Of coffee and graveyard shifts

MANILA, Philippines - Working in a call center is never easy. You have to stay awake during hours when people are normally already asleep or partying. You have to learn and memorize stuff so that when clients ask you, you will be knowledgeable and confident enough to answer them. You deal with clients that you can’t predict the mood of. And if you’re in a sales-related field, you have to meet a certain quota everyday.

I have been working in a call center agency for five years now and dealing with a graveyard shift is just one of the many challenges that I face. Included here, too, are being knowledgeable and confident about the product that you are marketing, going through materials and lectures whose information you have to memorize, and, perhaps the most challenging of all, dealing with different kinds of people whose moods you cannot really predict.

All through these, though, my workmates and I have found a most trustworthy companion—coffee. May it be from our vending machine across the hall or prepared in our pantry, this beverage has helped being physically and mentally alert.

Coffee, for one, helps us learn all the information that we need about the products and services that our company offers. And I have to tell, they are a lot. It’s like being in school all over again.

So when my workmates and I need to memorize the details and mechanisms of a certain product or service, we make sure that we have a cup of coffee on hand to give us the energy to study.

I remember one sluggish day and we were assigned a new product to acquaint ourselves with. At first, some of us more almost close to zoning out, until one of us got up and got a cup of coffee, and the others, including myself, followed. After the brown (or black for some) coursed through our throats, we felt a sudden boost akin to taking morning shower to wake you up.

One of the best things that coffee does for us, though, is that it keeps us on our toes. This is especially beneficial when we are relaying information and answering queries from clients.

Like I said, you cannot predict the mood of the person you’re calling. He or she may be in an inquisitive mood and ask you a plethora of questions. He or she may also be not up for a long chat.

This is why you always have to be mentally prepared to give them the information they want—whether it’s a detailed one or just a quick summary of it.

Technical support date, for example, may take a long time to explain to customers. Most of the time, you have to go through the process with them step by step. And as you go along, they would be throwing you questions here and there. With that, you have to be mentally prepared to answer all of them.

Learning, listening, relaying information—all these can cause undue stress sometimes. No matter how used to you are to the work you do, there will always come a day when you will feel tired and exhausted. This is not only true for call center agents, but for all working people I guess.

But you know what? Like most of them, my workmates and I have learned to “deal” with them with grace, thanks to coffee.

I am not a coffee expert. I really don’t know how and why coffee does what it does. All I know is that my workmates and I cannot exist without coffee in our company. And I hear that most employees can’t do, too.

Reggie Santos has been with eTelecare for five and a half years now. He started as a call center agent handling technical support, customer service and sales and has since been promoted to Team Leader.