Career advisors are often called on to direct young people, or those interested in retraining for employment, toward the most lucrative sectors. Today, that might mean science or engineering, IT, healthcare administration, elder care or a few other careers of the future. Increasingly, however, call center jobs ought to be added to this category.
While a career in the call center may not be glamorous as a green technology guru, it’s increasingly a great option for a reasonably well-educated American who doesn’t want to run up a quarter of a million dollars in student loans. As the 1980s and ‘90s trend of call center offshoring begins to reverse, demand for U.S. based contact center agents is on the rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, call center employment will grow 38 percent between 2012 and 2022. This represents a rate that is nearly twice that of other support occupations.
Why is this? As customers increasingly do their shopping and consumption of services on a remote basis through the Internet, they will need more virtual assistance. As products and services become more complex, and the quality of customer service becomes a great differentiating factor, companies will need to build teams of more educated and knowledgeable customer support personnel.
According to a recent article by Craig Borowski of Software Advice (www.softwareadvice.com), Americans looking for a viable and in-demand career would be better served by heading to the contact center than to a retail store, noting that entry-level call center positions today average between $11 and $15 an hour nationally. These estimates are based on data from Glassdoor.com.
“A comparable industry job seekers may be considering is retail sales; however, another Glassdoor.com search found retail sales starting positions in the $8 to $14 range,” wrote Borowski. “Right off the bat, you could be making more money in a call center than in retail sales.”
There are, of course, a number of tiers in call center work. At the very bottom are those individuals doing outbound cold calling, or working with a dialer to slog through lists in the hope of turning cold calls into warm leads. At the top of the heap is the technical support agent who will solve complex problems for high-value customers. The salary differences between these two jobs are very wide.
For those who stick with it, the advancement opportunities are better in the call center than the retail store, according to Borowski.
“What really sets a call center career apart, however, is the future earnings potential,” he wrote. “For comparison, call center supervisor and retail store manager are similar mid-career positions. And while the average starting salary for retail store managers is $42,641, the average starting salary for call center supervisors is $50,131.”
The contact center isn’t for everyone, obviously. Call center work has some of the highest employee turnover of any industry. But for those who manage to stick around and learn the skills, the potential is far greater today than any time in the last few decades.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson