During college i worked in a call center(not convergs). Handled Direct tv customers, wireless carriers and then aol. For Me, it was easy and i actually liked the job. I was really flexible and none of the bosses ever bothered me because my stats were good. While answering customer questions i would txt message, surf the internet, and do homework.

But as others have said, if your really sensitive to people being pissed off at you and lying to you then its not the job for you. All of the automated systems they have anymore just gets people irrate for 30 minutes before they can actually talk to you dont help the situation. So i just kept my headset down low and delt with it. But overall most people arent mad/rude to you and its not horrible.

[MadMonk]

My wife is still working for Hertz, taking reservations at home. It's working out really well. She has to work at the office two shifts per month (why, I don't know), but otherwise she is enjoying her 30-second commute. She rarely has to deal with angry customers because she's taking reservations, not selling anything (well, not a hard sell anyway), and most people are really nice. She gets the occasional VIP who doesn't understand the word "no", but even then it hasn't been bad.

[Intrepid]

I love the 30-second commutes to work as well!!!

I also have to work at the center every other week (two shifts per month on average). They say it's so you get some face-to-face time with your team and supervisor.

My wife is still working for Hertz, taking reservations at home. It's working out really well. She has to work at the office two shifts per month (why, I don't know), but otherwise she is enjoying her 30-second commute. She rarely has to deal with angry customers because she's taking reservations, not selling anything (well, not a hard sell anyway), and most people are really nice. She gets the occasional VIP who doesn't understand the word "no", but even then it hasn't been bad.

[rugbybrado]

i wish i could work from home

i think the gov should push more people working from home and telecommuting in. think about how much energy/fuel/company dollars we would save if people would just work from home.

each job that ive had since ive gotten out of college have been about the same - i have days where i need to be here, but the majority of days i could very easily VPN in and do the same work im doing here from home. i think most peoples office jobs are really like that.

with office messengers, office electronic meetings, email, shared drives and telephones we basically dont need to be here to use any of that stuff to begin with.

[oSutrooper]

Stress in an inbound or outbound call center......


Try working for 911........

[MadMonk]

I love the 30-second commutes to work as well!!!

I also have to work at the center every other week (two shifts per month on average). They say it's so you get some face-to-face time with your team and supervisor.

That's the same reason they gave her. The funny thing is, the nights she works at the office, her supervisor isn't there! Ah well...