customer service representative

team leader

client advisor

customer service manager

call center manager

Sitel

The only thing I don't quite remember about Sitel was how much Holiday they gave.

The entire experience there was a roller coaster ride heading to a broken track.

I worked in the Exeter area & first heard of the place at the local Job Centre. One of their HR employees was there holding a small session to recruit anyone who was interested to work at Sitel. He was specifically looking to hire people for a "Technical Support" role. It was described as the typical Tech job helping anyone with issues with devices, etc. I quickly expressed my interest in Coding, Programming, Computer Science, etc. Both He & the Job Centre Rep agreed I'd be perfect for the role with those skills.

I ended up going to a short 6 person group interview a few days later. We took pictures of the inside & were there around 2 hours before we were done. We were made to take a short & easy "speed test" where we just copy & pasted some information between Word & Excel. About 20-minutes after leaving I was told we'd be put on a short 1-2 week long "Training Course" to refresh our skills. The Course was simple things like "How do you turn on the computer", etc. I was however, quite turned away by the fact one segment was to make a social media presence & then write a review of the Company.

Once the Course was done I was offered the Job for the over the phone. I accepted & was given 2 dates to pick from to start. Except, 3 days later I got another call offering me the Job for a 2nd time. Apparently the HR rep from the Job Centre who described the Job to me had never filed the paperwork. I was told I'd have to come up again for another interview & re-do the short test of copying information. On the walk home I was phoned 5 minutes out the door of & offered the Job a 3rd time.

On the first day I showed up it somehow worse. I was in a New-hire Group of 10-15 people. Our Trainer came in & started describing our "Customer Service Role". About half of the room questioned if we were in the right place as we had been hired on as Technical Support staff. According to her manager we were given clarification that they had decided to push to to another Area entirely because they wanted more staff. We had been put through not as Technical Support, but as "EHT staff".

EHT was apparently a department who would troubleshoot small electronics like headphones, baby monitors, lighting, essentially any electronic that is not at all Technical. I went ahead & stayed on anyway but I honestly regret doing so. After 3 weeks or so of learning "EHT" we finally went out to see real Calls & listen to the staff on the team. They told us to basically ignore everything we've been learning, as they never get the correct calls anyway. Turns out 80% of the job they did was basic Customer Service & just transferring Customers to the correct area.

Our "Technical" line was listed under the phone system as generic customer service. Keeping in touch with the Staff still there it took Sitel almost a year apparently to finally move them to the correct line. The entire job was described to me by the Staff on my 1st day with them as "Essentially replacing anything under £50 without asking any questions because we aren't trained to handle it, & no one will let us transfer to them to avoid customers".

Progression and Advancement was also not available. It was very much a "promote your friends" type environment. It was constantly thrown in our face that there were Internal job opportunities to apply for. They even had something they called a "Fast Track" where they trained you in an area so as soon as a spot opens they can seamlessly put you there. This all sounded really lovely but it was for lack of a much better word, "corrupted". There was a Staff member I was friends with who progressed really fast despite the fact he was always ruining a lot of work cases & browsing the internet or texting all day. He constantly makes jokes about it & very openly talks about how he is progressing simply because he started hanging out with the Management staff after work. He's skipped past 8 or so people who had been waiting for his job position without even applying himself.

Every week you also are supposed to get a 1-1 talk with your Department Manager & listen to a random call from that week. You break it down & discuss what could be better. You discuss Call Stats but they don't really pressure you on them at all. I worked there about a year & for some reason in only EHT, this 1-1 only actually happened twice. Our Manager(s) would also just seemingly vanish for hours on end. It became a running joke that they would take 5 hour Lunch Breaks because even the other Department Managers could never find them.

Management was also very messy & moved at a Snail Pace to help. There were very few Managers there who actually showed effort to care. The majority of Managers there refuse to take a call. Frequently when a Customer would try to angrily escalate an issue every Manager would refuse to take the call. Often times I'd see some of the staff look absolutely defeated because they'd need help & essentially be told no. Because our Manager would disappear for Hours it eventually got to the point where people collectively started dropping calls constantly or just forcing a Customer into a random Department entirely.

