AO is recruiting over 250 people to grow its team of customer service specialists, with the tempting offer of a 20 per cent pay rise over 2022 wages to draw in applicants.
The Bolton-based etailer has awarded its contact centre agents pay increases of over 20 per cent in the past 12 months, along with a £400/month performance based bonus, and is also now offering a development pathway, which will see applicants able to carve out a career in customer service, with a starting salary of £24,000, and the ability to increase this up to £31,000 within 12 months.
Jo Salisbury, head of contact centre transformation at AO said: “Making customers happy is at the heart of everything we do and as such, we are delighted to be investing heavily in our people – especially the ones who speak to our customers and are exceptional in the moments that matter. AO now has over 400,000 positive Trust Pilot reviews and they haven’t happened by accident – we have the right people delivering the best proposition to our customers and we wanted to reward them with a new progression pathway.”
“Our customer service specialists go through AO’s Academy process, seeing them grow and develop their existing customer service skills. All colleagues will then have the opportunity to progress every three months, through four achievable development bands, to the stage where they are an expert on all things AO and earning a fantastic £31,000.”
Although the customer service development pathway is a recent introduction, AO said many colleagues have already taken advantage of the career development opportunities available in its contact centre.
Gemma McGhee, contact centre quality manager at AO said: “I joined AO over 10 years ago, in February 2013 as a sales specialist, with no experience or qualifications and have been given all of the tools to develop at my own pace, enabling me to progress.”
“After just a few short months taking inbound calls, I was able to progress to a senior team member position, which opened the door for me to grow to team manager. From there, I was able to gain a wealth of experience, which led me to become a manager and to my current position of quality manager.”
“I have always obsessed about doing the very best for our customers, so I feel like I’m now in a role that is perfect for me, as I’m able to ensure that the very best quality of service is delivered by my team, to every single customer, every single day.”
