customer service representative

software engineer

network engineer

retail sales associate

business analyst

Telstra

Typical day consists of live call coaching and reviewing performance to prioritize focus on staff. Capturing these actions into relevant systems and ensuring staff are accountable is also completed daily. Other administrative duties are also completed with staff leave and timesheets.

I've learned that having knowledge is one vital element in creating a good experience, however is unmatched by someone that can equally drive and deliver an exceptional customer experience creating customer advocacy.

Townsville Contact Center for Telstra has stood the test of time and out performed sister centers. The center has been recognized by the CSIA ( Customer Service Institute of Australia ) and collected 4 awards for being the best contact centre in recent years. There are many KPI's to deliver on and expectations are high being the remaining top center providing service to all customers across many work-streams/products.The center prides and drives a positive culture and allows opportunities to FOH staff to learn other roles/products/networks to further ones skills. The management team is unified in company messages to deliver and positively drive. We love highlighting positive performance and equally enforce performance management actions upon reviewing data each month, always moving us forward.
 
My co-workers are second to none. Each one has their own strength and together we are professional, caring, realistic, positive, educated and stern.

For myself these days it is keeping up with technology. Being a team manager I am employed and educated to drive and manage staff performance and behaviour, however am not given any network or product training -thus giving me opportunities to learn on the fly with my staff. This is not required for me to understand products/technology in depth but personally I like to understand the product/technology of the staff I am leading.

The most enjoyable aspect of my role is seeing staff  move forward and celebrating their wins. I like to add a personal touch to each individual. In driving a positive culture I also enjoy making work fun and participate in driving in house competitions and center activities.

The environment is stressful. Nepotistic and "its who you know" type environment. Promoting friends ahead of quieter deserving types is common. Management says one thing, does the opposite. Higher Management comes across as if there is no clear-cut direction for the company in general and departments in particular. If there is one it is not communicated to the stuff truthfully. Lower level management is in "survival mode" and favouritism rather then meritocracy is common. Many lower managers have no real management training and have a non-trusting relationship with team members. Most are ex-technicians and got their jobs through friendships.

You learn on the job most of the time, courses are not always helpful. However you can get support from subject-matter experts . 

Learned new technologies and methodologies, how to plan technology roll-outs, how to cost major projects, how to manage project roll-outs, how to create and manage teams, how to survive in a large company environment and large company politics.How to deal with internal and external stakeholders and customers. 
Management in Telstra comes across as if there is no clear-cut direction for the company in general and departments in particular. If there is one it is not communicated to the stuff truthfully. 
Team-work is being promoted and encouraged.
The hardest part of the job is doesn't matter how hard you try and how much you will achieve , you will be overlooked for a "friend"
Appeal process is a farce. Nothing is being investigated and the appeal is always rejected (from my personal experience).
The enjoyable part is that you get to work with some great people and getting satisfaction of achieving great results for stakeholders and customers - gives one a sense of achievement and self-worth. Learning new things and coming up with working, creative (outside the box) solutions is also a challenge and is very enjoyable.

Telecom Review:-
Long hours at work were typical and a six day week was standard to chase outstanding debts daily, doing monthly account audits, and assist resellers into the marketplace for the changeover to Telstra once they lost their communication monopoly.  
Management were very flexible and at times did not set good examples due to the old Telecom work ethos from older employers, but as the marketplace was beginning to open up the employee demographic changed and thus we challenged the older style of management, work duties.
Hardest part of my job was disconnecting home and small business services for non payment of accounts and calling my customers to tell them I would be doing this.
Most enjoyable part of my job with Telecom was working in positive teams, the social atmosphere we created at work, allowing for a fun environment in which to perform our duties and this assisted greatly due to the long hours we all worked.
Telstra Review:-
The hardest part, initially, of the job was educating our customers about the name change and also being transparent in the open telecommunications market once Telstra lost its monopoly.
A typical day at work was staggered shifts, monday mornings being the most challenging for debt recovery, planning team challenges to meet deadlines by end of the week, and also team bonding exercises/games mid week.
My immediate and upline management were always positive about having a cohesive work environment, supporting families and providing for family time in shift rosters, especially during school and public holidays.  
My co-workers were always encouraging of each other in the strong team environment that was constantly maintained and improved where necessary, and their personal support in a time of tragedy is something i will never forget.

