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BBC 3 Program 'The Call Centre' Captures Fans and Comments

August 08, 2013
By Peter Bernstein - Senior Editor

For those of you who follow my curiosity about all things related to contact center solutions, you know I am subscribed to CallCenterPlanet and have suggested previously that you should join as well. This is a terrific resource for getting news, insights and real-time information about the global community of contact center workers and administrators.  


Today I happened upon something which I was unaware of that I thought would be of interest. It turns out that in the U.K. on BBC 3 there is a reality TV series, unfortunately only available for viewing in the U.K., called appropriately “The Call Centre.”   It follows the trials and tribulations of a call center in Swansea, which happens to be the third-largest one in the U.K. If you do not live in the U.K. you can follow the happenings and comments on them on Twitter @CallCentreBBC. In fact, the tweets have made me envious. I’d like to watch. 

I bring this up because somebody who is watching the show is Real Results Training MD Carolyn Blunt, recently voted The Contact Centre Industry’s ‘Most Respected Person.’  She recently posted a blog that provides her five reasons why she would be more than happy for her children to work in a call center.

Here is what Carolyn had to say.

“My kids are currently 7 and 4 and want to be an author and a power ranger when they grow up. But, if that eludes them, here is why I would be more than happy for them to work alongside almost 5 percent of the UK population in a call centre...

  1. You learn to communicate. To succeed you need to learn to listen, get concise, speak clearly and fluently and with energy. You have to ask good quality questions and learn to keep conversations on track.
  2. You learn people skills. To find common ground, make small talk and to build rapport. To use humor and find the positives in every situation. Influencing skills to cross sell or upsell. You learn how to calm people down or build confidence in others. You learn to empathise and problem-solve from the others person's perspective.
  3. You learn tenacity. You have to keep motivated to take or make those calls. Self discipline, personal resilience and time management are key.
  4. You learn the importance of teamwork. Love or loathe Nev he has got team spirit in that place and it all snowballs from him. When they sang 'we are family' I wanted to be in their family! The support, friends and (sometimes romance!) is all part of this unique and wonderful close-knit environment. You only get out what you put in and everyone needs to do their fair share.
  5. You broaden your horizons. If you think of a call center job being 'stick in a building in a building on a business park' you are looking at it all wrong. Those telephone lines bring in people from all walks of life and as almost 90 percent of U.K. call centers are inbound, the customer is calling YOU to ask for help. Walking out of that business park building at the end of a shift knowing you helped people, learned life skills and got paid and had fun? Well, it sounds like a good deal to me.”

 Suffice it to say that given all of the bad mouthing of contact centers in general, and the unhappiness of those in the U.K. in particular, this endorsement of becoming an agent could not come at a better time. Clearly, contact centers are a vital part of the U.K. economy. What’s more, based on the growing importance of improving the customer experience and acknowledgement that contact centers are core to such efforts, attracting and keeping talented people is becoming critical.

While I do not have visibility into the impact the TV show has had on either polishing or tarnishing the reputation of contact centers and those who work there, it is nice there is one respected voice out there endorsing contact centers as a good not bad career choice.


Edited by Rachel Ramsey



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