customer service representative

service à la clientèle

technical support

technical support advisor

bilingual customer service associate

Concentrix

I worked for Minacs for about 6 months before finding a profession in my field. During these six months , I can not say that I was overly impressed with any part of Minacs. 
To start off , they are constantly hiring (2-3 classes of 20 or so people per month at my centre alone) because they can not keep the customer representative they have. After discussing this issue with management , I found out that in a months time it is possible to lose around 40 employees (A good example is that from the training class after mine , they hired 18, there are 4 left and all of them have put in their two weeks notice). When I was hired , they didn't have the space to accommodate a new training class as there were already 2 in effect so we were put in a dark corner in the back of the centre where we didn't have any hands on training until the class before us  "graduated". We did not have a formal trainer so they had two reps from the sales team teach us (I am in no way complaining about the trainers I had at the start as they were wonderful but still did not have the appropriate training to be a Minacs trainer). Halfway through , they decide to switch trainers to a formal one so in the span of six weeks , I was trained by three different employees. 
For bilingual people ; if you are expecting to have your regular bilingual wage as soon as you start working for Minacs , think again ! You are not allowed to have your premium until you hit the floor (six weeks after you are hired) even though you are expected to learn all the terminology and promotions for francophones without the assistance of any trainers (as of course , there are none who speak French).
After graduating , I was put on a team with a wonderful manager who really cared about her team. She had been promoted before , then demoted as Minacs had decided they didn't need her in management and then was upgraded to manager once more when my team graduated as there were more reps on the floor. Two weeks into being with this team , she is demoted again due to the fact that a manager who was on paternal came back so clearly no management job is secure. Two weeks after being on his team , he quits and I am transferred teams once more and then a week later transferred teams again. After only being on the floor for 3 months , I was changed 4 teams. There was no consistency. 
As for the hours , they do usually give you full time hours. There are usually two shifts you could work - 830 am to 5 pm or 12 pm to 9 pm except on Mondays where you are REQUIRED to work 11 hour days. However , except your shifts to change with NO warning (especially over the weekend , it's your responsibility to check your schedule every night to make sure it hasn't changed) and to be given forced vacation. In April, they decided to force vacation time on every representative even the ones who had put requests in for later/earlier (those people lost their vacation time). Then , the rest of April they cut everyone's hours lower than what was on the contract we signed when we started out which is not exactly supposed to happen. Many people complained but nothing was done about it. THEY ALSO DON'T DO SICK LEAVE AND WILL NOT ACCOMMODATE YOU IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN/PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENTS. I was out for two weeks due to an illness (all documented) and instead of counting it as sick leave , they just used all of my sick days  , meaning that in February, I already had none left. There were also two instances where mothers requested that for two weeks their schedule be changed to days (only for those two weeks) as they did not have any way to have the child supervised (and on this salary there is no way you can pay for child care and a babysitter) and they were denied. Unless you can find someone to trade with you , don't expect anyone to help you with your schedule (they aren't big on time off).
The dress code is excessively strict (more than when you were in school which I find ridiculous) and they do tend to pick on some people more than others for it. 
The information is constantly changing so it is very hard to provide customers with accurate information because what was right last week may not be this week. They do provide training on it ... Often 2 weeks after this has been put in effect. 
The systems are absolutely horrible. They have not been updated in around a decade so they do stop working often. It takes around 15 -20 minutes (if your system is working well) to log in every day (out of your own time or course). They are trying to develop a new one but so far you can only so minimal orders on I and it takes much more time than doing I manually. 
The last thing is that if you are French , this is probably not where you want to be. You will be constantly taking calls (back to back all day) , there are barely any sales opportunities for French people if you are in the customer service queue and there are no French management to assist you. You are not allowed to trade with anyone other than bilinguals that are in your queue - the problem is that there are at most 10 francophones , and only 3-4 per queue meaning you can only ask 3 people to switch and usually it's a no. 
Now for the positives , the Team Leads were absolutely phenomenal and constantly worked with you for you to better your sales/targets. They would cheer you on if you got sales and there are a TON of incentives if you are good at selling. Most of the representatives were nice (albeit a lot of drama and gossip so it was a lot like high school). You did get full hours and commission (although hard to attain until you move up from the customer care queue to  
Sales) .
It can be fun, can be rewarding and you do sometimes get days where it is slow so you can have time to chat with friends. There are a ton of incentives (gift cards , prizes, money) to be won if youre a good seller. The people from HR are supportive and try their best to be understanding. They also have committees that set up fun lunches/games/prizes. 
However,If you are looking for an organized company, this is not the job for you.

