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It's funny how little these companies give a gently caress about metrics. They just make you follow them, even when poo poo that shouldn't affect it does. Recently, we've had a rash (Past two days I could probably get 200+ examples) of some of our older MTA modems failing. They are old Docsis 1 modems and should have been replaced years ago. The best part of this is that the company just had a big drive to clear out old docsis modems. These were nto included. So now we have to reset the modem and try to convince the customer to swap it at a local office, which rarely works. I've had 8 trouble calls because of this today. Others have had more. I guarantee everyone has had 3-5 of these modems a day since this problem started. What is management doing to make sure that this problem that shouldn't have been ours in the first place is fixed? Not a goddamn thing. So now the metrics that control our bonuses and possibly our jobs are being hit hard with no way to alleviate the problem.
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May 11, 2012 01:50
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I have 2 team mates that got cross trained to handle another set of calls from licensed agents. About 30% of their calls now are agents calling in. They're not allowed to transfer them to the survey, but their metric for the survey stays the same, even though they have a huge influx of calls that they can't transfer. WELP!
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May 11, 2012 03:24
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My apologies to people from there, but in a work capacity, gently caress Florida. Either you're old/senile, are unable to comprehend English or are generally an rear end in a top hat.
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May 13, 2012 03:02
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Everyone seems to develop their own prejudices working in a call center but I started feeling a lot of antipathy toward Texans. Longhorns, Cowboys, blah blah, who gives a gently caress.
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May 13, 2012 03:03
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I love Texans. It's funny, if you asked people to rank stereotypical categories of people in a list of douchebags who treat service people like poo poo, I bet it'd be the reverse of what I feel. Teenagers and young 20's? Great. They don't know poo poo about insurance they KNOW they don't know poo poo, and they want to understand, I can mold their malleable minds to understand how car insurance works. Military people are fantastic, they're so respectful and patient, even when they're on a lovely phone in Afghanistan with 5 second delay. Southern people? Awesome manners. Yes sir, no sir. Thank you sir, appreciate ya. Etc. Your average southerner is fantastic. So who tops the list? Who are the most entitled assholish abusive hot heads? Your average middle aged middle class to upper class white people in the Northeast, especially the women. They're so loving entitled. They don't hesitate to say they'll be talking to their lawyer, or suing, or complaining to the BBB, or cancelling and telling all their friends to cancel, nobody told me this, nobody told me that, I don't have time to do this just <break a bunch of laws to accommodate me>, etc. UGH.
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May 13, 2012 03:15
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Well, back to the call centre grind for me tomorrow.  . Ah well, I'll only be doing it six hours a day, not 9+commute. And I'll be doing it from home. So I suppose it won't be that bad, but the idiots... oh god, the idiots.
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May 14, 2012 05:34
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Loving Life Partner posted:I love Texans. It's funny, if you asked people to rank stereotypical categories of people in a list of douchebags who treat service people like poo poo, I bet it'd be the reverse of what I feel. The lower-middle-class are entitles pieces of poo poo, and really don't get that to get anywhere reasonable in life you need to be polite, know people and get along with them. It's the kind of person who just has had a reasonable life dropped in their lap without ever being taught to appreciate it.
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May 14, 2012 16:22
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I'm in the loving Twilight Zone at work. I mentioned doing some art for some other teams on the last page and this quickly spiraled into doing posters for a new sales promo at my call center that has apparently been picked up by other divisions and now I've got an interview with our ad sales department on Wednesday. I am so not used to positive feedback, much less positive anything going on here, it's freaking me out.
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May 14, 2012 16:47
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Tech support Goon here. I don't take as many calls as most of you, but in between those calls, I also work on tickets. We had hundreds of tickets in our queue for months and we just recently got it down to about 25-50 a day. We were congratulated for doing such a great job ... initially. How many emails we send out on these tickets is a major factor of our productivity metrics. With ticket volume drastically reduced, everyone's numbers have gone down, and this needs to be fixed right away!  We recently terminated a customer's account. This customer was very entitled and had a problem that she refused to discuss. It was the weirdest thing. Why do you call technical support and not tell them the problem? Somehow she got the CEO's number and pestered him until he ordered us to turn her poo poo off. Nice to know that you can't abuse the important people in our organization.
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May 15, 2012 04:04
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Had my first bomb threat at work today.  2 hours paid time for doing nothing at all. That said, the police were there for about 30 minutes before evacuating us. They figure it was a disgruntled employee who had been fired the previous day.