That's when I quit. I had constantly been expressing my feelings & complaints with all of the issue Sitel had going on & did it one last time. 

I was told I'd need to give 4 weeks notice & he'd process the paperwork later that day. 2 weeks into my notice I see the paperwork still sitting on his desk so I turn it in myself. On the last day I get asked if I can work 1 extra day to cover someone sick & I agree. Keeping in line with my past experience that was a mistake apparently. The day after I get called asking why I skipped work. They kept scheduling me for weeks in advance despite giving & working my full 4 weeks notice. Someone mentioned that because I covered an extra day after I'd have to give another 4 week notice now. I hung up & never went back.

I finally received my P45 in the mail after a short wait, & once again, they sent it with a ton of errors on the Paperwork making me end up going back in to request it done correctly.

I don't want to shame Sitel itself, but almost every Employee there always spoke about another Company. People quit Daily to leave for a job at this other Company. It's so well known in that other Company as well that they call everyone there the "Sitel Saviors" because of how badly they all describe it.

Was working with these guys for over a year now.

Work itself is as repetetive and primitive as any other simple jobs. Arrive at work punch in read the script 100 times punch out go back home. Get promoted or moved to another customer of theirs, read another script that contains 2 more setences then usual 90 times a day and go home. You get the point job itself more or less mindless and repetetive.

When it comes about the career oportunities they do have promotions but those promotions do not mean much as they are basically paid the same. The only reasonable changes in wages start to appear when you hit operational manager levels but that just will not happen. All of those promotions more or less for the sole purpose of getting a nice note in CV and finding job elsewhere that pays more.

Talking about the culture itself it has that sense of just positivity more positivity and more positivity and compliments for all etc. It gets to the point where all this so called ,,positivity,, turns into toxicity as you just get tired at some point listening to that nonsense. All of it just slowly drowns you and makes you depressed more then anything else.

The best advantage of doing is job that it is work from home you dont have to waste your time travelling to the office meeting people etc. You get paid for the time you spent working as it is supposed to be.

In terms of issues or things that could be improved bottom level employees moderators/supervisors and even team managers are basically just following the guidelines plans given out by the upper management - operational managers and up. Due to that fact there is no critisism towards the bottom level employees as their whole existence is based on just following the guides over and over again.

In terms of things that could be done better with upper management there is a lot to be done. Upper management guys when implementing changes or movements of the agents towards the different campaigns or quite literally doing something new that is in emergency and has to be done quick they fail on executing those plans properly each time more or less. Whenever there is a massive failure to the extent that literally agents are supposed to do something and because of the emergency and rush they are not even provided the tools or the training to do so. The most concerning part is that upper management actively fails to listen to any form of feedback or learn from their mistakes, they just do the same soup of nothingness over and over again.
There is considerable failure to allocate agents at the right proportions to set campaigns. Within the teams there is usually the case that there is few agents having full day non stop rows of calls and then the rest of the group more or less working 8 minute days.
When it comes about company values those values apply to the bottom employees, upper management is not held to the same set of rules or standards. Sometimes it feels like those guys are at their own Ivory tower looking down at the peasants and as mentioned before learning 0 from past events or mistakes.
At the same time due to the management structure and just sheer amount of managers various levels there is quite considerable levels of inefficiency and basic failure to adress and solve the issues. Often the case that threw out the day as agents notice that there is a mistake or that there is something that they are doing while following the set procedures is incorrect and makes 0 sense it takes an absolute ages for someone do something or basically all of it is just ignored. Ivory towers to high, feedback forms dont reach them. 

Stay away. Management is horrendously bad here.

Sykes is notoriously bad at managing clients. They will let them create whatever crazy processes they like, and will tell the client whatever they want to hear, even if it's the exact opposite of reality. This means that the client will push for great customer service and encourage first contact resolution. Now, that is not possible due to the fact that Sykes don't want to hire lots of people and spend money on wages. They want small groups of people to be able to get through calls as fast as possible, and ask people to call back once the troubleshooting steps provided have been completed, even though it might only take 2 minutes to do. That is because for some clients Sykes is paid per call, and management want to artificially create calls.