The work environment is a mixed bag to put it simply. There are some pros and cons this will get a little long.

One thing to note is, while you technically work for Concentrix, you really end up representing their client as you do with all call center jobs.

The customer side of things:

Before covid, most of the customers were the mix of 80% good and 20 % bad, a lot of entitlement and people going on about how much money they have BUT you do get the sweet people who just need a little help, a how-to or are more than ready to go along with the steps/plan you provide. Any annoying customers can easily slip your mind with how busy it does get and a few laughs with your co-workers to vent and helps relieve some of the tension. (and oh boy will you hear some stories.) 

However with covid, the amount of entitled, rude and nasty. You'll be blamed for everything and anything the customer can think of over policies you do not control. A thick skin is practically required.

The job side of things:
Very fast-paced, you only have about 7 seconds between calls with little rest between them. You are clocked on all bathroom (bio) breaks and will be watched carefully if you're in certain AUX states for too long. You are expected to write highly detailed legible notes without your allotted time of 5 minutes max going over. If you do go over, it is noted and you will be coached on how to improve. You are staring at a screen all day so it can hurt the eyes after a while. 

Customers will to surveys about you and the client, if they are negative for stuff out of your control and even if the customer says the issue is not with you specifically, the negative surveys are stuck on your account and reflect against your incentives for the month.

The business/management side of things:

While the front house staff and management are friendly as can be and great to talk to, very little gets explained clearly or things change without full communication as to why things have changed or if you'll get an update ahead of time. Most answers end up being a very generic answer that's not really what you want to hear at best and vague at worse.

There are obvious cliques and people who have been with the company for longer do appear to get a little more support and some favouritism when it comes to the schedule (especially if they were there before the merger.) You'll also see a rotation of team leads which makes sense for the limit that they have but it can leave you feeling undersupported when some appear to be more knowledgable than others in essential needs of the business that may not be specific to the client.

The personal side of things:

The schedule being a bid is super annoying and feels completely random. You could place really high in the bidding ranks (even though it doesn't tell you the maximum number of people bidding or if it's bidding amongst just the Peterborough site or all of Concentrix. so even if you but your preferred shift, there is a high chance you won't get it. (harder to get a day time shift than a night time shift. which was fine by me as a night person but not everyone is) And if there is a need to meet the client promised hours, overtime does become mandatory and will be slapped onto either the end of your shift or you can likely compile it all onto a single day/day off.

Oh, and vacation is forcibly split between the first half of the year (jan-Jul) and the second half of the year (Aug-Dec). You can give your preferred weeks off but they will not be close or together. You are not able to bank the hours, you do have to take at least 1 week in the first half and 1 in the second with no choice. You can book certain holidays off but it will only be that day. And if you do need to shift the vacation around, they will be denied if too many people have booked any of those days off.

The pay is decent for the first few levels. But with a senior role, there doesn't appear to anything to off-set the now high level of stress that comes from the additional responsibilities that come with the position. Most of the time it will feel no different than the lower roles, but there will be more times you have to play the 'manager' card and find yourself dealing with more headaches and difficult customers. A thick skin is truly required to handle that level of role.

Also, that role will be forced upon you, regardless of how long you've been there, simply so management and keep up with the numbers promised to the client. So even if you feel unready and try to fight being pushed up, then you have no real choice and are partially obligated by the contract you sign.

The business casual dress-code is nice though, you get to feel comfortable which is nice. The stuff you can get in monthly draws or whatever is kinda cool. tho for a company with an NDA agreement, they sure give you a lot of stuff that shows off who the client is.

