customer service representative

insurance agent

call center representative

sales representative

healthcare customer service representative

Dialog Direct

The Good: You're just there for a job and the occasional overtime 

(Unless if they follow through on the overtime you worked.  It is handled by consent, sign up, and verification of a sup that you were there.  Even when doing all things up to their procedure, you are personally judged if they are going to pay you for OT or not.  Not based on professional acumen, skill, or metrics with the costumer you are serving.  

You are SOL if they deem you not 'worthy' enough to get the pay or get told to be on a forced leave for a few days from work if they decide not to pay your OT. They justify this as OT being made up for time worked or you gave them free work.  It doesn't help keeping a paper trail with this company on who said what or who authorized the OT and who you can count on on being liable to pay the OT.  Management doesn't take ownership of their own supporting managers and run them under the bus.  Being the whipping boy/girl appears to be the standard of a supporting manager being 'in line' of the more dominant manager than there to be a clear evidence or presence of separated roles and distinctions within respects of either manager role. They care about having their call quo being covered and rarely ever recognize the employees that make sacrifices happen to save them from their client expectations in maintaining their contract.)

The Bad:
*A lot of Territorial Office Drama*
Management has a lot of internal/personal drama they push on employees with their own problems presuming that its OK or its a part of your job to be their doormat.  Management seemed to lack a lot of training as they clung to 'high school' dynamics or to default inflating the biggest gossip on a manager or another team, to ostracize or drive a wedge enough to presume that they have the way of 'good' in their own favor based on a taste for their own personal minutiae.  Actual skill, or professional approach is above the comprehension level to be understood.  It is more about rank and rank driving the belief of reality than actually leading or staying within concert with business, business proceedings.

*Local Dogmatic Drama*
Whenever there isn't a strong presence from leadership or a role of leadership in management or HR retaining the respect of the employee, the rest of the employees/ lower management tend to insert their local emotions and beliefs of what their qualification is to employee of 'worth' to an odd notion of 'worthy' spectrum. 
As LDS is the most predominant influence in this area, the more dominant LDS in this workplace assert their own beliefs through discriminatory practices, work dynamic attrition, retaliation on intolerance of lifestyle differences, and forcing values/ideals through intimidation or threat of firing someone based on different beliefs/values/political regards.  
NOT ALL LDS people practice this, however, as it has been more trended in later years for a popularity within some local LDS business circles to have businesses totally staffed with LDS employees to be an all LDS business for branding employment - It is more accepted to punish your hard working employee for being a well constituted / well contributing employee (and who is not LDS).  
You unfortunately see quite a bit of solicitation of religion in the workplace being pushed as an obligated pressure to work there, or to keep your job operating off of pervading mob dynamics.  If your manager is a narrow minded LDS manipulator... be prepared to be gas lighted by them a lot as it can be a common tactic they feel is necessary to break you in order to cede your reality to their command and fall in line with their beliefs.
Religious harassment is ridiculously ridiculous.  They don't care if you have a family, if you're a citizen, or if you're pulling your own weight, quite a few individuals get stuck in their own purview of worthiness and their superiority complex pulls some sort of belief of prejudice with the indignity they derive from an injustice they suffer to their own dignity trespassed.
*Double Standard Drama*
If you are pulling your weight or if you are a high performer, you are punished for it, as they will bury you with more obligations and more responsibilities not related to your own job (pushing it on for being a team member).  The individuals who are awarded with getting their holidays honored, getting a pay raise, getting a promotion are people who work the social influence within the office to rise to the top.  It has nothing to do with skill, it has nothing to do with education, it has nothing to do with tenure, it has nothing to do with attendance, it has nothing to do with contribution.  There are individuals who are with the company for 3-4 weeks who get a higher consideration for work schedule changes, certain days off, any holiday given to them just for playing the social atmosphere and not having a drop of education or experience into the industry itself.    
If you are LDS and not of the favoritism niche that rules the office, you get buried with obligations to work on religion observation days (Sundays) and not really get any of your life honored - vacation days get revoked 1 day before the vacation day starts just as it was honored 2 months ago.

