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I like having only one script I have to do verbatim. I've assembled an arsenal of my own scripts and tools for various types of customers, depending on their age, location, tone, and demeanor, I can crack out the right verbiage to get them calmed down and informed. I can't imagine having to read the same bullshit to people endlessly all day.
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Jun 15, 2012 03:56
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I really can't understand why a company would insist on people giving out their surname - it just seems incredibly dangerous to have as a policy. I used to do it for certain customers I was dealing with regularly but if anyone had told me I *had* to do it? No. I used to get pissed off at people I was managing telling customers it was policy to NOT give out their surname though. Just tell them you're not doing it, I'll back you up, there's no need to lie. There's no drat policy either way, and if the customer ever finds that out he'll think everything you said was bullshit.
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Jun 15, 2012 12:01
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I've called in a new ethics complaint about my company at an anonymous ethics line every single week. It's fun watching the managers squirm. One of them hasn't even come back to work since I called in something they did.
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Jun 16, 2012 04:34
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legsarerequired posted:I've called in a new ethics complaint about my company at an anonymous ethics line every single week. It's fun watching the managers squirm. One of them hasn't even come back to work since I called in something they did. That's brilliant and hilarious. What sort of things are you reporting?
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Jun 16, 2012 08:16
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On the topic of names, we have to use our first name. Mine is Kassaundra, but I don't use it, I use short forms of it. If I introduce myself as Kassie I always get customers calling me "Katie" "Casey" or "Kathy". If I use "Kass" I get: Kathy. Kat. Pat. Beth. What the ever loving gently caress? I know I'm enunciating just fine, I used to act and sing in operas/on stage. I know that old people (even in person) will always call me Kathy. I know that over the phone, unless you're super enunciating, they'll never get it right. But still.  It's one of those little things that annoy the hell out of me.
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Jun 16, 2012 18:26
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Because in life we hear what we want to
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Jun 16, 2012 23:20
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modeski posted:That's brilliant and hilarious. What sort of things are you reporting? Just things that contribute to our toxic work environment--for example, discrimination, harassment, stuff that causes stress, etc. I hate to go into specifics. I definitely encourage anyone who works for a major corporation to see if their company has something resembling an anonymous ethics hotline. It was two years before it occurred to me, "Hey, maybe this ethics violation hotline thing might be good for reporting [insert bad thing here] since talking to management is totally useless." Things aren't perfect, but management does seem to be *slightly* more responsive. If I can be frank--I do suffer from anxiety and depression. Before I got this job, I managed it through daily exercise, volunteer work, expressing myself with drawing, straight up forcing myself to get out, etc. However, after taking this job, I just started thinking more and more about driving off the side of the overpass and having depressed thoughts that I had just never had before. Whereas thoughts like "I'm worthless and nobody would miss me," went away before if I would just distract myself, I would spend entire days just full of self-loathing. I've started anti-depressants, because I can't seem to find a new job, so I figure I might as well have an extra boost until I finally get out. My point is that while I HATE that I'm probably reporting decent people who have no choice but to deny me personal breaks and so on, I really do think that SOMEONE needs to realize that the atmosphere at this place is just really stifling and bad. Even if these anonymous reports don't do anything, it sounds like SOMEONE is listening to them. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Jun 17, 2012 |
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Jun 17, 2012 02:14
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Our HR manager is awesome, it's my supervisors that suck rear end.
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Jun 17, 2012 02:20
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So at what point does team attrition reflect poorly on the manager? We're all kind of fed up with our manager's aloofness, inability to put together decent team incentives (despite us having a monthly "budget" of funds that we never see used on anything), and tight assed emphasis on being OVER on stats, but no recognition for being under. Someone on my team got a "top performer" status, basically top 5% rep in the company, and didn't even get any type of recognition, she had to log into the 3rd party website that holds our reward points to see that she had won it. A person who had joined the team at the start put in their 2 weeks and left, and she didn't even say a word to the team, not even an e-mail, or a get together to say goodbye or anything, we organized one on our own time. In the past 2 weeks, we've had 4 people quit/walk or get shitcanned. It's getting ridiculous.