There is a rule forbidding any paper/personal electronics on the call floor. So fidgeting is going to have to be limited to quiet kinetic toys if that's an issue with you. unless your devices are medical in nature, your phone or fancy watches must be left in the lockers provided.

 No smart devices are allowed on the call floor in any way unless you are management who has restrictions placed on said devices. being caught with personal electronics that have no been approved can result in being reprimanded.

the medical benefits are pretty good.

My team leaders and managers were great when you could have a word with them. But they are always unavailable as they spend their entire days in meetings, speaking to a client, that seems to not do much to make your job palpable.  Coworkers were great. You need to be able to figure out how to do your job on your own. The training in theoretical aspect is great, then, once in production, you are thrown to the wolves. There are people to answer questions as well, often, they are too busy to respond because not enough senior agents or informed colleagues that can help in a prompt manner. Thus, you have to be able to solve problems by yourself. If you survive your first three months, don't breathe a sigh of relief,  then you have to talk to two clients at once, their antiquated systems and computers go off. Their expectations of employees and what they provide you to meet them, don't jive. The client I worked for had very underdeveloped tools, yet was a multi-billion dollar tech giant, in retail.  I don't know how much of that is on Concentrix and how much was due the company I was hired to work for on Concentrix behalf.  The tools were way bellow  the level needed to do the tasks assigned and provide an adequate service to clients. I had to take initiative and put in place my own procedures because our client, i.e the company we worked for was slow to update any of their tools or methods,  or anticipate problems with their policies. They were clueless when it comes to adapting work tools to optimize your work flow. I was a top performing agent for my department, consistently, within a couple of months. The salary was brutal. It was a far cry from what is asked of you for what this company requests in general. The availability required and the fact you never knew when your shift or day ended, or when you could go on break, because you couldn't transfer a a person you were speaking with to another client did not equate to the compensation they offer. Paying someone 17$/hr in 2024, for being bilingual and a top performer is insufficient by a long mile.  You need to have your own cellphone to log into work, need to pay for high speed internet,  work in a quiet home, that in Montreal is 2500$ a month minimum, if your home was purchased 10 years ago, divided by the amount of income earners in your home. When you add up all those costs,  minus your salary, you are under minimum wage, unless you live in a cardboard box. Summary: Great people, terribly disconnected and clueless client, upper management in the company, that cared more about employees changing passwords than getting up to speed with the tools they provide them, with a terrible compensation to match. This is a place to get your start in the service industry,  to realize,  you need to go to school, find another job, run and never look back.

I was advised to go for a job interview by an employment agency and that was the probably one of the worst things I've ever done, career wise. The interview was quite easy, it turned out they just needed people regardless of what qualifications you have! So I was accepted on the spot as long as I spoke English and knew how to use a computer which I clearly did. 
I was asked to attend training the following Monday.

Once I arrived a found a batch of 25 other individual all joining my training class. By the end of training we were down to 12, the majority of people just dropped off because of the nature of the training which was far from being constructed or navigated properly. The instructor literally had communication problems with the majority of us. Those classes were mundane and redundant, we kept covering the same theoretical material instead of being properly trained on the software we'll be using from the get-go.

Once I hit the floor and started the actual job, I could clearly see what I got myself into! It was a complete and utter mess. There was no sense of order whatsoever. The team leaders were extremely hostile and rude, we had to depend on other agents for help and in all honesty they were the best. They weren't paid extra to guide you through your difficulties but they did it any ways so a BIG THANK YOU TO THE COWORKERS. Scheduling was a mess. The tasks we're asked to do in as customer service agents in banking was immense for the pay we got! You have to take call after call, guide customers through their problems, escalate things when necessary, report complaints on a different system. It was just way to much for minimum pay. You do all this, for timed breaks that are impractical in comparison to the workload you end up doing. 

I personally left because of an issue I had with one of the team leaders. I was scheduled to work on a public holiday and my name was added by a TEAM LEADER. So on the day, I attend work, at 8:00 am as I'm supposed to. I try to login into the scheduling system but it wont let me for some reason. So I go and ask the other agents what I should be doing in this case. They tell me just start taking calls and at the end of the shift send an email to your team leader and tell her that you couldn't clock on but you clearly attended work. So that's what I did. THEN 5 hours into the shift, the team leader on the floor at the time comes up to me while I'm on a call and asks me to leave because according to the system I'm not scheduled to be there! Ignore the fact that a customer is on the line, ignore the fact that it's been 5 HOURS already, what professional workplace would allow for such an action to be taken given these circumstances?

If you have other options I'd say don't take a job in this company! They have zero respect for their employees (Call center wise)! They hire groups of people calling them "waves" so you are replaceable, which is okay, but that is how you are going to be treated which isn't acceptable by any accounts.

When I first started and read the reviews for the company it made me extremely scared and gave me a bad impression for awhile upon starting. I will say that some things people have mentioned are true; however, with my experience so far is nothing compared to what the reviews made me feel like it was going to  be like. Its hard to work from home, but the onboarding process went very smoothly compared to any other call center ive worked. Everyone had system access, the systems work how they're supposed to and one thing Im very impressed with is when something does go wrong, its fixed either that same day or shortly after. They do favoritism but maybe I lucked out and was one of them because management has been very helpful in many ways. The team leaders are extremely overworked but have always managed to help when you need it and get whatever it done you need done. Sometimes you just have to be persistent. I was going through a hard time and my TL at the time was the one who recommended me take a brief LOA and take advantage of their EAP program. Upon my return everything still went smoothly getting back onto the phones. Working my department at night theres about 30-45 minutes between calls and they're not hard. Our support team though has to go. They are rude and not helpful. I recently got switched to another department which was mentioned in the review that they do, without giving you the choice and I wasnt given the choice but it really was for my best interest along with the company. Im in the process of learning a whole new aspect of my job not long after joining which is nerve racking but their systems are meant for you to NOT fail. If you can read then you can do this job. Its not as stressful as everyone makes it sound and they are continuously working on changes to make it even better for everyone now that were all working from home! We do have a webcam monitoring you but there isnt anyone watching you live, its only there to detect a cell phone or another person in the room due to privacy. I wasnt comfortable with it for a long time and still not 100% but once you realize people arent watching you and it only snaps a picture if it detects what i mentioned previously you are still able to go about your day as if you were in the office. Its a full computer and a lot to set up which is frustrating, it would be nice to have a laptop and not so much equipment for portability but thats not what you agree to when applying, you agree to have a stable environment free of distractions and other people so it makes sense they dont want you bringing your equipment to multiple locations. Its all for security purposes. 

I started at Convergys in April of 2010 worst job ever! The city I'm in has a lot of unemployment, so there are many people with university degrees and college diplomas working as CSR"s in our center. 

To give a brief background of myself. I'm a guy in my mid 20"s recent college grad from pre-health. I worked in retail management for 6 years prior to this, I have also worked in a retirement home as a Personal Support Worker. The reason I wanted to mention to past is to compare on my past experiences and the differences between my current employment at Convergys.

I have never once at a previous job ever been " written up" for anything. I consider myself a hard working individual. I put everything I can into resolving each call. I have never had so much difficulty with doing a job before. Convergys is very big on the ACE survey they send to the customers, and stats. For example, if you receive a Ace survey ANY lower then 10/10, your Team Leader will go over the call with a fine tooth comb and look for ANY REASON YO WRITE YOU UP, or as Convergys calls it..... A Progressive Counseling Letter (PCP) btw if you get 2 PCPs within a year period, then next step is employment review, (meaning termination of employment). Which I have witnessed this with many co-workers. Taking calls is like tip-toeing on thin ice, it is next to impossible to follow EVERY one of there redicules policies. Hoping that the Customer does not give you a bad Ace survey, because if they do, the reps job is on the line. The bottom line is, Convergys may offer 40 hours a week, but it is a terrible job, living in fear that you can and likely will be fired at any given time, for any given reason. Not to mention having to assist people with areas we are not trained in, the help isn't there when you ask for it. MANAGEMENT IS TERRIBLE. All they are there for is to give out Progressive Counseling Letters. Its negative, the whole environment is. On one hand we are being told to Not under any circumstances waive activation fees, but if you get a bad ACE because of it, your getting a PCP for "Tools Usage" a general term they use to describe when they believe we didn't use Tools to resolve customer concerns. There is no support from management, how can they tell us to enforce policies,if they aren't there to back us up on them. The ACE survey is taken way out of context. It is important to have Customer feedback, but they need to understand that there will be negative feedback from time to time. if a rep is not doing there job multiple times, it would make sense to give them a PCP, but why must they right up people for Absolutely EVERYTHING! We try our best, they work us like dogs, there is zero appreciation, and all focus is 100% of the time on what was done incorrectly as oppose to the good surveys and what was done correctly. 