The company pushed very heavily on the strong notion with discipline and termination if politics or religion was to be brought up.  It didn't push or reinforce its own stand when management or someone else in a higher social standing in the office were to do so to another employee.  If the employee felt uncomfortable and stated that they didn't want religion or politics to be brought up, the company would then see it as an affront with their own values and criticize and put the employee that was being harassed on disciplinary action/ termination and not the provoker.  The grounds that were justified was that the employee identified the issue as being political or religious in which HR believed to judicate than to understand the situation that they were letting play out.

There are several double standards within the operations of this company.  Be careful what they ask for.  They present an offer as a pitch to get you to do something, but they in return do not follow up with their commitment, nor do they go through with their word.  They often will give you the run around until you give up and cede your sanity. 

*Gossip Drama*
As this is a bit of a LDS-centric workplace due to location unfortunately some bad habits from the LDS minded individuals also leak into the workplace and become the star role of reality than there being a real verifiable reality.  Gossip drives the popularity appeal of the employee and it also drives the dependability of the employee.  If someone targets another off of their own personal bias or angst, they are heavy in their emotions, and they let off a campaign to destroy the other person through gossip, all others cede for their 'fame' in their own sick twisted design for the spotlight.  

My background with this company: 
I had been with this company for 6 years.  I was excited for growth opportunities and always believed that attitude made the difference at the work place.  I was very ambitious, pretty optimistic, but I was also terribly naive.  I've seen a lot of ridiculousness, but saw them as just opportunities of improvement.  I believed so long as you had a working engine within the company, the other parts can come in later and help compliment the growth of the company.  
That sort of belief never self proved itself. It was obscured a lot through  office politics, the 'adult daycare' environment, and office drama.  People operated more in regimes and reigns than being well coordinated within their own department, office, or to carry a bar relevant to their own business charter.  
There were days that working for the company felt like it was more like being in a band that didn't know how to coordinate with each other or agree with each other.  Well Bands.. even companies..  need to be well focused with what they want to do or what they need to get done.  Without that they are just rudderless and do a great job of moving, but moving in circles and driving themselves and each other crazy.

This paragraph is going to be completely unbiased and stick to things that I *know* for a fact most people who work there, including management, human resources, and everyday people will agree on.

Dialogue Direct is a low-pay call center job that will hire just about anybody whether they can pass a drug test or not (they lie and say they will drug test you, but they don't). If you are the kind of person who is successful in call centers, you have no reason to work here because you can get a job somewhere else doing the same thing for more money. If you have no experience and want a call-center job that requires experience, then work here. Also, if you want a paycheck, they're pretty reliable about that. Benefits are horrible. When working there, I elected to keep ObamaCare/TrumpCare/WhateverCare instead of take a chance with their horrible programs. By the way, if you were to get fired, your health insurance (provided that you had their horrible policy) would end the same hour of your termination. My supervisor needed to borrow prescription drugs from employees because she couldn't afford to see a doctor even with the insurance they offered (which is better than the one for entry levels).

One of my coworkers, someone I was sitting nearby on a constant basis and had a decent at work relationship with ended up dropping dead in the middle of her shift one day. What angered me the most was the way that I found out about it, (by asking after I hadn't seen her for a week) and the way nobody in upper management seemed to care or have us reflect, even notify us of a death in the building. To be fair, her supervisor was very involved and visited her in the hospital and comforted her boyfriend and even allowed him to call as much as he needed to just to talk in the days after she passed. I do feel the need to mention the healthcare again, because this very sweet lady had in the past asked me to use my insurance to get her an inhaler because she couldn't afford one and saw me using it. I don't know what killed her other than a stroke, but I do have to wonder if had she had access to an inhaler for her asthma, she would still be alive.

I, for reasons I opt not to share on here, missed a lot of work. A lot. I was surprised that they didn't fire me. My supervisor was the reason they didn't, he kept opting to keep me even though I missed 3/5 days most weeks, left early and came late the days I did come. Just call in, even if it's in the middle of your shift, and you'll be good, depending on your sup. 