Now, that is a VERY dangerous situation for the employees. You will never have job security at Sykes, as it is actually written into your contract (that is, if you ever sign it. Some have went 2 years without being given one) that if you create more calls than necessary in order to resolve the issue, your employment can be terminated. Mix that in with a 6 MONTH probation period, where if you have 3 absences for any reason (even if you follow their absence procedure) then you will get your probation extended for 3 months, and you'll inevitably be fired before that extension runs its course.

Then, the only way you will ever rise the ranks (the highest you can really go is to a Team Leader, but that depends on if there are any vacancies, which there aren't for the majority of the year). Any form of promotion does depend entirely on how high you're willing to jump for upper management however (the account managers and the senior Quality Monitors), so some people have been there a number of years (having more experience than any of the Team Leaders) but because they distrust management and are cynical about any promised improvements to working conditions they are stuck. Further more, it's hard for them to move onto another job because for every year you've been there, you have to provide an extra weeks worth of notice.

The account managers always tell you things will get better, but they don't. They'll promise things, but always have a condition on that promise, for example compounded hours on the condition of less absences. Maybe if people had a more enjoyable life at work then they wouldn't be taking days off every month. Unfortunately there is one salary for each role, and you only get performance-based increases in salary once you become a Team Leader. Quality Monitors are paid a base wage, alongside Supervisors, Trainers and regular Customer Service Agents. You get superstars who are so vital to the operation of some clients contact centres the entire place would fall apart without them, but even they don't get any real benefits.

A lot of the Team Leaders are hit and miss. Some are absolutely cancerous. Others are aware of the problems, but there's little they can do, because if they spoke up they would lose their job.

IT is absolutely rubbish too. For many, expect your computer or ticketing software to crash several times a week. Every now and then you'll even get locked out of your account, and somehow IT are that useless that they won't even be able to help that same day. There's a reason for that though. If you pay your IT guys starting at £19.000 you will get what you pay for. The going wage everywhere else ranges from £22k-28k.

I have worked at Sitel Kingston for many years now; worked in different roles & supported different clients and was lucky enough to have worked my way across & up the ladder into a role I enjoy and have done for several years now.
I think people need to remember Sitel Group is a BPO (outsourcer), we are the ones who perform the tasks on behalf of the client & in being able to get business from clients - we have to offer experience & expertise, quality and reputation ... all of which at a competitive price to secure the client wanting to use Sitel as their partner for this & yes, this will reflect in salary as we are not working directly for the client!

However, the personal growth, skills & confidence I've developed over my time at Sitel is something I'm personally proud of & worked hard to achieve. I've supported some huge global clients/brands that I'm genuinely proud to have worked with, as well as some roles that were not particularly 'up my street' but luckily, was able to transfer to a different campaign (what we call client internally). 

Most importantly, it's the people that have made me stay as long as I have! Yes, from the weird & the wonderful, the friends I've made for life to my less favourite people I've met along the way - all I can say is that most of us will say that's what's kept us here! Kingston is a language hub for the UK sites being in Greater London, so the amount of different people I've met from different countries & cultures is insane and something I doubt I would ever have ended up doing working anywhere else! I don't personally speak another language well enough to work on the Spanish lines for example, but I've been lucky enough to work with & manage different country 'markets'! I've worked alongside, trained, support, developed & learnt from thousands of people from every walk of life imaginable over my years here and yes, not gonna lie I've had my ups and downs & the salary (esp. for existing staff could/should be more competitive comparatively to other local outsourcers) BUT I'm still here years later & still developing and having fun! Would recommend Kingston site & have made friends over the years in the other UK sites as well as sites across Europe too!

First Time with Sitel:
Worked on the NHS Test and Trace campaign. Interview and training bits were great. Over the first few weeks we were thrown about to different TL's as if nobody knew what they were doing. Communication from higher-ups down the line was pretty much non-existent.

Christmas 2020: Nobody could book a holiday, nobody knew what they were working in advance. Pure chaos. Team leaders were left with no answers for thier teams about it. Simply, I found out I was working Christmas Day on Christmas Eve (Personally, I don't mind working it but I felt for those who were left up in the air). Bear in mind (to my knowledge) Christmas has always been 25th of Dec, I'm sure the company had weeks  or even months to prepare for this.     

