Can call centre experience be considered a retail experience ?

Retail experience technically no since retail is a whole different game

You do have sales experience though which is also valued highly. You can always exaggerate since you probably worked at a random call center and the company would not check into it.

No, working in retail usually means selling things. If you were encouraged to promote a product while working in the call center, maybe.

Yeah, I have to do alot of promoting and selling of services and products at my call centre job. My goal is to convince people to schedule in appointment so I guess I do have customer service and sales experience, but not technically retail meh. its so confusing.

customer service…...
telemarketing….I would more call it

How relevant it would be to the person hiring you would depend upon a few different things.

Firstly, the type of retail job. Something like a cashier or customer service info and returns is more oriented to customer relations than specifically to sales so wouldn’t connect as much. But basically, it’s still about people skills so there’s a lot of carry-over.

However, if it were a much more sales-oriented position similar to the floor people at a place like Best Buy or other retail outlet where some amount of prior sales experience and persuasion techniques, ability to think on the fly etc. were of value in closing the deal, that would be a much better fit.

And if you can find a position with some type of commission bonus for closing sales factored in, that would probably suit your previous experience the best.

The other factor is the intangible quality of your ability to sell yourself and your skills to whomever is doing the hiring.

You should definitely list your call center as part of your resume. In the interview is when you can connect the dots as to how these skills transfer to the position for which you’re applying. It’s basically just another sales pitch except that the product is yourself and your skills.

If possible, a letter from a suprvisor attesting to your skills and pleasant manner in dealing with people would also be enormously helpful.

Those hiring retail workers are looking for people with positive personality, dependability, and a good work ethic. The specific job skills (cashier, processing returns, etc. whatever) can be taught fairly easily to anyone with a few brain cells to rub together. It ain’t rocket science :)

The other intangible qualities (positivity, work ethic, maturity, etc.) are more innate and much harder to find.
If you were successful at a call center in sales without going off the deep end, you could most likely handle anything retail could throw your way.

Since you are leaving rather than being let go because you coudn’t cut it, I think your chances would be pretty good.

I’m assuming you’ll be doing your job hunting in retail before quitting the call center ?

Just remember that in today’s economy, you’re not the only over-qualified person seeking a job in retail.

But I think your call center experience and history will be an asset for you.

PS. I worked at a call center for awhile when I was between jobs. It was survey work, but I learned to preface my pitch with the assurance that I was definitely not trying to sell them anything, just get their opinions :)

I have a healthy respect for anyone with the skills to do a sales job requiring cold calling. One of the toughest jobs I can imagine. If you had any degree of success at it for any length of time, that’s an accomplishment you should be proud to put on your resume.

Just figure out a tactful way to remind any interviewer how much perseverance, people skills, dedication and over-all maturity it takes to succeed in the face of constant hangups and negative attitudes. Sell yourself and your skills with confidence.

Retail experience is just that. It’s meeting people face to face and selling merchandise, not hidden behind a telephone. Back many years ago, I worked in a retail shirt shop selling shirts and shoes for men and women. When I applied to become a police officer, this actually was a plus for me, since the Assistan Chief bought his shirts at my place of employment. My point is this: your experience on the phone may not help you directly, but maybe indirectly, like mine.

Some person you have talked to on the phone, just might be your interviewer in a retail sales job.

You just never know,

Personally, I think telemarketing is more difficult than retail. In face-to-face situations, people are much more polite, generally speaking. If they don’t want help, they say “No thanks” and continue browsing. If a customer gets a telemarketing phone call that they don’t want, they might just hang up, they might tell the caller to fuck off, they might listen and politely say “No thanks” (the latter is least common).

That being said, I don’t think telemarketing officially “counts” as retail experience, but if you’re applying for a retail job that requires retail experience, mention it anyway. It might not help enough to get you that job, but it certainly won’t hurt you.

Good luck!