Become a Customer Service Expert via Contact Centre Operations

If you’ve ever had a technical problem with your cell phone, a question about your TV bill or simply ordered a product or a meal through the telephone, then you’ve dealt with a customer service expert who is trained in Contact Centre Operations. This customer service-based industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Canada, with thousands of exciting opportunities.

To get started in the Contact Centre Operations field, which includes jobs such as customer care representatives, at-home agents, technical support and help desks as well as collections, the right type of training is required. Centennial College’s one-semester program in Contact Centre Operations Course will prepare you to work in a variety of industries that require professionals to handle in-coming and out-going calls, including: financial institutions, manufacturing, transportation, health and pharmaceuticals, government agencies, telecommunication as well as art and entertainment. To apply for this helpful program, which will allow you such a broad range of options, all you need is a minimum of an Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent or be 19 years of age or older at the start of the program. Contact Centre Operations Course students will be easily absorbed by the companies.

Centennial College’s program provides four intensive months of skills-focused training, which takes place in the college’s “real life”, state-of-the-art training facility. This hands-on approach allows students to develop superior customer service and communication skills so that they may successfully listen and exchange information over the phone, even with emotional customers. They will also practice conflict resolution and problem solving to help such customers. Aside from communication, students in Contact Centre Operations will gain the ability to cross-sell, up-sell and market the contact centre’s products and services. This will often require them to multitask as they speak, type and browse for information at the same time. That’s why the program also teaches multitasking and the ability to manipulate a variety of applications and databases. Training occurs through courses such as Computer Applications, Communication Skills, Customer Service and Sales, Soft Skills Development and Contact Centre Environment. Students coming out of this Contact Centre Operations Training will have strong foot holds in the job market. As the classes run Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, students are free to work part-time in the afternoons, making this a convenient program that takes into account the busy lives of its students.

At the end of training, the students will participate in a career day. During this day, recruiters from major contact centres meet, interview and possibly hire students. To ensure that students are job-ready, they must obtain a minimum C grade average and an overall minimum GPA of 2.0 for graduation.