Customer Service Representative | Accrington | 2 Jul 2016
Good progression, Amazing pay, No work life home life balance
The beginning:
So to start, most likely you will begin as an agency worker. This is the hardest part as you are watched like a hawk and if you do bad constantly or don't hit stats you're instantly put on a plan.
Training:
Lasts for around 4 weeks for COT/Retentions where you get little to no training on the actual system and all about asking the right questions to pitch to the needs of the customer, it's at this point you will realise you've come into a sales based role as opposed to the so called retentions or service as advertised.
Grad bay:
This is around 8 weeks roughly and in this period you will usually have 1 - 2 floorwalkers and your manager helping you every step of the way. This will be where you put to use your knowledge and build on system knowledge overall. You get a lot of offline time and constant support with training to get you in the right position and where you will be polished up into a proper advisor. This is also where you will begin to love or hate your team depending on how they are (for the record I absolutely love working with mine and feel very motivated with them around) it's about teamwork and smashing your stats, making yourself, your manager and trainer look good.
Post grad:
Congratulations! If you made it this far you managed to put up with (and excuse my french) all the sh*tty customers you will get on a varied basis. Some days will be good, some days will be bad. You will have to accept that and some days you just won't want to
Working for BT customer retention was one of the worst decisions of my life, the whole place is corrupt and they tell you nothing but lies to get you through the door. You'll slowly see that that everything you've been told about bonus your pay increase and shift patterns is false, they then proceed to cover that up with more lies and false promises. The suits that run the place constantly find ways to design the job against you, while increasing their own revenue.
The job itself is horrible dealing with angry customers who will go out of their way to bring you down, knowing that you cant say anything back. The aim of the job is to sell as many mobiles and TVs as physically possible to one customer, managers will not care if they have a mobile or another tv service in contract. If you do not sell those services they will see you as a failure and make you feel like it. You are constantly monitored by managers your calls are constantly listened to so that they can be used against you. They call it support and coaching but it's not its basically a lst of reasons why your bad at the job and then the threats start. You'll be put on a plan or your going to a disciplinary and their favourite you could lose your job. They like to make these threats at least once or twice a week. The managers job is push you to make hard sells they will even push you to break the laws you are trained on. If you cant sell a phone then you should miss sell the phone, managers will pretend they wont
ProsCollegues
ConsManagers, shifts and hours, pay, soul crushing
I would arrive at work minimum 15 minutes early in order for me to be calm prior to going online. For example I would get myself a coffee and cold drink, find a seat, ensure I had all of my notes in front of me. This was my preparation. I would then log on.
The calls would start flowing in with barely a 2 second gap between each call. Calls ranged from emergency service calls, directory enquiry calls, internal directory calls from BT staff and chairmans office calls. As my next call could be any of this type I had to give my full attention to the screen and listen to the recording/ alert type on my headset in order for me to say the correct speech or greeting.
Every day was different and was also a learning curve. Each customer was different, with different attitudes. Some customers for example on directory enquiries were very polite and patient. Others were the very opposite. I learned a lot about geography which was self taught. Also if a customer came through to Chairmans Office with a query I had never dealt with before, I would also learn how to deal with it efficiently and take notes for future reference.
My BT manager was fantastic at her job. She really took the time to get to know her team on both a professional and personal level, and constantly praised her team members that were doing well, thus meaning, we all worked to the best of our ability and continuously pushed and strived to do better.
My colleagues were also great. There was no divide if we were part
ProsFancy dress charity days, Christmas day games
ConsConstant pressure, rude customers, no proper canteen
I have spent most of my working life at BT and seen many changes along the way
In October 2000 I was promoted to C2 computing grade at BT working in the company's own internal Service Desk which was responsible for dealing with employees computing problems,fixing them or passing to the skill center to further investigate. This was mainly answering the telephone and remote access to their machines for standard fixes.
In June 2005 I accepted a shift position dealing with business customers doing the same type of work with fixes to their different systems.
This would be constant calls all day dealing with there problems.
My manager at the time had worked on the Service Desk for years and had a lot of experience. Any major incidents would involve call outs for engineers and senior management. There was about 100 people initially which gradually reduced and on the night shift there was only 3 people. I was held as the stand in supervisor as it was a customer requirement that it was to be a BT person. We all had a great working environment and got on well. The hardest part was to try and fix someones problem when we had problems connecting remotely and the customer wasn't very computer literate. I enjoyed speaking to the customers and made many friends along the way.