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May 16, 2012 01:00
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People like this are the reason why I don't work in a call center anymore. They're also the reason why I preferred my Tier 1 repair calls over my billing calls at the cable company where I worked.
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May 16, 2012 01:31
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constantIllusion posted:People like this are the reason why I don't work in a call center anymore. I just want to know where they live where their tax is at ~1.5%.
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May 16, 2012 01:36
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Luquos posted:Ah, actually, this makes a lot of sense. Then again, maybe our client is just a piece of poo poo, I don't know (oh wait, our client is a piece of poo poo). Boomer The Cannon fucked around with this message at 02:19 on May 16, 2012 |
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May 16, 2012 02:15
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 Thank you for calling AwfulHost, this is Console Parade, how can I help you? <screaming> Ma'am, so that I can assist you, please stop screaming. <screaming> I need you to stop screaming. <screaming> If you don't stop screaming, I'm going to end this call. <screaming> Please call us back when you can stop screaming. Have a nice day.My next call: Thank you for calling AwfulHost, this is Console Parade, how can I help you? <Husband joins his wife to scream at me> I terminated your last call because you wouldn't stop screaming. Now there is twice as much screaming. I have no choice but to hang up twice.Probably going to be disciplined for this tomorrow but it was worth it. e: Do assholes really think we care when they threaten to cancel their account? If you're an rear end in a top hat, I don't want to deal with you anymore. For your convenience, I will skip the usual retention effort.
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May 16, 2012 03:01
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Boomer The Cannon posted:
A common sentiment, apparently.
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May 16, 2012 21:00
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I find it's interesting to try to guess people's political affiliations by whether they use the term 'the President' or 'Obama.' What isn't fun is trying to not piss them off while also not agreeing with the stupid, racist poo poo that comes out of their mouths at the same time.
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May 17, 2012 00:00
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Console Parade posted:
Were they screaming words or just screaming to make noise?
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May 17, 2012 00:23
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constantIllusion posted:People like this are the reason why I don't work in a call center anymore. People like that guy, and also reps who don't give a poo poo and say "yeah, of course we have a deal Mr. Smith"
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May 17, 2012 01:18
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bulbous nub posted:Training at my last job was 5 weeks of in class work and 1 week of training bay and was broken down in to 2 weeks of Voice support training, 2 weeks of Data support training, and 1 week of Video support training (which is what 65% of our calls were about, no joke.) I work at the same place you do. That poo poo made me so nervous 
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May 17, 2012 02:35
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Well, back to the call centre grind for me tomorrow. 'Sup call centre from home buddy. I'm finding drinking takes the edge off. Plus a good bluetooth headset so I can wander around the house instead of being stuck in front of the laptop all shift long.
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May 17, 2012 08:44
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Console Parade posted:
This is why I love my job. There was one client that continously threatened to cut people's balls off. Like, if you told her "I'm sorry, we're waiting on social security" her response would be "either you get me an answer or I'll cut your balls off" etc. The first thing you saw when you opened her file was a giant note that said "CLIENT HAS MENTAL ISSUES. IF SHE IS RUDE AND/OR UNABLE TO TALK CALMLY, INFORM HER TO CALL BACK WHEN SHE IS ABLE TO TALK IN A CALM MANNER AND TERMINATE CALL." ...yeah, we got told "hang up on her when she's acting nuts" We have discretion to end calls if we're getting yelled at. They start screaming at us, we can terminate the call when we've had enough, just as long as we inform the clients we can't help until they're willing to be reasonable. (although the best file note still goes to the president of the company, from way back when he used to actually deal with cases himself - "Client's retarded. Really retarded. Speak to his brother")
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May 17, 2012 11:25
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AA is for Quitters posted:This is why I love my job. There was one client that continously threatened to cut people's balls off. Like, if you told her "I'm sorry, we're waiting on social security" her response would be "either you get me an answer or I'll cut your balls off" etc. The first thing you saw when you opened her file was a giant note that said "CLIENT HAS MENTAL ISSUES. IF SHE IS RUDE AND/OR UNABLE TO TALK CALMLY, INFORM HER TO CALL BACK WHEN SHE IS ABLE TO TALK IN A CALM MANNER AND TERMINATE CALL." That's one thing I like too. Client's swearing at me? "I won't continue this call until you calm down." Still swearing? "I warned you. I'm disconnecting the call." Click, add notes, move on. I had one guy excuse his constant swearing at me as "not at me" and because "they do it on South Park!" No loving poo poo Sherlock they had an entire episode devoted to crap coming out of your mouth, I suppose you do that too since it's apparently socially acceptable? One thing that's really loving bothering me is how we're supposed to have improved our call times with this new system and nobody has. Hell, national average has tanked like a ROCK. And yet they put the bar up to a level most people weren't making BEFORE we switched. I'm applying for another department, with a shift change next week anyway, so I'm praying to god that this will allow me to get better. I've had too many single calls ruin my loving stats lately.