You will probably meet some of the sweetest co-workers in the world here as well as more than a few here today gone tomorrow types, not very many mean people, if any. You'll find that even the most hardened and unfriendly are nice underneath the exterior. 

I should probably relate this too, one of the security guards up there was a very nice "christian" man who could have been anyones brother or best friend. He wanted to borrow $90 from me. I didn't give it to him because I didn't have it but by the time he was suppose to pay me back, he had mysteriously disappeared.

A whole lot of world in that one little bricked up corner office building connected to a warehouse. You'll love it or you'll hate it. Some people have been there 10+ years, but they are not the type who are sole breadwinners for their family. I loved Dialogue Direct and really liked my supervisor as a person. I left for the same reason that most people leave, because I found a better paying job with actual benefits.

I spent a month getting training from this company, putting my soul into being the best employee I could be with the information they provided. Then when it was time to finally take calls, absolutely nothing I had learned was relevant. I quickly realized the way departments are organized was completely inefficient and the spectrum of customer issues I was expected to deal with went way beyond what my training prepared me for. 

We were told to just 'look in the IKB' for anything we didn't immediately know how to handle, but the IKB looked like it hadn't been updated since the early 2000's. Entire sections had the wrong info, so I would give customers the wrong info, and they would call back even more frustrated, and managers would refuse to acknowledge the issue was the terrible IKB and vouch for berating staff instead. 

If I asked a question in the chat, it would often not get a response from the SME's for over fifteen minutes. A couple times I had customers on hold for an hour waiting for someone to help me. 

On top of all that, the remote software they used would frequently shut my system down abruptly, log me out, or make it so certain letters on my keyboard could not be typed. I went to the IT department several times and they always insisted it was my drivers (it was not), and each time they were unable to diagnose the issue. I was forced to use the built in computer keyboard function you click with a mouse, which is much too slow to do the work I needed to do. I know it was the remote software because as soon as I quit and got rid of it, there were no more issues and my brand new computer went back to working perfectly fine. 

I lost so many hours on my paycheck dealing with technical issues and the constant pressure to perform with zero support that my mental health took a severe nose dive, and I had a mental breakdown about a month into my employment. The ONLY positive of this job was the remote nature of the work, and even that was ruined by the faulty software and abysmal levels of organization for communication and escalation. There are now plenty of other, better paying work from home options available. Do not waste your time and energy here for the grossly underwhelming amount of compensation you'll receive for the work you'll do.

Time I worked there: 2 Months

Department: Billing & Enrollment with Horizon in NJ 

Training: Duration was for 6 weeks. It depends on what department they want to put you in, some last for 10, others less. The trainer was cool: a laidback guy (sometimes a little too laidback), knowledgeable, and very helpful. It's a lot of information, but they give you reference guides, input key guides, etc. because they know it's too much to remember. I feel the lack of drug tests (or not, maybe) brings some unfavorable ppl, but they usually don't make it pass training (there were a few physical altercations). Which means their turnover rate is high.

Work Culture/Environment: They need to improve on their cleanliness, I remember going into one of the break rooms and seeing an Orkin glue trap of some sort underneath the computer area kinda bothered me (but hey it's good they have traps around, better than nothing). But I think it's mainly employees esp. those in training that aren't cleaning up after themselves plus the lack of having some people clean up the break & training rooms but again, I guess that would be the employees job which would make some sense.

I don't know too much about the Dialog Bucks, but from what I can remember they're work currency that can be used to get food, or some other items such as a headset I think. One can attain them through your team lead if they're impressed with your call record and some other methods I can't remember, sorry.

They also have an attendance point system, which can be a little ridiculous, but I basically had nearly perfect attendance so I can't be too critical of it. If I remember correctly, you have a total of 7 points and more than that you'll be terminated. Absent without proper excuse = 1 pt., if you're late (I think past 5 mins) = 1/2 pt. or a 1/4 and accrues by the minute or half hour. I could be wrong because again I had nearly perfect attendance and didn't pay much attention to the point system.

They do provide health insurance after working there for 6 months I believe.


But call center life isn't for me, so I left and found other work.