October 2010 Document Management.
A typical day in my previous job would be to sign on to 2 computers and work from the mailboxes. My work consisted of ensuring that the working practice documents held by BT on the DWP contract were ISO20000 compliant. The documents were referenced and reviewed f
Prosno restictions on how many drinks you have and coffee and tea provided free.
I worked at BT only for a short amount of time , i completed training and began taking calls in the call center. Our job title was 'Loyalty advisors'.
The job would involve mostly inbound calls to BT, most of the time people wanting to leave BT for a different supplier , moving , cost was too high. The only benefit i'd say to working at BT was the employee benefits, you'd get Free Broadband and TV and discounts on mobile but the impact it can have on your mental health truly doesn't balance out.
I say this for the following reasons;
- From day one of taking calls your 'team' become your competition, who can sell more? Who has the highest value held for BT? Who has a better rating from their customers?
- You're taking calls from your start time to the end of the day, fair enough you get a 15 minute break in the morning , 30 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes in the afternoon, this all seem well and good when they tell you this in training but as soon as you're in the call center , this goes out the window. For Example; You'd take a call starting at 10:15, your break is at 10:45 , on average some calls could be 30 minutes long, if not WAY longer, if your call runs into that 10:45 break , tough luck , you have to wait until lunch, The same happens at lunch , you've now missed 45 minutes of your 1 hour of total breaks throughout the day, I had this happen and wasn't even allowed to leave the call center to get some air.
- You have a daily schedule fixed by your manage
5.0
Call Center Representative | Accrington | 5 Jan 2019
Brilliant place to work
Having never worked in a sales role or a call centre roll previous to working for BT, I was very unsure of what to expect and have to say my expectations were completely wrong. There is a very friendly and lively atmosphere in the centre with a pleasant working environment and really good facilities, such as break out rooms with table tennis, comfy sofas and TV's as well as tea and coffee provided for staff. There is so much support for staff in terms of training, work development, coaching and guidance and even at a personal level. The employee benefits are huge, from discounted products to weekly incentives - even including opportunities to win holidays or event tickets (obviously if you put in the hard work!). The bonuses and rewards are fantastic, the bonuses are uncapped so there is a real potential for extra earning. From my experience the management (and particularly our team manager) are exceptionally caring and really push team members to succeed, even the higher management are very down to earth and approachable. I have found my manager to be very caring and I know I could approach him with any issue, be it work related or personal. I have honestly never worked for a company that makes you feel so valued as an employee. There is a lot of room for development and staff are actively encouraged to seek out opportunities to progress.
Of course there are a couple of downsides however, this is shift work so the hours are very sporadic with the centre being open from 8a
ProsGreat management, nice working environment, development opportunities, bonuses and incentives, employee benefits
ConsShift work, difficulty booking leave, work life balance, weekend working
Poor management, the only good thing about working here was the wage
First, just as a start, the wages here were amazing for a "no skill" job. I worked as a Tier 1 Technical Agent, and my wage was £1,600 per month. You had to do a lot for that wage, though. Sales would constantly be selling products to old and vulerable customers, and then after the customer paid would stop contacting them. Because we were the technical team, the majority of those customers ended up coming through to us, as we could alter and fix the product they'd bought, but the majority of the time they would be coming through demanding to speak to their sales rep, who 9 times out of 10 you could never get ahold of, so the customer would take our their anger on you. Sales were usually based in London too, so it wasn't a case of you could just go and find them in the building.
The management is awful, and usually managers are floating around the building rather than managing their team. There were a few "Team Leaders" who also just refused to take calls off you, so I genuinely didn't know what the point of the being there was. If a manager suddenly quits, you're usually assigned somebody who has just been there a long time, not somebody who actually has any experience in managing a team.
Progression, like most call centres, goes to people who managers like. If you're not a favourite, you'll never progress, and you'll be stuck on calls for the foreseeable future.
Is your mental health poor? Do you have problems going on in your personal life? Is your relationship with yo
ProsDecent wage
ConsPoor management, poor work-life balance, expected to learn systems you didn't sign up for
I have worked for the company longer than most. The phones are like a battleground, expect the unexpected and take it a day at a time.
There has been no progression in the role whatsoever from when I began. Centres and roles are restructured every year. New products are released without full testing which leads to a poor customer experience.