Perhaps in other centers there are less problems, but in the Welland On center, this is the truth 

There are hundreds of workers on the floor at a time, but no structured seating. So, every day you're working beside someone that you've never seen before. Team Leaders change weekly, and notifications are sent out by email which let you know their name. You cannot email out, so issues with your Team Leader must be done in person (only an issue if you haven't met them yet and don't know what they look like). Most chairs and desks are broken, so it's difficult to find a place to work before your shift. It can take about 20 minutes, and usually you end up settling for something that's close enough. The hours can be very long and your days off could be at opposite ends of the week. So, you could end up working 11 hour shifts for almost 2 weeks before seeing a day off. The time between calls is about 3 seconds, so there's no time to take a sip of coffee, for example, and the average call is about 45 seconds. Employees are expected to keep up to date on emails and forums between calls (again, about 3 seconds between calls). There is a substantial amount of information to read, and forum articles have a quiz at the end of each to make sure that you're absorbing the information. There is always a possibility that you're going to get an emergency call, even if you're not in that department. The turn over rate is very high, which can be depressing. Not 1 person from my training class of about 25 was still there a month after training finished. Emails were sent out from time to time saying it was too busy, so bathroom breaks wouldn't be permitted for the next x amount of time. The possibility of something close to a Monday-Friday, 9 - 5 is about 0, even for employees that have been there for years and years. We were also told once that in the event of an emergency, we were not allowed to leave until we were given a go ahead and calls had been routed to another location first. The specific example of a bomb threat and tornado was given. In the event of a bomb threat, we were expected to continue to take calls while police/police dogs searched the building. There was a cafeteria downstairs, which was nice, but the service was really slow and the breaks weren't very long, so you wouldn't have time to finish your meal before heading back to the phones. And lastly, when I started, we were given the sick line number, but was not told that you also had to call a second number to speak to your team leader. During training, the class was reminded almost daily that we might be "asked not to come back". As a bottom line, it's run as a well oiled machine, but you as a person are disposable and they will remind you of that on a regular basis (as a class, or team, etc), and you are very anonymous.

I went in to this job knowing it would be stressful and that the turnover rate is really high.  I thought I would be able to stick it out for at least a year or so.. I was wrong.  The training for the job was great and very thorough but nothing can really prepare you for once you hit the floor.  It was so difficult at first because it was often very tough to find a supervisor/TL for questions or assistance.  I felt like I was guessing most of the time.  

Many TLs clearly could not care less about helping anyone (employees nor customers).  I came across many situations that TLs often did not know the answer to either and would just guess to give you an answer and shut you up.  I avoided my TL specifically because when I would walk up to  her to ask a question when I first came out of training she was clearly very annoyed.  

There are nice people that work there and that are willing to help out, but for the most part the atmosphere of the place is very depressing.  No one wants to be there.  No one wants to really help a customer.  I was shocked during training when I would hear agents put customers on mute and mock them while they were still talking on the line.  

Making any future plans is near impossible since you cannot book days off.  You can only trade shifts which only successfully happens once in a blue moon (I only successfully traded a shift once in my 6 months there).

