Before I got to Cielo, I had to endure a nearly seven-month job search. During that time, I applied for what felt like 1,000 positions, with most of the companies never even responding to me – not so much as a form rejection email. But things were different when I started talking to the Impression Center.
It’s interesting to reflect on now, seeing as I only found this job because I decided to broaden my search and look for “call center” positions. I figured all call centers were all the same, right? Thankfully, I soon learned I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I interviewed for an Impression Center position here at Cielo, met with a handful of people and, most importantly, was able to shadow with a senior agent as she spoke to a candidate over the phone. It was then that I realized just how positively different Cielo was. This was not just another call center, this was the Impression Center. The agent was doing everything she could to make that candidate’s experience a good one. Her concern was not how quickly she got off the phone, but to make sure that candidate walked away with a good feeling about the call and about the client Cielo was representing. Impression Center agents know that the ultimate goal of any call is a positive candidate experience, whether they have to spend 50 minutes or 5 minutes to make it happen.
She took extra steps like looking up all the positions in a certain radius from the candidate’s home, finding the salary range for a position, and emailing the recruiter for additional information. She did all this and more and did it happily. The whole process floored me, because I had never experienced anything like it.
It made me think about my own job search, and how nice it would have been to have a place like the Impression Center to call during those times I was trending toward anxiety. I’m impatient by nature, and that is only magnified during something as stressful as being out of work and looking for a job. There were so many days when I thought to myself about how much better I would feel if I could just find out what was happening with a particular application. I suspect I’m like a lot of people in that I would much rather hear a no than nothing at all. But I didn’t have that chance, because something like the Impression Center just doesn’t exist at most companies.
That experience definitely stayed with me, and I’m happy to say that as I write this I’ve now been at Cielo a little over a month. Like with any new job, it’s been a whirlwind, but one of the best parts has been getting to meet more of our Impression Center agents and seeing that while each has a different style, the focus is always the same – making the candidate experience the best it can be.
I have been many places, but I can honestly say that there is nothing else out there like the Impression Center. It made my own job search a much better experience, and I’m incredibly happy to now be a part of making that happen for so many others.
To read more about our Impression Center from our agents themselves, click here.
Bill Lindala is a Manager at Cielo’s Impression Center. Connect with him on LinkedIn.