The systems in the last 2 years have been horrendous and a major incident seems to happen at least once a week that impacts our calls and bonus. Support has gotten better during the pandemic with teams pages set up, however, this has become incredibly confusing as there's 3 points of contact depending on what you need doing for a customer's account. Things I used to be able to do in an old system is not made possible in new ones, causing confusion especially when no one has been made aware that the system has changed.
The customers calling 70% are very entitled and hard to talk to, they do not want to help themselves and expect us to do everything for them. Wait times for customers to speak to us have increased drastically due to some support centres closing. The last 2 months has had no breaks in between calls and they have been instant from 8am through to 9pm.
Management are helpful to myself, however some of my colleagues who are not as confident sometimes have a hard time if they don't remember every single scrap of information. I avoid calling managers as much as possible as roughly 40% of the time, the info they provide is incor
ProsDiscounted services, lovely people, decent manager support
ConsDreadful systems, horrible entitled customers, no progression, unpaid breaks and lunches leading to long days, new products often faulty, new systems added for no reason
For anyone who's charismatic, can build a rapport with strangers easily, can recognise an opportunity and can be respectfully objective. If I was to describe best what it's like to work at BT as a Retentions Advisor, it would be "anything you do say will be used in evidence against you" because from my experience that's how to retain a customer. If you meet the criteria above, then a job at BT may be for you. I've worked for BT for one year now as a Sales & Retentions Advisor and there's many pros and cons. Starting with the positive pros - the starting basic salary is approximately £18,000 which (with good performance and consistent attendance) will increase to £21,000 after 9 months. The second pro is BT's bonus structure - it's fantastic. The potential to earn £1,000 a month bonus may be far fetched for newbies but believe me, the best advisors do this month to month. Realistically, for an on target performance you'll earn between £300-£500 bonus each month which for doing your job, is not bad at all. Unfortunately, the pros are outweighed by the cons. The salary is so good for an entry level job for one reason only, the expectancy to maximise every opportunity is an expectancy which will be reiterated to you on a daily basis so if you think you're applying for a Customer Service role - you're not. You'll be expected to upset on EVERY call. The second con is time online, if you're full-time (37 hours per week) you'll typically work a 9 hour shift each day and during the 9
I worked in both Digital and Networks teams (previously known as Technology). It was the third re-org during my time there.
Too many re-shuffles, bad managers, people are just moved to different teams. Also too many teams doing the same thing. I think they have about 10 different IT infrastructure and cloud teams doing exactly the same thing but for different parts of the organisation, but not talking to each other, and worse, in some cases competing with each other, and not in a healthy way.
Overall quite a toxic environment if you're an engineer that just wants to focus on creating and maintaining great systems, but that's impossible as you need to be skilled in politics and spend most of your time building personal relationships. 40-50% of your time will be in meetings or calls. Unfortunately that's the only way to get work done, there are so many dependencies on other teams. BT is very risk averse, and the way they work is silos, so everything needs to get signed off at least three or four times.
As for practical matters, you'll get a locked down Windows 10 laptop for which any software development tools will require authorisation. Even then, you'll have to sign in each time you launch Docker Desktop for example. Makes agile and fast software prototyping almost impossible. They do support Macs, but again you'll need a lot of sign offs to get one, it'll be locked down, and you'll struggle with collaboration with non Mac users on the network.
Recruitment is very much de
Pályakezdőknek, friss diplomásoknak, illetve ha hírtelen nagyon nincs más, szigorúan csak ezen feltételek mellett ajánlott
Anno egy másik cégtől menekültem ide, annyi volt a különbség, hogy egy USA cég magyarországi fertő lerakata volt, szóval arra már a mínusz tartományban adnék pontot ha lehetne, erre meg nullát, de sajnos az 1 csillag a legkisebb amit enged.
