Pros
Well known name Benefits started immediately
Cons
PTO has to be used for vacation and illness. Many workers came to work ill in order to avoid using their time, which created an atmosphere of daily circulation of germs. Please be aware if you or any of your loved ones have compromised immune systems. PTO has to be approved based on the demands of the call center. You may have an important event coming up and you might have the time needed to take off but if the demands of the business doesn't have enough hours available, you cannot have that time off. Please keep that in mind especially weeks before and after holidays, major sporting events and natural disasters or just bad weather. Points. Points are issued for everything. My coworker had a medical emergency that resulted in her hospitalization. Upon her return, she was told that she would have been issued points for calling out but that they "just" revised the procedure. Transportation delay or strike = points. Car accident or traffic delay = points. Callling out sick = points. Emergency = points. Leaving early = points. Scripted interactions with clients. You are dealing with clients who may have been injured, lost a loved one, lost their source of income, etc as a result of a car accident. If you do not ask them every single question on that script during that initial phone call, you will get negative feedback. Translation Services. If your customer does not speak English or Spanish, you have to dial out for a translator. The problem is many people do not use a translator because our calls are timed. Metrics. Quality of claim handling has declined because the reps are reviewed based on how long they stay on the phone and how long it takes to answer the next phone call. Therefore, required jurisdictional letters are not being sent, clients are not being interviewed, repair shops are not being called or paid because the focus is more on speed than quality. And if you are customer service oriented and enjoy helping, you will be verbally abused and accused of "call avoidance" for actually helping the customer and working the claim instead of passing the buck to the next unfortunate soul. Managers. Your "career" is in the hands of your manager. The ability to enroll in continuing education courses or get promoted is at the discretion of your manager. There is no formal review for this determination and breeds favortism. Scheduling. During training, you are told that your day will be a combination of phone calls and tasks. This is a lie. You will answer phones all day while trying to process the claim. You will then be required to do various tasks throughout the day during your free time. There is no free time! With the high turnover rate and haphazard claim handling, you are being bombarded with calls from clients whose claims have not progressed. Again, speed vs quality. Channels to escalate claims. When a claim is complex or a customer would like to speak to a supervisor, your supervisor will have you tell them that they will call back in 24 hours. They don't call. Instead, they assigned the complex task to you without the pay difference. Leaves of absence. Employees are taking leaves of absence for months due to stress.