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May 17, 2012 19:41
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dustbin posted:Were they screaming words or just screaming to make noise? Words. Unsatisfactory service! Your coworkers are useless morons! And so on. I like how someone can actually bitch for an entire minute without mentioning the nature of the problem itself or their account details and then have the audacity to claim they don't have time to be on the phone all day. Console Parade fucked around with this message at 04:12 on May 18, 2012 |
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May 18, 2012 04:08
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Chicken Doodle posted:One thing that's really loving bothering me is how we're supposed to have improved our call times with this new system and nobody has. Hell, national average has tanked like a ROCK. And yet they put the bar up to a level most people weren't making BEFORE we switched. I'm applying for another department, with a shift change next week anyway, so I'm praying to god that this will allow me to get better. I've had too many single calls ruin my loving stats lately. This is on purpose. They don't want people to do well or they don't have a cudgel. Oh, and if you have performance bonuses they don't want to pay them.
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May 18, 2012 04:12
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:This is on purpose. They don't want people to do well or they don't have a cudgel. Oh, and if you have performance bonuses they don't want to pay them.
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May 19, 2012 00:46
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Chicken Doodle posted:One thing that's really loving bothering me is how we're supposed to have improved our call times with this new system and nobody has. Hell, national average has tanked like a ROCK. And yet they put the bar up to a level most people weren't making BEFORE we switched. I'm applying for another department, with a shift change next week anyway, so I'm praying to god that this will allow me to get better. I've had too many single calls ruin my loving stats lately. That's just a new phase in the experiment. I'm not the only one that considers call center work to be simply a large, sadistic psychological experiment, am I?
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May 19, 2012 14:35
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Kat Delacour posted:'Sup call centre from home buddy. I'm finding drinking takes the edge off. Plus a good bluetooth headset so I can wander around the house instead of being stuck in front of the laptop all shift long. I'm moving in a few weeks and turning the apartment's spare bedroom into an office so that work isn't staring me in the face while im not working. Still looking for decent diversions for my downtime, though.
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May 20, 2012 20:48
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Well, I just had my 60 day review on Friday. It was kind of random because my friend who got me the interview and who started about a month before me had his already, obviously, and they gave him a heads up in advance, at least a day or so. With me, it was just our brand new supervisor who I barely even know yet coming up to me and saying "Put yourself in Paperwork, come with me." Haha I must have looked pretty nervous because she was like "Oh, don't worry, nothing bad." I didn't think it was going to be anything bad per se, but it's a call center, so you never know! Anyway, I got top scores on all criteria, she told me that she's really glad she has people like me on her team because I make her job a lot easier, and then they gave me a $1/hour raise! Not much, but it's more than all the raises I got COMBINED in the just over 4.5 years I worked at Kinkos! They've also changed the bonus structure so now the weekly bonus is based on actual KPIs and numbers and stuff, not just attendance. You have to hit the perfect attendance to qualify for anything, but whereas before it was a $0.50/hour bonus for the week you hit attendance, now it is up to $1/hour; there's 4 different criteria and each is worth $0.25/hour, so if you hit everything you get the dollar. My numbers are considered "green" and they could actually drop pretty significantly and still be "green." If I stay in the green for the next 3 months, I get another permanent raise of $1/hour. I would still be eligible for the bonuses, too, so let's see. Started out 4.5 years ago at Kinkos making $9.76. When I finally left, I made $10.52. The new job started me at $10, 2 months later I'm at $11 with the potential to make $12 each week, and in 3 months I will probably be making $12 with the potential to get $13!!! Not too shabby! It's also really fuckin crazy how appreciated I am, my account manager tells me at least once or twice a week how much they appreciate having me on the team, etc. I am SO not used to that poo poo right now, I always blush and think I'm being passive-aggressively made fun of or something, since it's so unnatural-sounding, to actually be praised for your contributions. Does anyone else use Composit?