Először Cash Collection, majd Service Request Management részen voltam. A CC az előző cég tortúrái után egy üde váltás volt, végül is jókor voltam jó helyen. Nagyon jó volt a Team Lead-ünk, jó volt a Team-is. Az igazi negatívumok viszont valójában akkor kezdenek előjönni amikor már kezded megismerni a (nem létező) process-eket, a teljesen tehetségtelen és a világról semmit nem tudó felsővezetést, a mindennapos bosszúságokat a kb. 1000 éves belső fejlesztésű, már akkoriban is elavult, BT rendszerek miatt (miközben már kb minden normális cég vagy SAP-t használ vagy valami egyéb Cloud megoldást). Érdemes visszanézni a negatív kommenteket, mert sajnos mind egytől-egyig igaz. Az elején, még az interjúkon hangoztatják, hogy mennyi lehetőség van itt, sima életpálya, előrelépési lehetőségek, nyelvkurzusok (ezen a ponton lehet rossz script-et olvastak mert egy darabbal nem találkozunk, hogy meghirdették volna), amit csak akarsz, nos ebből legalább ha a fele igaz lenne, de még annyi sem. Szerintem az ott töltött idők során olyan 20-30 pozit megpályáztam, és ezekből kb. kemény 2db offer lett, amiből az egyiket aztán elfogadtam (SRM). A többinél sokszor sajnos csak a szokásos előre megírt company bullshit-el elhessegetnek, és ha esetleg még össze is
Prosteam, tl, kocsmázás
ConsMinden más, fizetés, előrelépés, felsővezetés, amit csak el tudtok képzelni...
Westminster video conference team laid off May 31 2020, and job moved back to UK only, instead of offices in UK and Colorado. This was going to happen anyway, the need for dedicated video locations decreases every day, as the technology changes. The difficulty with this company is the different silos of management. One silo for physical office space, one for sales and marketing, another for video technology, another for UK internet, another for UK telephone services. Now they are trying to expand to cloud technologies, but do not know which silo to place this, or to create a brand new company within the corporation. (And they haven't finished laying off all the people who worked with the phone directory!) Each silo has it's own set of VPs and Executives, and each silo has its own CEO and Managers and Directors....so the top heaviness for this corporation is outstanding. If you can find a niche, it's nice, stay there, but don't invest in tablets or pens of a specific color, as the next new CEO will want to rebrand everything. Redesigning logos is something this company excels at.
Ironic- the Westminster Colorado video conference team shared an office with the Help Desk Technicians, and also a software/engineer team. The software/engineering team works mostly remotely. The video team, and help desk teams, all laid off. BT then determines they will redecorate the Westminster Colorado office. Yes, all new carpet, lights, desks, for all those empty offices. (One si
Questions and answers about BT
How does someone get hired at British Telecom? What are the steps along the way?
Asked 12 Apr 2017
Jobs were advertised online.
Answered 24 Jan 2022
Online application, telephone interview, in person interview.
Answered 9 Nov 2021
How should you prepare for an interview at BT?
Asked 13 Apr 2017
It will depend on the role you've applied for, as the interview process will be different based on the position. Have a read through any documents you've been sent by the recruiter as a starter for 10. Outside of that, check out our website to find out more about us and what we're looking for. If you’ve applied for a graduate or apprenticeship programme, check out the dedicated FAQ pages and there’ll be some hints there.
Answered 25 Jul 2019
I had a one to one interview talking about previous jobs and experience and why i wanted the job. Make sure you enjoy sales.
Answered 10 Nov 2018
How are the working hours at BT?
Asked 13 Mar 2017
Typically 37.5 hours a week Monday - Friday for office based roles. Field based and Contact Centres are a few examples where it’ll be shift work. You can find out more about our contact centre shift patterns here: https://www.btplc.com/Careercentre/careersatbt/Contactcentres/Consumer/Shiftpatterns/index.htm
Answered 25 Jul 2019
36 hits a week
Answered 1 Mar 2019
What is the organisational culture at BT?
Asked 27 Mar 2017
Our values are personal, simple and Brilliant. And that means we've got a welcoming, friendly culture where we focus on individuals having hugely varied career opportunities, a balance between their work and personal life - however that looks to them - and a culture of innovation, constant improvement and progress
Answered 25 Jul 2019
Get you in then push you out after destroying your confidence!
Answered 12 Jan 2019
What is the interview process like at BT?
Asked 27 Mar 2017
Asked general questions, answer them. Told I was unsuccessful. No feedback given. Standard call centre.
Answered 29 Sept 2020
I had a telephone interview because of covid-19 I'm sure they wouldn't want to do face to face interviews yet. The interview asked a range of questions including:
- Do I leave near Sandwell?
- How will I arrive if I am invited for a face to face interview?
- What are my hobbies?
- How would I build a good relationship with a customer?
- Have I received good customer service and how?
- How would I take care of an upset customer?
- Do I know the work days and hours?
- Do I have any upcoming holidays?