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Jun 17, 2012 02:35
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When I was a team leader I had two targets relating to staff retention. Attrition couldn't be over 10% and was the total number of staff you lost over a rolling 12 month period against what you had, but the biggie was "short term turnover" which was the same 10% but measured against the staff you had that had been there less than 12 months. As you can imagine, this was a pain in the arse as I didn't get to do all the interviews for my team and we were frequently use pressure to recruit anyone with a drat pulse to fill the seats. Thankfully there was a get out of jail free card - any member of staff you could show you were actively managing up/out didn't count. Yeah, it's as bullshit as it sounds. At the urging of my manager, I once put someone on a performance monitoring "contract" the afternoon after she'd handed in her notice. Yeah. She didn't mind but it was a load of bullshit designed to massage numbers and didn't change that we were losing a perfectly good member of staff that I didn't want to lose.
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Jun 17, 2012 08:00
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So I had the worst call of my career. I had a woman who wanted me to explain how our payment spreadsheets work. Generally, this is no big deal, but not for this woman. She couldn't comprehend that 'Balance Principal after transaction' meant the principal balance after the transaction. And we spent 15 minutes talking about that. I had spoken with her on Sunday, spent an hour trying to explain it, then had to call her today because I needed to talk to loan accounting about all of the specific codes. I called her back, and she did the same thing. Everything I did 'didn't make sense'. I was terrible at customer service. I was inept. I had no idea how financing worked. According to her, at least. I finally had to transfer her, but only after having to tell her that because I wasn't making sense to her, it was a much better idea for her to talk to someone else rather than us not making sense to each other. It felt like hell. I hate not being able to do my job, and especially to have to deal with someone who couldn't comprehend what was simple and logical to me. My sup later told me that she completely understood why I had to transfer her because she was never going to be happy, but still. It blew.
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Jun 19, 2012 01:22
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Loving Life Partner posted:In the past 2 weeks, we've had 4 people quit/walk or get shitcanned. It's getting ridiculous.
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Jun 19, 2012 04:16
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Do people at your call center disconnect their headsets and loving walk around in them? Our headsets are like this: (headset) ~~~~~~~~~ (breakaway)~~~~~~~~~(plug in phone) They disconnect at the breakaway to stay logged into the phone, and go about their business with their damned headset on, getting coffee, talking to people using the bathroom. What the gently caress. I don't have long girly hair, I can understand some women with really long fussy hair doing this so they don't have to pull the headset on and off all day and gently caress poo poo up, but most people have no reason to do this that I can fathom, especially on the male side I see doing it. It's just BIZARRE.
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Jun 19, 2012 15:05
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Loving Life Partner posted:Do people at your call center disconnect their headsets and loving walk around in them? Someone in my team during a temp job was on the phone pretty much all day, dealing with issues and liaising with staff at other companies, so she was eventually given a wireless headset. She'd wear it all day, every day, sometimes taking calls and just wandering off around the office. More than once I'd be in the kitchen, hear "Hello!", turn around, see her and say "Oh hiya, how-" before she'd go on to "Yeah I'm calling about x and y..."
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Jun 19, 2012 15:39
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Loving Life Partner posted:Do people at your call center disconnect their headsets and loving walk around in them? Ugh, I hate this. I wish I understood why they would do that
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Jun 19, 2012 15:47
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Wow. Some people really don't listen and are way, way too eager to give out their personal information. I just asked for the spelling of someone's last name, and it went something like: : "And can I have the spelling of your last name please?" "Sure, my social is ###-..." : "WOAH WOAH WOAH STOP DON'T GIVE ME THAT."I do nothing that would remotely need a social security number, and I can't even think of why someone would think that I would. On an unrelated note- working from home is pretty much fantastic.
