Pros
- I believe the essence of Southern Phone in the service they aim to provide and why is a good one. It is a telco that was created to connect Regional Australians, and also employs a large number of regional Australians; the largest employer on the South Coast of NSW. Regional Australians are often forgotten about. - you can forge some great friendships with colleagues - Due to the stressful nature of the role, it inadvertently gives you the tools to know how to work well under immense pressure.
Cons
- Problematic and toxic management. Management spends far too much time wielding their 'power' and micro-managing their subordinates when they could be spending that time coaching, helping or contributing to the company in a far more productive way. - Little to no room for career advancement. Rarely any opportunity to go into a higher role, or a different role that would suit you better. Promotions are also awarded on a "who you know basis" rather than on merit. - Extremely KPI driven rather than an emphasis on fostering positive relationships between the CS representative and the customer. - You have to ask to use the bathroom, and your personal break times are added to your KPI's. - Extremely high stress and high pressure job. - Abuse from customers over things that are not your fault (although perhaps that is what customer service call centers are in general). - Ten second time for after call work before you have to take the next call. - Poor call centre management which leads to hours-long queues of people waiting to call the company. This is stressful for the employee, and totally inconvenient to the customer. This causes burnout and is a huge reason why many people choose to leave the role early. - little to no training on how to assist customers who display concerning behavior or dire mental health issues. This is incredibly difficult for the employee and more training on how to handle these issues needs to be completed. - Constant mistakes with rostering. Employees are required to give four weeks' notice for unavailability, but 28 day rosters are almost always sent out with just a days' notice. There needs to be some consistency and fairness. - Pay is abysmal for the amount of work you're required to do. - Often required to do extra tasks that aren't specified in the job description without any change to pay.