Typical day is logging in early, if 30 seconds to 1 hour late you are counted off, taking back to back calls from the time you log in until you log out usually.  I learned that nothing matters except talk time, that is why it is so stressful, you have to have talk time down between 3.10 min to 3:30 min and if not you could be punished.  By punishment I mean, given four days off without pay and no one tells you what is going on or why just not to come in until you speak to your manager 4 days later.  I work at home so great not having to drive but horrible too because since calls are back to back non-stop from the time you log on, you need more than two 15 min breaks and lunch just to stay sane.  The hardest part of the job is staying within the talk time limits that are set because you cannot offer anything of help to customer really, fretting on every call that you will talk too much or help someone too much.  Never thought that in Customer Service being helpful to the customer would be frowned upon but it is, I was actually too helpful and punished for it because my talk time wasn't going down fast enough, I was trying to help customers and talking too long on the calls.  Most enjoyable part of the job is being able to be at home.  Don't think I could handle working in a call center doing this particular job.  The training needs to be more extensive and more information needs to be given to agents, there is so much that is not even covered in the training that as an agent you have to deal with and not being informed isn't a good thing and makes us agents look stupid and it is actually embarrassing.  There are items not covered in training that you deal with over and over and if you have no idea what the customer is talking about or how to help them, well, who's fault is that?  Not the agents for sure but they get blamed by the customers because they are not able to help them, whether it be the online accounts or the automated system, both need to be included in the training because there was no training on either of these and this is where most customers have their issues and need the most help.

Come in at the start of your shift and get everything up on the computer you will need for the day, and once on the phones you immediately start helping people. Learned how to properly deal with customers over the phone and how to communicate with service providers across the country and get them where they need to be with the right tools for the job they would be doing, and how to use the multiple systems for the job together to get things done right on the first call. Management was always not far away and able to help with whatever problems may have been encountered. They would speck with the more aggressive customers if need be or if a customer just needed information I may not have had. Hardest part of the job would be the most upset of customers who also did not know where they were or what problem they had. While trying to get the information needed from these customers they would just get upset and angry about you not already knowing what you were asking for and sometimes even refuse to attempt to help you help them thinking that you already had all that information and you should tell them that , eventually you could get most to calm down to help find where they were but others just could not be dealt with at which point we had to suggest they call 991 as they could better find and assist them as well as get someone out to help the faster. As far as enjoyment goes it was just a good environment to be in, nice coworkers, inside climate was kept well and work areas maintained, and you didn't feel restrained in the least while you were there, you were a free person not just some mindless, faceless worker.

Beginning to wonder if the place is shutting its doors soon.  The cleaning job of the building has been cut down to part time, 2nd shift told to shut off all the lights but the one area where 3rd shifters work when the last 2nd shift person goes home for the night. 

Had dogs sniffing for all sorts of nasty bugs.  Never heard of this being necessary at any local factory.

If you're good at stuffing your feelings you'll do well here.  Customers are sometimes rude and very demanding and horrible to speak with.  You are not allowed to say much and the computers are outdated and extremely slow with little hard drive storage.

The health insurance offered is not the worst around, but very lacking to be sure.  If you want decent coverage you pay a small fortune.  Very low pay and people newly hired get paid more than many of those who have been there for several years.

Phones through internet and act up a lot some days.  Computer system to get in/out acts up sometimes too.  

Sudden changes with little training and any little thing gets your quality scores marked down, plus ALL calls are recorded.  One bad call can get you fired - a LOT of stress added  to an already stressful job.

The team leads try to help you during unexpected issues at home/with daycare, etc., if you talk to them about it.  Hard to get help so they try to keep what they have if possible.

More and more gets added to your responsibilities and little extra time is figured in to your call times.  You have to do more work and they monitor everything because they don't get paid if your calls are too long and you have no control over what callers go to your phone.

The co-workers are great though. 

You have a steady paycheck if you show up for work all the time.  Absenteeism is really bad here and they give free lunch for perfect attendance but the same people seem to be the ones who get a free lunch every month.

