Directory Enquiries

pow wow

I'm thinking of moonlighting answering the phones on directory enquiries....anyone want to warn me off it? It's run by Capita (big sigh) who I know aren't exactly renowned for being super peeps to work for, but if anyone has any experience of working on directory enquiries I'd love to hear it!

Aren't there a few different Directory Enquiries things? There was a major one in the call centre I used to work in. Paid minimum wage, lots of young people (17-18), stressful enough due to the high volume of calls, but not difficult. Should be grand for part time work.

pow wow

Thanks Izzy. Yeah I forgot there's a few in Ireland now, this one is for eircom through Capita. As it's only handing out numbers I can't imagine it's too stressful, certainly nothing like the junk I used to have working in a credit card call centre Hopefully anyway!

Our man in Havana

There are quite a few that supply numbers and information to the UK market. Those ones should be avoided.

Random

Do you know where the call centres are based and what the rates of pay are? How much control or say do you have over picking your part time hours ?

I know of one based in East Point Business Park, pays minimum wage with time and a half on weekends. Seems fairly flexible about working hours, I knew people doing say, 12 hour shifts every Sat and Sun, or you can do night shifts, best thing is to look up the numbers and ring and ask.

board om

Conduit down in the east point business park are always looking for people and they take on part time workers as well as full time. they would answer the 11850 calls. thery also do contract work for other companies so you might be doing Telesales for TalkTalk products, or Tech Support for Lexmark. things like that. they are a big company so they always have vacancies.

Our man in Havana

You have got to ask why do they always have vacancies?

I know of several people working for them doing directory enquiries for Orange UK. They all said it was stressful and awful work considering the wages being paid. Also being a part timer means you get all the shifts that no one else wants plus every bank holiday.

Dudess

Capita is always advertising on Jobs.ie emphasising it was winner of the Global Best Call Centre to Work In (or whatever) award.

Funny how those things work. One of the companies on Ireland's Top 50 Places to Work list is a place where several people I know have been employed, and they would argue it was the worst place they ever worked in.

But taking incoming calls is perfect if it's a fairly mindless part-time job you need with flexible hours and involving nothing too taxing - and, crucially, no cold-calling. Telephone sales to private residencies - I do not know how anyone can do that to themselves. And phoning people to do surveys... granted I did that once. For a week. For three hours a day. I was outta there. Some people do that full-time... it's astounding.

pow wow

Capita (for Eircom) are hiring full-time nights and p/t weekends (weekends are 8am-8pm or nightshift which I think is 6pm-6am or thereabouts). It says the pay is over e10 an hour (that'll be 10.01 so :rolleyes:) and gives the location as Churchfield on the northside of Cork.

I need the money so I don't mind the monotony of it - and it beats selling sub-prime mortgages over the phone (first telesales job ever years ago...and it was my last!)

board om

Bond-007 wrote: »

You have got to ask why do they always have vacancies?

I know of several people working for them doing directory enquiries for Orange UK. They all said it was stressful and awful work considering the wages being paid. Also being a part timer means you get all the shifts that no one else wants plus every bank holiday.

I have no doubt it is a horrible job. in fact for me it would be the equivalant of hell on earth. but the OP is looking for companies that will take on part time staff to answer incoming calls so i have given the name of one. what they do with it is their business. it makes no difference to me if they decide to apply or not.

personally i think if you are looking to earn some money in your spare time that doesnt involve you giving it too much input then it is perfect. it is very stressful but tbh working in a call centre is one of those jobs that you can learn a lot from that you can put in to practice later in your career, and you can meet some great people along the way. you learn time management, you get experience working in a team enviorment, you learn how to deal the public and manage customer complaints, etc. its good practice for anyone starting out in the work force.

tk123

Bond-007 wrote: »

You have got to ask why do they always have vacancies

For a lot of people there it's a stop gap/first job - they've finished college and need something to pay the bills before they get a real job or they want to go off traveling and they're there to fund the trip.

Dudess

Yeah, my mate started college at 18, had to drop out only a few months later because of depression, went working in two call centres over a period of about 18 months and landed herself a government job in London. Good going for a girl who had just turned 20 with no qualifications. She's doing really well in that job now and is still only 24. She says it's definitely down to the very valuable experience and training she gained at the call centres.

OP, an alternative to call centre work would be waitressing. Tax-free tips and all that...

Hanley

This is something Id actually considering doing this summer....

A couple of quick Q's:

Capita
-time and a half on weekends - y/n
-cold calling - y/n
-rate of pay? (ish)

I think I know the answers, but jsut want to doulbe chekc!!

board om

it might be worth noting that most of these big call centres have phone systems that do the outbound calling for you. in other words you just get a beep in your ear piece and the call is patched through so if you are doing outbound calling it is not a case that you are sitting there dialling numbers all day, the system does all that for you. so there wouldnt be a huge difference between inbound and outbound calls if you know what i mean. i wouldnt go turning down a job becuase they say you are going to be making outbound calls as opposed to inbound calls.

just thought that might help with the decision making.

Our man in Havana

There really is a world of difference in cold calling and taking incoming calls only. Cold calling is very demoralising as most people will just slam down the phone on you. At least with inbound calls they are calling you for a reason.

Stench Blossoms

Bond-007 wrote: »

There really is a world of difference in cold calling and taking incoming calls only. Cold calling is very demoralising as most people will just slam down the phone on you. At least with inbound calls they are calling you for a reason.

Totally agree.

With outbound calling your more than likely disturbing the person whereas with inbound you know they picked up the phone to ring you.

I would never in a million years ever do outbound calling again. Wrecks the soul!

I honestly didn't think working in a call centre was that bad, as far as fairly crappy jobs go. I liked it more than waitressing where you had to be on your feet all day long, carry heavy stuff, change tablecloths etc. At least you get to sit down all day, have a chat with your coworkers, talk to people on the phone without too much stress. I'd definitely consider going back part time to earn some extra money.

jjbrien

i did some work for conduit in eastpoint business park doing 11850 directory enquiries it was easy enough work and they are always looiking for staff in a 4 hours shift you would normally do 250 calls the call average about less than 30 seconds in lenght. it was easy money but if you were to do it for a long time it would get to you wasnt a bad place to work they had a good bonus scheme as well