The role was temporary (which was fine, I signed up to that). But a week before the end of the contract I was first told we'd been extended and would move to a slightly different campaign. I then recieve notification that was not the case. I then recieve a phone call from my TL telling me that we could move to another campaign (I accepted). Finally, my TL called me 10 minutes later telling me that the previous call was miscomunication. (Entirely not my TL's fault, he was fantastic, it was poor communication from managment above that put him in an awful situation). Thus was the end of my first experience with Sitel.

**Second time with Sitel**
Fastforward to June 2021, I applied for another customer service role with Sitel (despite some previous hiccups during the first stint, the rest of the time during the role was pretty good, I put the miscommunication and problems down as a one off and gave them the benefit of the doubt). I looked forward to having another stint with Sitel. 

Application and interview process were fine, I was offered the role, all information they requested for joining was given and I was then told a starting date. 

This is where things went wrong (again). I had radio silence from them for about a week, my starting date was coming up in a couple of days but I hadn't heard anything more. I sent a couple of emails off to them to see what was happening. Day before I was meant to start I then get an email 'withdrawl of offer' and a incredibly vague one sentence that did not explanation why. This came after I chased them up so I question if they were even going to let me know, probably hoped they wouldn't hear from me and they could avoid telling me in the hope I'd just go away. 

Fastfoward two weeks and I am yet to recieve any response (after several emails to a variety of different email addresses) or clarification on the random U-turn. Maybe one day they'll let me know.

Summary: 

Working from home is great! But if Sitel were driving a car, they'd be doing it with thier eyes shut. Any problems that come up, they hide and hope it goes away.

If you can avoid joining, please do, so you don't have to go through this.

I had read some very mixed reviews about Sitel before I started working with the company, and I'm leaving with some very mixed opinions. I should point out that I only stayed for 2 weeks, so I never actually got onto the phones as I was luckily offered a position with another company that could offer me more standard hours, however I still got a fairly good insight into how the company works. 

I'll start off with the plus sides. 

-Situated in a lovely modern building with great transport links and a large staff car park.

- During my 2 weeks training the breaks were very generous (I don't think this is the case when you get on the phones).

- The people in my training group seemed very genuine and great to get on with. 

- My trainer was a great person, really smart, informative and approachable. 

The not so great stuff...

- I was told at the interview there would be 4 weeks of classroom training before you would be on the phones, however it was actually only 2 weeks. 

- I was told I wasn't allowed any days off during the training period, and I get the impression that even if you had genuine food poisoning you were expected to show up for work, otherwise you'd get sacked. 

- The training material itself could have easily been condensed into about 3 days not 2 weeks. Much of the time was spent doing pointless quizzes that had nothing to do with the job itself. 

- Unnecessarily strict rules regarding phone use and clothing that some people seemed to get called up on but not others. (I sense there is certainly some favouritism going on here)  

- Although I did like my trainer, the sessions did feel a bit like being back at school. I am 23 years old, and several other people in my group were older, yet we were almost spoken to like children at times.

- There is a lot of big talk from managers that you will have a lot of support once you are on the phones, however a friend of mine who did make it past the 'classroom training' said there was barely any. And people from her training group were left unsupervised and unsure of what they were doing, leading to unhappy and annoyed customers. 

- Low pay and long hours for what is actually a pretty gruelling job. If you want a good work/life balance I wouldn't bother applying as all shifts involve some kind of weekend/evening work on a regular basis. 

From observing the points listed above, I can certainly see why the company has such a high turnover. But if you have some experience in retail/customer service and need work quickly (like I did) you can pretty much guarantee work here. So if you except the reality that a call centre job is never going to be great, but you don't mind doing it for the time being, then apply. The first 2 weeks is basically over £500 for just sitting in a classroom, and that's more money than you'll make sitting at home doing nothing or on the dole. That's how I saw it. But if you are trying to pursue a meaningful career with job security, I wouldn't bother.

