A difficult place to work
Pros
Starting salary was decent, and received a pay increase within first 12 months . The quality of training was above average. Some of the coaching staff are kind and want to help you achieve. Work/life balance is decent, hours are between 9-5 during first 12 months and you have weekends off.
Cons
Targets are oppressive and difficult to maintain. No positive reinforcement if you excel in many areas, but there's one thing that you struggle with. Threats of 'action plans' are common. Job was entirely different to what was originally advertised. During interview it was advertised as a technical support role with a sales target. The original sales target at full skill (after 6 months) was achievable and realistic. After a few months of starting, they began advertising for our job again, but under the role of 'Service and Sales advisor', and a few months after that, our sales target had doubled to 20 converted leads a month. This meant many of 'high achievers' typically had no technical knowledge and found success in misleading customers into believing they need to pay more money to fix an issue, whilst simultaneously not actually fixing their issue and adding to the call wait times when the customer inevitably has to call again. This holding customers to ransom approach was not indicative of everyone who achieved high stats, but it was common within my team and was actively encouraged by coaches. Coaches/line managers would email us twice a day with a sales table for our team for that day, and if you or others hadn't made the table for whatever reason they would mention it in the group email and single you out. Our power briefings in the morning with our manager were mostly negative, and comprised entirely of a 'name and shame', as in who didn't sell enough and why. Also some coaches clearly only became coaches so they could chat with their mates/avoid being on the phones, if you approach them for help they will very politely fob you off, likely because they themselves don't know the answer. On this note, you can sometimes be incredibly out of your depth on some calls and not receive the support you need, which can be upsetting and frustrating. The product I supported (Sage 50 Accounts) was outdated and many of its features poorly integrated and meant we had an incredibly high volume of calls at all times. As there isn't enough staff (due to high attrition), near the end of my time working at Sage the queues were consistently 40-60 minutes, and at lunchtime the queues became much worse. This made the job effectively one of objection handling whilst trying to sell as much stuff as possible. This wasn't challenging in a good way, this was just a bad experience and I felt sorry for the customers having to endure our customer support. It's not the most accessible place if you don't drive. There's one bus line and the bus is fairly frequent in the morning. However after finishing, you will frequently miss the bus that leaves at 17:07 due to being stuck on a call (you must remain available until 5pm, and calls on average take 15-20 mins), and at times I had to wait upwards of an hour until the next bus arrived to get home. The building and facilities whilst probably up to scratch in 2004 now look fairly dated.