While I was employed at Minacs they were expanding a lot, running tons of training classes and basically just dumping people onto the floor wherever they could fit them.  There was not enough support or room for all of the people that they were hiring (although the amount of people they were hiring was necessary since calls were POURING in).  Any coaching or team meetings that were ever scheduled got cancelled because there was not enough support.  In my six months there I was probably coached 3 times and had never been to a team meeting.  Another thing that added a lot of stress to the job was that they never allowed you the time that you need to call customer's back to follow up (yet you would get in trouble if you did not do so).  This was also because they did not have the necessary amount of staff to handle the call volume.  

At the end of my six months employed at Minacs I was more stressed out, drained, and desperate to leave than I had ever been.  The day I quit was a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders.

The job itself is not what I found horrible, it was the surroundings, attitudes, lack of support/help, and unorganization that made the job unbearable for myself.

P.S: the bathrooms are disgusting.

A typical day at Concentrix depends heavily on the client, project, manager, and queue you are assigned to. If you get a good client with working systems and reasonable expectations, the work can be manageable. But if you are placed on a poorly run project, the stress becomes constant.

I learned how to handle difficult customers, work under pressure, follow strict processes, and stay professional in situations where the systems or policies were not always helping. The work itself is not always the issue. The bigger issue is the structure around the work.

In my experience, management cared more about client satisfaction and metrics than the employees actually taking the calls. Many targets felt unrealistic because employees were judged on things outside their control, such as misrouted calls, unavailable support, broken tools, blank calls, profiles not loading, system faults, and customer frustration caused by company or client policy.

The workplace culture felt very numbers focused. Break time, wrap time, hold time, transfer rate, surveys, scripts, and every small action were monitored. Coaching did not always feel like real support. At times, it felt more like documentation being built against employees instead of a genuine attempt to help them improve.

The hardest part of the job was being blamed for problems that were not created by the advisor. Customers could be upset because of policy, cancellation rules, system issues, or bad routing, but the bad survey or poor interaction still affected the employee. Dealing with rude or abusive customers was also difficult, especially when comments became personal or related to accent or background.

The most enjoyable part of the job was working with some good coworkers and helping customers when the tools actually worked. Some teammates were supportive and tried their best despite the pressure.

Overall, I would not recommend Concentrix unless you have no other option. If you get lucky with a good client and good management, your experience may be different. But if you are assigned to a badly managed project, it can seriously affect your mental health, confidence, and job stability.

A typical day at work involves supporting multiple customers at a time over a chat based forum with account and billing issues, or supporting the first tier inbound level advisors with issues they need assistance with, or customers they are unable to work with.

I have learned the Mac OS and productions systems, some technical skills pertaining to software for both Mac and PC, as well as new billing management systems, soft skills for better customer interactions, and extensive problem solving tactics to provide excellent customer service.

Management is a two level hierarchy, the management within the building is for the most part fantastic, they work directly with the client whose systems we support to relay trends, and emerging issues. The Client, being the second level management has a very well defined way of how they would like us to operate their systems but provide little flexibility for human nature as it comes to us. While thy do strive to improve the work flow, they are lacking somewhat in knowledge of the front-line support, which causes a high turnover rate.

The workplace culture is better than most places, our Human Resources and Advocate committees try to maintain workplace morale by hosting events and fundraisers. The staff in this location are fantastic and a culture of teamwork and support is nurtured by our direct management and team leaders. Seeing the people I work with everyday is without a doubt the best part of the job.

The hardest part of the job is handling multiple customers at once, while maintaining a high standard of customer service, as we are expected to maintain an 80% customer satisfaction rating. This is greatly affected by the customer's initial consultation with our inbound receiving team, the nature and duration of the issue they are experiencing, the length of time it may or has taken so far to resolve the issue, as well as a very strict contract the customer is bound to by the client's terms and conditions. In many cases, our customers know we are doing everything we can, but in a lot of cases we are very limited in the options we can give them, and unfortunately this can reflect poorly in our satisfaction surveys. That said, I am still considered one of our highest performers, and often go above and beyond to keep it that way.

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