Mercedes Josefina L. Cabrera – Customer Service Representative

“A team player, keen to details, highly motivated, reliable and efficient.” This is one of the few statements that best describes me after working in an offshore call centre in Davao City for over 7 years now.

It’s not a perfect world as they say and with these traits that I posses, I believe there are still some opportunities that I need to work and improve on but I make it appoint to improve myself especially with the given task. I have set my mind to things right away even if I need to go extra mile just to get things done I would.

My name is Mercedes Josefina Cabrera. I am a single mum of 3. My friends call me ‘Joey’ but my cousins call me ‘Ditas’ to make their lives easier when they get in touch with me.

I started working at an early age as a front desk assistant and cashier in one of the malls here in Davao City. I also taught English to Koreans but it did not stop there.

As I grew older and my children’s needs became more, I thought of venturing a notch higher and joining the BPO industry. I thought it would give me prestige, fulfilment and of course, a higher pay. At first, I was very hesitant to take this leap because I had not finished my college – I am a 3rd year student who took up Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology because my dream when I was young was to become a Doctor, but everything changed…

I was interviewed for the post of Customer Service Representative. (Not to brag but that was kind of easy!) I passed and worked with them for 3 years and 4 months. I handled 17 accounts with my first company, all order taking and customer service. It was pretty tough handling all those accounts but I really thank God for giving me the strength and guidance to rise to the challenge. After handling 17 accounts, I felt I wanted more, so I ventured into the world of service providers. It’s a tough gig, but I guess with the goal I set for myself I was able to succeed and was promoted first as a subject matter expert and later as a team leader.

My first promotion was a big turn around. I was given a lot of admin tasks on top of my daily tasks that I do for the team in assisting my team lead. It was the first time I felt reluctant and concerned about whether or not I could do it – but at the end of the day my mind told me this is what I wanted and this is my goal in life. I needed to learn and broaden my horizon for me to deliver results with excellence and integrity.

After 5 months of being an SME, my team lead told me he would send an LOI to the boss and his recommendation for team lead. I said no. I felt my learning was inadequate for me to take my position a step higher. But when he left I had to decide and take the promotion.

Being a team lead is a tough job, close to what an SME does so there are a lot of additional tasks that I need to do. To name a few: I do coaching, make sure that we meet the client’s metrics every day, keep my team motivated for them to perform, get buy ins for them not to be absent, more admin tasks like EOD reports using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, call audits and a lot more. I was overwhelmed with all these! And on my first day I wanted to give up, but I always think of my kid’s futures. They are my motivation for me to strive harder.

Now, I have decided that to spend more time with my children I am taking this chance and grab the opportunity to become a Virtual Assistant which I know would be an awesome journey for me and my family.

For a copy of Mercedes’s resume please click here.