You are emloyed & trained by children who don't know what they are doing but enjoy having "fire & hire" power. If they had a set of keys, they'd make sure you all knew about it. They all think they're Wolf of Wallstreet. 
I never made it past training, it was so toxic. 
Red flag: LOTS of job adverts because they apparently sack people just for hearing sounds in the background or for going off script. 
More red flags:
🚩: I was not interviewed, just offered the job. 
🚩: Staff knew all the right words but No one knew what they were actually doing in induction and no indication of a plan was
Given. 
🚩 🚩🚩: Day one - Male trainer gave us a 10 minute lecture on how nice you have to be to your CA (supervisor) because they have the power to give you all the bad shift and refuse your break changes so "its very important that you are on your best behaviour and very very nice to them ....kill them with kindness.... If you are not in their favour, you are just going to end up with the shifts you dont want". 
"The nicer you are, the more likely you are to have holidays approved"
RED FLAG, RED FLAG.
 🚩: Day one - same male trainer tells us that distractions, particularly hearing children, but also includes hearing spouse,  music or TV in the background is a stackable offence. 
(Bit cheeky considering that anyone who's ever called a call centre knows that they sound like you accidentally called a large family christening party in the local Cons club). Proceeds to tell is that if you started this job thinking you could do it with the kids at home, this is not the job for you "your children should be in childcare exactly as they would if you were in office. This is not a job for stay-at-home mums".

 🚩 : Day two - same trainer,  "toilet breaks are unpaid and will be deducted appropriately... if you are going to the toilet every hour you will be advised to seek medical help. (Righto, someone's never birthed or had a period  and it shows). TIME HEAVILY MICROMANAGED.
🚩: trainers think they are psychologist and give out really damaging behavioural advice.
🚩 : No food or hot drinks at your desk (OKAY. I'd love to know who's policing that. Planning an unscheduled home visit?)
By the end of training half of us still had no access to the site we log in on. 
Day one of live training:  3.5 hour wait to get into a chat room with team. Not clocked in so not getting paid  Support dont even communicate in full sentences. I had the following responses to my increasingly lengthy requests for information over 4 hour period: 
"Wait"
"nope"
 "just wait"
"not sure" "
"ill get someone"
"someone will call you".
Still not clocked in, still not being paid: put in a temporary very 1999 AOL chat room with no guidance. ASL? 
I cant belive I sat there over 4 hours and never even got paid for it but then I had a power cut which I took as a powerful sign from the gods that this was not to be my path. 



I have been at SITEL for a year (Today!) and I think I have definitely got the opportunity to form a fair opinion as this year, at this new job, I faced personal/health issues and globally, well, the Covid-19 situation. In my opinion, SITEL could not have done any better than they have by their employees, considering the critical and unprecedented financial and social consequences of the pandemic. They have shown efficiency and flexibility trying their best help staff keep their jobs even if some losses were unavoidable (I have read bad reviews but I believe some people are never happy and must find someone to blame when life doesn't go their way?).
My personal experience is evidence: I was coming out of my 6 months probation when the country was put on lockdown, SITEL managed to set up working from home reasonably quickly for all that could. The site has always followed the national guidelines and updated them accordingly as and when. Mental health has proven a challenge for many and I was/am one of them. I won't bore you with details but I became severely depressed, and well, depressed or not I needed to pay my bills and keep my job. When I was at my most critical point, I got signed off by my GP for approximately 12 weeks I contacted my manager and I felt very worried and embarrassed to divulge the truth about my mental state and personal affairs. They were caring, patient, helpful and went above and beyond checking on me regularly and offering various ways to support my recovery. I came back to the office in June and quickly found I had bitten more than I could chew and SITEL have worked with me and my doctors and offered all the measures to help in changing hours, recommendation of therapy through a scheme etc... I am rambling on so I won' t go on much more although I could say a lot more about it.
I just will add a general review that it is work, and no, it isn't meant to feel like a holiday club which seems to have surprised a few people who left reviews here, some campaigns are more challenging than others and there will be nice and nasty people wherever you work, just be an adult... As far as the comments I read on Nepotism, I think this is utter rubbish, SITEL will recognize and reward anyone who does come in to work, does their best and is honest when it comes to obstacles and difficulties and treats the company and others respectfully. If you work there and have issues with them, do make an appointment to discuss your concerns with the appropriate people and discuss them reasonably. It'll be more efficient and constructive than ranting at the smoking shelter or on here. 