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Jun 19, 2012 16:11
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Huh, so a higher-up from my company is insisting that I call them soon to talk about the work environment at my call center. I feel nervous about calling someone and them possibly recording the conversation.
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Jun 19, 2012 19:14
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Find out if you live in a two-party consent state for recording phone calls. If so, they have to tell you at the beginning of the phone call if they're recording it.
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Jun 19, 2012 20:21
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BlackIronHeart posted:Find out if you live in a two-party consent state for recording phone calls. If so, they have to tell you at the beginning of the phone call if they're recording it. All depends on any type of paperwork signed during your employment. I signed a form that states all calls that take place with my phone are recorded, be it if I call a customer, a customer calls me, or I place a personal call. I would assume your call will be recorded and not say anything you wouldn't want to come back to you.
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Jun 19, 2012 20:35
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Yeah, I pretty much assume everything is recorded. They tell us outbound calls aren't (don't believe them), they also say they stop screen capturing our computers after training (don't believe that either).
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Jun 19, 2012 20:46
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Loving Life Partner posted:Yeah, I pretty much assume everything is recorded. They tell us outbound calls aren't (don't believe them), they also say they stop screen capturing our computers after training (don't believe that either). They may well be telling the truth - their call recording may be hooked up to the inbound ACD and not to the dialler because it was going to cost them money...
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Jun 19, 2012 20:53
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JackRabbitStorm posted:Ugh, I hate this. I wish I understood why they would do that really? I love being able to get up and make a cup of coffee when i have a talker on the phone. "blah blah blah blah blah repeat myself six drat times blah blah blah blah blah" becomes so much better when i can go get poo poo from the printer and make coffee while talking to them. \/\/\/ ok, that's weird. I love having a wireless headset, because being able to smoke a damned cigarette while talking to a client (ours manage to work out the smoker's door!) makes my life so much less violent. (plus it's not technically a break). Only capable of being done when there's no one else there, but it's a wonderful thing. Dr Jankenstein fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jun 19, 2012 |
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Jun 19, 2012 21:11
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Oh, no, these people aren't talking to anyone, we got wired headsets, they're just unhooking at a breakaway and doing other poo poo not taking calls with their headset on. It's just weird.
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Jun 19, 2012 21:38
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That's really funny actually. Office trends and fashions and group laziness and stuff is hilarious to me. If people were doing that at my workplace I would rip the poo poo out of them
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Jun 19, 2012 23:49
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Loving Life Partner posted:Oh, no, these people aren't talking to anyone, we got wired headsets, they're just unhooking at a breakaway and doing other poo poo not taking calls with their headset on. It's just weird. We can't do that at my call centre because they've secured the cord on either side of the breakaway area with a zip tie to ensure that we don't steal the headsets. Why the gently caress would anybody want to?
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Jun 20, 2012 01:47
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Probably to spite the company.
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Jun 20, 2012 07:10
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BlackIronHeart posted:Find out if you live in a two-party consent state for recording phone calls. If so, they have to tell you at the beginning of the phone call if they're recording it. They are being incredibly insistent that I make a phone call, even though there's an official anonymous real-time chat feature. I'm willing to buy a disposable phones to call them, but I'm just so nervous about them recognizing my voice--especially since the company got a mass e-mail today that our city would be getting a visit from corporate officials specifically for "feedback sessions" on work environment. I want the environment to be better. I was talking to a few of my co-workers. We don't mind talking on the phone to difficult people, but the lack of bathroom breaks, the meetings over unpaid lunches, the constantly over-regulation, the hositility between stressed out people--it completely demoralizes us and saps our energy. I'm scared that when hr visits, that no one will speak honestly at the feedback session or they'll censor themselves out of fear of retaliation. I'm also nervous that hr will just completely misunderstand what we deal with, and how STRESSFUL it is. I still have friends who think that "being so bored at work that I finished the whole season 1 of Archer" is comparable to my work environment, so what if HR just looks at people talking on the phones and assumes it must be a fun job? Hell, I've gotten comments like that from other departments already... legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Jun 20, 2012 |
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Jun 20, 2012 19:07
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I swear to loving god, the next person who bitches at me about trivial issues like "I WANT MY IIIIIIIIIIICON RIGHT THERE!" or "SIIIIIIGH. No, I went to school 20 years ago! Of course I don't remember!" or "No, I refuse to do anything but this ONE SPECIFIC WAY/THING that will take you hours to fix because I wanna push a button and not right click!" is getting a mouse to the face. And don't blame me for deleting thousands of your e-mails, then emptying the deleted items box. Oh, oh sure, yes, they just 'disappeared before your eyes'. And then emptied the deleted items box. I guess we've got a serious case of e-mail pixies. Most of my calls were total non-issues. That took ages to fix because god freaking forbid you have to right click.
