Pros
- The people I got inducted with are probably some of the best people you can meet. All walks of life from each corner of the globe work at the contact centre. - The 5 week classroom based training in order to learn the products and services that BA offer to its customers. Very intense training but quite an eye opener. You can use your knowledge to your advantage if you wanted to. You can also have a laugh in the classroom with your fellow colleagues. The two trainers that I had were very good in their knowledge of the company and what it offers to its customers. Therefore learning from them was a pleasure. - If you’re stuck with something that you really struggling with, the more experienced employees will go out of their way in order to help you out. - If you wanted to, you could move around the company without much hassle. But the lucrative positions are mainly in London. Here in Manchester it’s only the contact centre - from what I know. - The perks of discounted travel and potentially upgrading yourself when travelling was really good. However, I never got the chance to use the travel perk. Going off the record of what other people have said, potentially you could get 70+ percent off flight prices, which could save you loads of money (but don’t quote me on it). - You can make your own judgement on whether you want to pass the charge screen when making changes to the booking as you aren’t running back and forth to get authorisation from management. When you do it’s quite nice for the customer as they respond back very positively making the call easier to deal with. - If you strayed over your finishing time for the day, you can get that time back for the following day or just let it build until you have a solid half day. - Sometimes if you can’t be bothered to come into work, you can ring up and see if you can have the day off. I use to do this mainly with my early starts. Made use of it. - Might be a small issue for some but working at BA helped me understand different accent's when talking to people on the phone. Due to the nature of the business, you had calls from all round the world. Initially struggled with strong accents but as time went on I started to pick up and understand the customer. - There were pretty good bonuses on offer at the time when I was there, quarterly and yearly if I remember correctly. It helped supplement basic income of just over 15k. - Canteen was large and catered your standard lunch/food at a discount price.
Cons
- Some customers are so obnoxious it’s unbelievable. - The shift patterns were terrible. I absolutely hated it. Some days you could finish at 2200 and start work again at 0700 which for me personally was too much due to the fact I relied on public transport and it takes nearly an hour to and from work. You'll be working some weekends but only get a day off in between the two weeks you've worked. So basically I'm saying is that you might aswell give up on your life. - Besides the contact centre, there is not much for BA here in Manchester. Most are based in London as it is BA's HQ. - In training they state "be yourself". When I was finally on the phone chitchatting away with customers, I spoke the way I normally speak (without the telephone voice). However, I was one of the few that got dragged into the office for not speaking properly (posh & formal voice) with the customer. For example, instead of saying "wife" I used to say "your other half" or "missus". Had to literally tell the managers that training on the phone and actual floor working does not marry up together. Also pointed out that the customer left me a positive feedback and that he was laughing on the phone therefore my relationship with that particular customer was a good relationship. - Considering BA is a multinational company that is looked at as a very prestigious company, their contact centre in Manchester is very big. However, at any one time it is half full. I personally don’t know if that’s how the roster worked or if they were having issues with recruitment and high turnover of staff because after I left, all of the team I was inducted in with left (approx) within a year. - Only flexibility is for the job which nine times out of ten works in the favour for BA not yourself. Just in case you finish off work above the allocated time etc... - Pay was pretty standard at just above 15k. (But bonuses helped you supplement income). Premium airline but dont't pay the wages of a premium company. They easily make a million per week on early seat selection. Thats around 52 million in the bank of free money per year for just letting customers select their seats. Wonder if that money is used to pay its employees or given to the shareholders as an incentive to keep faith in BA? - Canteen catered your standard lunch/food.