Bottom line. If you are not great at selling then you will not get the recognition you deserve!

Rushed learning/training with no real follow up or confirmation of skills learned unless in trouble. While there I was never trained in how to sell, just on how to consult which is fine, but there is a fine line between finding what a customer needs/wants and pitching it to them. Especially when the culture is based around sales. Selling in high volume as apposed to appropriate products.

The amount of times a customer has told me that I saved Telstra a customer because of attitudes of other employees was more than I could count with 2 weeks of employment. But even then customer service skills come second to selling and up-selling products.

If you are not a good salesperson you will be forever in the shadows even when your other skills shine brightest.

Even when inquiring about different positions suited to my skill set, management would not help me and told me there was nothing they could do. You are gonna tell me you can't talk to a higher up and ask about a role better suited for your employee?

The culture in which the customers were treated was appalling, especially behind closed doors. The attitude we need to have is that every customer is an opportunity and not shun them or talk behind their backs.

Was also never asked about future goals within or outside the company. Sure we have a program which was discussed at a workshop, but not once was I sat down to discuss what I wanted to develop. Even when asking my BM where I could access it they couldn't give me an answer and shrugged me off. You want to develop me then you need to sit down day one and ask.

A normal day would be to get to work before the team, Check and respond to any emails or phone messages, Answer the hot line for unplanned absentees and report to other manages who is away for the day. Staff would then arrive, greet the team members then ensure they have logged into the phone system on time. Then take any escalated call, Consultant / customer issue, prepare performance documentation for weekly reviews and any adhoc.
Ensure the consultants are adhering to schedules and are using correct tone and providing the correct information to customers.
weekly performance reviews with individual team members, prepare and run team meetings, Attend management meetings and other adhoc meetings, monitor, mark and provide feedback on consultant calls.

I learnt a lot about time management, dealing with all types of personality’s, Training and improving team members phone manner and system knowledge,

I enjoyed the management team; we worked well together to be the best collections centre in Telstra. As a team we were motivated and kept the centre at the top by providing a winning positive culture.

The hardest part of the job was when we were made redundant. The centres moral dropped and a few bad attitudes in the centre crept in. I was also made redundant so coming to work and constantly motivating the teams became very hard as staff became less engaged. However the Centre motto was " lest make them miss us"
This worked well and bought some engagement back.

I enjoyed watching consultants and managers progress into higher roles as well as team members being the best they can in their role. I also liked the team player atmosphere. We played a lot of motivating games and had food days to keep engagement.

Rotating shifts, taking inbound calls, placing outbound calls, for follow ups. Listening to customers enquirers, complaints and requests.Keeping to schedules. With in doing the above plus more, I generated customer satisfaction, with which also lead to being able to achieve KPI's, time management. Customer satisfaction.

Working at Telstra, taught me how to empathize, with out feeling a need to sympathizing,As there is a huge difference between the two! Also that no matter with what is happening with in your personal life, it is to be left at the front door.Each customer is a new customer, don't think that you know the person on the other end of the phone, ask the open ended questions, so therefore you are able to serve the customer with what their needs are!
 
I believe that the management at Telstra was average, as for the business change very fast, the goals were moved more often than not, that is not saying that the management was poor, it was/is just a very fast pace and change at all times.

Great diversity of work colleagues. With over 200 people working with in the call center, I may not have known all the names, but I knew a large majority, and knew the rest via face. A very good mix of people.

Hardest part, was customers not understanding, that the company that I worked with, is/was a business, and not a charity. As i truly believed with in the company that employed me, I only had high praises of my work place. 

Most enjoyable, speaking with all nationalities, all different walks of life . I tend to have a knack of building quick rapport with customers. The benefits with what Telstra offered were amazing.