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Jun 23, 2012 00:25
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I realize that legally all my company is required to give us is an unpaid 30 min lunch break. Fine, whatever. But apparently, they had promised the client company that employees would have 8 hours of call time a day. So they're taking away the two 15 minute breaks we used to get, even though it's a stressful job and certainly we need the down time. They're hesitant to make it a 9 hour day and give us those breaks because it'll screw over the 5 or 6 employees who rely on subsidies. Uhm...talk about the majority being screwed over for the good of the minority...
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Jun 23, 2012 22:45
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cuntvalet posted:I realize that legally all my company is required to give us is an unpaid 30 min lunch break. Fine, whatever. I'm pretty sure that that's illegal. At least in my state, we have to have 15 minute breaks every 2 and a half hours, and I live in a state that has crappy right to work laws and is 'very business friendly'.
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Jun 24, 2012 18:34
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Effexxor posted:I'm pretty sure that that's illegal. At least in my state, we have to have 15 minute breaks every 2 and a half hours, and I live in a state that has crappy right to work laws and is 'very business friendly'. Oklahoma has no mandatory breaks. 
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Jun 24, 2012 21:08
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Effexxor posted:I'm pretty sure that that's illegal. At least in my state, we have to have 15 minute breaks every 2 and a half hours, and I live in a state that has crappy right to work laws and is 'very business friendly'. I could have misread the Canadian labour laws website but that's what it said. 15 minute "coffee breaks" and the like are not required to be given.
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Jun 24, 2012 23:13
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cuntvalet posted:I could have misread the Canadian labour laws website but that's what it said. 15 minute "coffee breaks" and the like are not required to be given. Looks like you are correct. As long as they are giving you 30 minutes unpaid break (aka your lunch) they are not required to give you paid breaks in addition to that lunch. It's the same in a lot of US states, I believe. Provided they give you your unpaid lunch, whether or not paid breaks are provided is at the discretion of the employer.
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Jun 25, 2012 00:11
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cuntvalet posted:I could have misread the Canadian labour laws website but that's what it said. 15 minute "coffee breaks" and the like are not required to be given. For 8 hours of work employers must provide 30 minutes unpaid time for lunch, and 2 15 minute paid breaks. Your employer cannot break those rules without facing IMMENSE fines from Industry Canada.
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Jun 25, 2012 01:30
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MA-Horus posted:For 8 hours of work employers must provide 30 minutes unpaid time for lunch, and 2 15 minute paid breaks. Your employer cannot break those rules without facing IMMENSE fines from Industry Canada. How long can employees work without a break? Employees must receive a 30 minute unpaid break after every five hours of work. This is the only break required. Many employers will provide coffee breaks, cigarette breaks or other meal breaks. These are allowed as a benefit, but they are not required. http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/standards/doc,hours-and-breaks,factsheet.html#q332
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Jun 25, 2012 02:07
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This isn't referring to anyone who's posted recently in the thread, mind you--this is a reflection on my experiences outside of the forums... Don't you love it when you talk to people who have regular office jobs, and they can't imagine a world without bathroom breaks and such? And you tell that legally, the company only has to provide one break a day, and they just don't understand that?