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May 21, 2012 03:27
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So I've survived training, guys. One and a half more days and I'll be going live on the floor for the first time. And that is horrifying to me. Don't get me wrong, I knew the real job would start soon. And I've even been reassured that everybody will forget everything they learned when they first go out onto the floor. That said, I feel I had so much info shoved at me, I'm just overwhelmed and I feel incredibly over my head. I feel like I'll probably cry on my first call (it's a stress reaction, I nearly cried the first time I got behind the wheel of a car). Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. Is that normal? Like, when you all started at your respective call centres, did you feel as overwhelmed and worried and ill prepared as I feel now?
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May 21, 2012 03:42
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Yes.
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May 21, 2012 04:19
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Yep. Except what the gently caress, at least my call center did a few weeks of live calls with someone there to support you first. Man. That's lovely.
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May 21, 2012 04:23
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cuntvalet posted:Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. Don't worry about it. Just remember 2 things: 1. Nobody knows how long anything is going to take when they call you. 2. Nobody expects very much out of you when they call anyway.
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May 21, 2012 06:17
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To be the best call rep ever in the eyes of the customer you don't actually need to do much. Just be not poo poo. They expect you to be dumb, slow, wrong and unable to help them. Do better than that in just one and they'll be impressed. *People who are just pricks in general are not included in this observation, you could actually be Jesus answering the phones and both heal them and forgive their sins as an added bonus as well as fixing their internet or whatever and they'd still cuss you out.
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May 21, 2012 17:57
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Thanks guys, I really appreciate the input. I also know that a bunch of people in my training class feel the same way I do, so it's reassuring at least.Chicken Doodle posted:Yep. Except what the gently caress, at least my call center did a few weeks of live calls with someone there to support you first. Man. That's lovely. Yeah, our first day we get to "buddy up" meaning that we'd log into the system, take a call, then our buddy would log in and take a call. Which...is better than going it alone I guess, but it's one day and my buddy would be just as clueless as I am, so I don't see how it helps all that much. We kept asking the trainer from our "Client" if we could listen in to experienced people who were on calls before we go out on the floor, but apparently its blasphemy to even suggest that? So we got to listen to pre-recorded calls instead, where we couldn't even follow along in the troubleshooting flows/programs we've been taught for the simple fact that all of the sensitive information was beeped out of the calls. Which is understandable but doesn't make for a good learning tool. Our last test that we wrote (on Friday), our Trainer marked them and said that everybody in the class passed except one person. That one person gets to find out on Tuesday if they still have a job or not (go, go long weekend...) because she refused to let the person who failed know that they failed. Mmm, paranoia. My call centre sure knows how to breed it.
CatStacking fucked around with this message at 19:03 on May 21, 2012 |
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May 21, 2012 19:01
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In order to redress the balance of call centre shittyness a little, today I agreed to take an end of call survey even though the number I'd called was costing me about 20p a minute due to having called it on my mobile and it being outside my contract. Hope those tens get you a bonus, car-insurance-policy-amendments call centre rep.
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May 21, 2012 22:59
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cuntvalet posted:Mmm, paranoia. My call centre sure knows how to breed it.
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May 22, 2012 03:01
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Console Parade posted:Tech support Goon here. I don't take as many calls as most of you, but in between those calls, I also work on tickets. We had hundreds of tickets in our queue for months and we just recently got it down to about 25-50 a day. We were congratulated for doing such a great job ... initially. How many emails we send out on these tickets is a major factor of our productivity metrics. With ticket volume drastically reduced, everyone's numbers have gone down, and this needs to be fixed right away! Do you happen to work at a software company in northeastern Wisconsin, because our call center guys reported something reaaaaally similar.
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May 23, 2012 20:57
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Ahhh so THIS is what call centre fuckery is like. Two monitors for everyone! Oh and we're going to change the way we take calls to a lovely new system! What's that? Our metrics are DOWN?! WELL WE'LL JUST HAVE TO TAKE YOUR MONITORS AWAY IF YOU DON'T SHAPE UP! I can see clearly now, the bullshit's gone. Oh god I hope I get into that new department so I don't have to deal with this past June. 
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May 23, 2012 21:01
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I am in my third day of training for a call center that does iPhone support. Sat in on a few calls today, wasn't as bad as I expected. We will have mentors and a week of nesting so I think that will help a lot.
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May 23, 2012 21:08
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First full day of calls today. I have a headache, I'm stressed, and since our call centre is brand new, it was so stupidly chaotic and unorganized. But hey, I got free cake and a muffin out of the deal.
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May 24, 2012 00:33
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