Typical day filled with meetings, emails and a variety of tasks that enable one to grow their career in different directions without the mundane or boredom of silo structured organisations,

My biggest learning from working at Telstra is you get out what you put in; the organisation has a plethora of opportunities that are available to anyone who is prepared to undertake these for self-growth without expectations. Too often, careers are slowed or halted because people expect something for taking on extra; the mindset people must have is self development and the foresight to understand that the rewards of persistence are there for those who make the effort without expectation.
Management is supportive and sympathetic and genuinely attempt to foster a dynamic, inclusive and diverse workplace; There is a higher focus on making the workplace environment flexible, fun and encouraging initiative. Some areas are more advanced in this area than others but holistically the organisation has advanced under solid leadership over the past 10 years.
The hardest area of the job is influencing and negotiating with others to make the cultural shift from thinking only of their own targets and workloads and discover the larger picture that centres around the organisations goals and it's customers.
The most enjoyable part of the job is the people, the relationships that you can easily forge within the company and the sense of community service you feel you provide by performing your role.

A typical day at work for me is, first hour for team meetings and planning out the day. Then another hour for returning emails and calls. The next three hours are spent working through my priority list for the day, then lunch. In my current role adhoc jobs pop up all day. I either hand them off to the correct department or individual to get the task finalised in the quickest time possible. I then check in on my team and review the day or any ongoing projects to help push them forward.

I have learnt over my time that setting a default calendar is the best way to manage your day. It also makes sure that i deliver the very best customer experience because nothing gets missed and i have always delivered what i have promised to the customer.

My style of management is one of inclusion. I find when everyone is pulling as a team the overall results are maximised. Paperwork is done right the first time, customers are happier as they are being served in the timeframe they have been promised

My co-workers are generally the my success a manager, without them working to the best of their ability, success is very difficult to deliver.

The hardest part of my job has been historically office based politics. I am not a very big fan of letting things build into an unfixable issue between co-workers. I like to get these sort of things fixed as soon as possible.

The most enjoyable part of my job is when everything you put down as a goal or budget is smashed. Everyone feels the success of that and success is infectious and achieving it consistently can is addictive

If you are just starting out in your career and are looking for something that looks good on the resume, do some time at Telstra. I work in the call centre doing sales and it’s definitely taught me lots of people skills amongst other helpful things such as admin, computer skills, and building customer relationships. However I would never do this kind of work long term. KPI’s are high and management is poor. Team leaders are not promoted based on their knowledge and ability to manage a team or provide support, but based on how well they perform in sales. Team leaders also earn incentives based on the teams KPI’s so the focus is on pushing sales reps to make as much money as possible instead of providing support for long term growth of the employee’s beneath them.  I also understand that the team leaders are under a lot of pressure in the same kind of way from the people above them. It just all kind of sucks for everyone. As for the positives -  everyone is generally nice, the workplace isn’t toxic and although management sucks, things are pretty flexible. You can work from home, and as a single mother, I’ve been able to take time off as I need it and work from home during school holidays even during “in office” days without being made to feel bad about it. The base rate pay is not great, but if your okay at your job, with commission, you end earning around $33 an hour. For a job that doesn’t require any pre-requisites, that’s okay for a permanent full time wage. So overall, it’s not terrible, but it’s not good. But it’s a good starting point and looks great on the resume. So do with that what you will. Good luck!

A typical day at work would begin with arriving to work 20 minutes before my start time to set up my desk. I would load all of my programs, reply to emails and look at the list of call backs for clients that I had set for the day ahead. I then log myself in a 'Ready' status and begin to take calls. 

In this job I have learnt the value of patience. I have learnt what it is really like to understand the needs of your client and act accordingly to what would best suit them using rapport and other various customer service skills. I have advanced my skills in written and verbal communication and I have grown to have confidence within myself working in an office environment. 
My co-workers and Management have made my work an enjoyable experience, we all work in a team and grow together as one. 

The hardest part of my job would have to be having a client come to me with a problem that wasn't within my delegation to fix, whether it be that they needed to be transferred to another department or that their needs did not match up to business standards, this was a common occurrence throughout my day. However I was always able to make peace with the customer and find the best possible solution for everyone.

The most enjoyable part of my job would definitely have to be knowing that you've helped make someones life easier. Being able to help someone gives me a great deal of job satisfaction and is something I wish to achieve no matter what job I am placed in.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 56 salaries reported	$30.51 per hour
Software engineer 12 salaries reported	$99,816 per year
Network engineer 14 salaries reported	$107,947 per year
Retail sales associate 7 salaries reported	$32.86 per hour
Business analyst 5 salaries reported	$106,900 per year

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