Let's have a think at where to start with this... this 'company'.

When your first brought into the company, you are given everything and the Ut-most support from your Team Manager and your Coaches to help you along the way... For a total of 2 to 4 weeks worth of training and call listening with minimal lack of how to handle calls and "Real life situations". Once you've finished your training, your thrown into the deep-end and expected to know everything and when asking for help, your given it and that's the end of that. 

Moving up in this job is a joke, your incentive to move from an agent to a Case manager who does about triple the amount that an Agent does, gets a measly £0.30p increase in their salary. The Case managers along with he Team managers are often over worked and resulting in poor management and poor communication to the Agents etc. 

Scheduling, whilst you sign up to be "Fully-flexible" and you agree to work from the hours of 8am - 10pm (I's retail). They keep changing the schedule every 3-6 months or so and won't let you see any further than 2-4 weeks in advance, meaning it's IMPOSSIBLE to balance your work & your life around this scheduling. 

Adding onto this, when booking your holiday, as you DONT know when your days off will be (as they are constantly changing) you have to book more time off than needed and unable to book anything additional once you've used all of your allowed holiday time. 

If you need to change your shifts during the week you have to give up to 3-4 weeks notice and a 'legitimate reason' as to why you are looking to change your shift. SITEL say you can "trade your shifts with other associates who are on the same Line of business as you" yet no one will trade shifts when you need help. You'd think that maybe your Team Manager could possibly help you with this request if your unable to trade it... right? WRONG, It's one rule for the Agents, another for the Team Managers. I attempted to reach out to mine to ask for a shift to be swapped in one week (2/3 weeks before that week) and his response was "No, not without a legitimate reason" Yet, there are some Team Managers who are approving this without hesitation. 

All in all, I would avoid applying unless your in dire need of some form of money and enjoy being messed around with.

I had lots of fun working at Sitel as I met some really great and fun people, some who I am still friends with now after having left over a year ago. There are lots of young people there, so it feels like a nice community but there was also a nice group of middle-aged and occasionally  older co-workers. If you have a good manager (which I was luck to have, though they change quite a bit) and good colleagues, you can have a great time in between calls and during your lunch breaks.

In terms of the actual work, well most people don’t work in call centres for a long career choice so it’s not the most motivating job to have, and you can have hard days when dealing with complaints. It does take some getting used to but what you need to remember is that it is NOT personal. Everyone is dealing with their own issues in life so when a customer directs their anger at you, they are actually annoyed at the company you are representing and may have had a bad day. Show compassion and try not to let their insults get to you (it can be hard sometimes). Sometimes they even apologise for their frustration. And other times you can have the best calls with customers and really take away a lot of wisdom and compassion for other people. So if you like customer service and are a friendly and engaging person, this can be a nice role for you.

With all of that said, depending on the type of contract you have, stability is NOT great at all. You are often left feeling like you are very disposable to the company, which can be stressful when you have bills to pay and need a regular income. A bonus is there is weekly pay (though bare in mind it’s in arrears so your first pay will be two weeks later). They do have new campaigns and clients coming in, so when one campaign finishes you can be moved to another - but that is not always the case, as I and a very large group of us found out and were let go with their one week notice. With that said about a week or two later some of us were called back on a new campaign, which ended up going on for many months. I was the one that actually left.

Word of advice if your pay is late, or your holiday allowance has been unfairly taken or anything like that. Keep fighting for it. I won’t go into specifics but I had an issue where a BIG CHUNK of accumulated holiday had disappeared in between campaigns and for weeks I had to fight to have them back or paid. It felt like a long process and stressed me out but I fought it until I got them paid. As I should have.

Okay, good luck to you guys.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Customer service representative 35 salaries reported	£23,239 per year
Team leader 4 salaries reported	£25,000 per year
Client advisor 28 salaries reported	£13.02 per hour
Customer service manager 4 salaries reported	£26,445 per year
Call center manager 1 salary reported	£32,000 per year

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