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Jun 25, 2012 02:18
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That's lovely, my company freaks out if you don't take enough break time. Maybe larger companies have more scrutiny by labor departments, but our team was found to be in non-compliance for taking mandatory 30 minute continuous lunch breaks, so we had a big meeting about it, where they also harped again on making sure to take our 2 15 minute breaks as well.
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Jun 25, 2012 03:53
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Tomorrow is the first day of no 15 minute breaks. Dreading it.
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Jun 25, 2012 04:04
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I used to work the evening shift in the call center that handles certification tests for teachers. The job was pretty hellish for the first hour or so when the whole office was full and the more incompetent supervisors were circulating around, but it got to be really fun more or less immediately at 5:00 when the number of people in the building dropped to 6, spread out across the huge call center floor. For some reason even though I was only working two half-shifts a week I got my own little dedicated half-cubicle while the others all had to squat in day workers' cubicles and get passive-aggressive notes about adjusting the chairs. While I was in training, I had a fun call from a guy in Alberta who wanted to schedule a test to get his Spanish teaching certification, and wanted me to schedule it for him. Okay, no problem. He spoke with a thick Spanish accent but both I and the trainer listening in spoke Spanish, so that didn't matter much. This was the dedicated line for Florida (incidentally, Florida made up something like half our call volume and had a whole dedicated staff, even though we covered almost the entire US), so when he mentioned Alberta I was a little confused. Then he wanted to take the test in New York City, so I looked up the out-of-state testing options (since the certification would have been for Florida). Eventually it got really clear he had no idea what he was doing, and I asked him if he was aware that the certification he was signing up for was only good in the state of Florida. "No, no, New York!" he yelled at me. "I'm going to take the test when I visit my cousin." "All right, I can schedule you in on a couple of dates if you'd like..." I listed the options, which were pretty much every two months because out-of-state testing isn't very common. None of them worked for him, of course. He was getting really worked up about it, so I asked if he was moving to Florida to teach, and if he'd rather sign up for a test there. "Florida? Why would I go all the way to Florida to take a stupid test?" "Um, because you'll be teaching there, I presume?" "No, I'm going to teach in Alberta." "I'm sorry, sir, do you realize that this certification is only good in Florida?" "No, I need it in Alberta." "Then I'm afraid you've called the wrong company, sir. This phone number only handles the state of Florida." "Well, can I use it to teach in Alberta?" "I doubt it, sir. I would advise you to contact your local school district or the department of education in your area to find out what certification you need, and then schedule a test date for that certification." "The Department of Education? Can't you just transfer me?" "Sir, I'm afraid this is a call center in Massachusetts handling calls exclusively about Florida. I don't have the number for the... Canadian Department of Education. To be honest, I'm not even sure it's called the DoE there." "This is ridiculous. Just transfer me there so I can teach." "...I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you, sir." My trainer just ate her dinner quietly and shook her head intermittently during the call. Afterwards she told me some people just can't be helped. Later on in that same job, my supervisor (whose hours overlapped with mine for about an hour a week) told me my quality rating was "unacceptably low" and that we'd talk about it in two weeks, then refused to say anything more and put me back on the phones. A month later she finally told me I'd scored half a percentage too low on the quality rating for calls because I had referred to a caller as "customer" in the internal notation system instead of "testee." I quit after she called me into an hour long meeting in which the first forty-five minutes were me watching her track a Christmas present on UPS.
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Jun 25, 2012 12:53
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Tennis Ball posted:Oklahoma has no mandatory breaks. Jesus, man. Nebraska's bad, but we're not that bad. Gotta love Midwestern labor laws.  Then again, we probably review breaks as especially sacred because we're government contracted. We get government holidays off too.
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Jun 25, 2012 19:43
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