The entire day consists of assisting members about their claims, benefits, insurance questions, etc. Mixed in with a little people-watching of the management & employee call center drama

The job itself is interesting and fun once you learn how everything works. However, the pay rate is terrible & unrewarding for how much deal with on a daily basis. Even if you're a consistently great employee, management waves opportunities of advancement in your face but rarely reward it. Instead you are given a" jeans day" almost every day of the week just because the team leader feels like it. Yet, the employees who barely show up to work get promoted, must be a coincidence that they're close friends with the team leader. Employees who enjoy the work, come to work, and do the job great, even while talking to irate and frustrating members, rarely get recognized with promotions, or most importantly with pay. You might get 75 cents and... oh boy... jeans.

Besides the daily gossip between management and employees, the clients treat you like little robotic money-makers. They expect that you want to come to work for terrible pay and enjoy it, along with the disgusting musty bathrooms and lunchroom. Management is always complaining about how employees do not finish their shifts or call off work often (Gee. I wonder why), however they themselves do not stay for their entire shift either and make you feel terrible for not wanting to come in. Even if you're sick or have a medical condition, they'll fire you anyway if you miss work for it, but hide the real reason, it's to replace you temporarily with a whole new training class. Then they make promises of raises and promotions, just to work them to death and crush their souls as well. 

The hardest part of the job is deciding if you want to consistently kill your soul everyday just to pay your bills, or be homeless instead.

I was there for health care open enrollment.

The training was done by someone whom never sold health insurance, and got licensed to teach the class. Therefore, that person was not qualified to teach new people, many of whom were newly licensed, how to sell health insurance.

Actual sales training was non existent. The "coaches" (supervisors) to my knowledge never sold health insurance either. Therefore, they were of no use.

Unless you actually sold health insurance before you were unprepared.

Sales on the average were low because the agents had virtually no sales training, and didn't really understand the programs themselves.

The first month we couldn't do anything because of system problems. At no time did I see anyone actually try and fix these problems.

Also at no time can you have a phone out or even charge your phone using their outlet or computer. Since this is in a bad neighborhood that is a big negative working for this company.

One of the problems I took the initiative and worked it out myself.

The supervisor(s) sits higher than the people in his/her cubicle so  that he/she can watch all the children.

I didn't like the micromanagement. No matter how well you sold, they were constantly managing via their computer system of how long you are in the bathroom, or exactly what you are doing when you aren't on a call.

I wish they spent at least equal time and effort in helping the agents how to sell.

You have 1/2 hour for lunch/dinner which barely gives you time to eat. It doesn't give you time to relax

They also constantly change their commitments. The program was initially supposed to go to the end of March, but toward the end, they told us it would end February 15.

On the plus side you know you will get paid what you earned. These days that is saying a lot too.

I have nothing good to say about this company. Too many bad things to list. To summarize they want people that are just good enough to learn there the job but are too stupid to challenge management on anything. I was constantly stroked and told what a great employee I was and that they wanted me on bigger projects. Problem is they never offered more than .25 an hour raise and that was at the end of a years employment. The management staff attempted to play the employees like suckers and were completely detached from what was going on below their level. They offer basically the worst benefits I have ever seen from a big company. I was played as though I was this great employee that was irreplaceable but when I began to question things I got a call from the call center manager who told me they were letting me go. This man is a travesty and has no idea what he's doing and if corporate had any idea how he treats people and does his job they would let him go.  He was notorious for sending out emails to the entire company that were only intended for 10% of the staff. This often left you wondering how it applied to you and when I would call him and tell him I had already sent him what he was asking me urgently for he would tell me it did not apply to me and that it's easier to just send to the entire mailing list than too pick out the names in question. This is typical of the day to day operations at what was once called NOVO 1.  It's a very bad place to work and its run locally in Billings Montana by very bad and inept people who do not care at all about the people that work for them. I never write up any reviews but this is too important to not let people know what they are in store for, Apply at you own risk for you have been warned!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 2 salaries reported	$16.50 per hour
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Sales representative 27 salaries reported	$11.00 per hour
Healthcare customer service representative 21 salaries reported	$12.00 per hour

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