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cuntvalet posted:Just a brief rant... Our QA scores factor directly into reviews which dictates what % raise we get. Getting about 95% for the year puts you in top category. Essentially it is worth a couple hundred dollars a year in wages to argue with QA at my company. However, they rarely get it wrong, at least with my calls.
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Sep 14, 2012 02:28
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Ever since my department moved from a QA rubric to a "holistic" QA method, there's always room to argue your score up. Like yeah, I made a mistake in forgetting to ask one question, but my good tone and the customer's high satisfaction made up for it. My supervisor has told us to argue any score that's less than 100%. There's a very good chance of getting it bumped up at least a half-point (and on a 3.0 scale, that's significant). The corresponding bad part of the holistic method is that a single typo in a really important field (like SSN or last name) can bring an otherwise-perfect claim QA down to a 1.0 (the lowest rating possible).
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Sep 14, 2012 16:42
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martyrdumb posted:Ever since my department moved from a QA rubric to a "holistic" QA method, there's always room to argue your score up. Like yeah, I made a mistake in forgetting to ask one question, but my good tone and the customer's high satisfaction made up for it. My supervisor has told us to argue any score that's less than 100%. There's a very good chance of getting it bumped up at least a half-point (and on a 3.0 scale, that's significant). You guys actually get 100%s? I've never given anything higher than a 97%.
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Sep 14, 2012 20:43
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cuntvalet posted:You guys actually get 100%s? I've never given anything higher than a 97%. Because you've never heard a perfect call, or because you're forced to find something to mark the person down for so that they can "improve?"
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Sep 14, 2012 22:05
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cuntvalet posted:You guys actually get 100%s? I've never given anything higher than a 97%. What language do they give you to use when a call is loving abysmal and has no redeeming features? I was taught "I like the energy in your voice" as the last ditch attempt to find something nice to say.
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Sep 14, 2012 22:25
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I work at an inbound call center. My supervisor and I had the mutual understanding that I could read a book or a kindle between calls and that I wouldn't read during calls. New supervisor, she told me in no uncertain terms that I could not read any of the books I brought. Time to find out what I can do during downtime that does not involve books, comics, electronic devises or pen and paper. Pretty sure that I can't bring a deck of cards.
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Sep 14, 2012 23:04
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More higher-ups from HR visited our office. CSRs were told to submit questions to ask the higher-ups in a giant town hall style meeting. I sent in some questions from an anonymous e-mail address about diversity, dress code, etc. All of them were turned down for being "difficult to understand." A couple of days before the higher-ups visited, the town hall was made into a smaller event. People who are always complaining were kicked out. Some of the CSRs included in the town hall were coached on how to act and what things to say. But on the bright side, someone was promoted into a different department, which NEVER happens, and I'm pretty sure it was just a show for the visitors. Also, today, my manager and I had a coaching session. I am nearly perfect on all of my numbers, except I got two "neutral" survey scores from some pedantic poo poo. My manager asked for me to turn in a goal brainstorming exercise we did about our goals at the company. I mentioned that in my internships, I used skills that I thought could prepare me for positions outside of the call center, and that I'd even supervised teams in the past. Her: Really! Tell me about your style. What did you do when they felt unmotivated? Me: It was difficult at times because people didn't want to be there, and we couldn't pay them much. But I just tried to make them see some kind of reward in it. Her: Well, I hope you use that on yourself to get all positive survey results next time. Me: ................. I kind of want to send more anonymous e-mails and make more anonymous ethics reports, but I just want to pay off my debt and quit. I just gotta make it til the end of this year! legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Sep 15, 2012 |
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Sep 15, 2012 00:14
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If I get an average of less then 90% qa I lose 25% of my bonus, we get 3 qa's a pay period. If I have less then 90% schedule adherence I lose 25%. If I have less then 90% hours worked I lose 25%. So basically if I miss one day I lose a bunch more money then what I would earn that day.
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Sep 15, 2012 06:57
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I hate my centre's QA for Tier 2. You have to 100% everything and there is just so much to remember to do and you basically have to be a font of knowledge because if you make a small mistake you fail. Tier 1 was really easy, don't provide private information, make sure you offer appropriate empathy, research the problem and don't provide free support. I was 100% throughout my Tier 2 is so much harder. On the consult I have be polite, I have to offer to take the call, cannot educate the Tier 1 (which is stupid, because it's some tightrope act when they come asking how to do something) and I have to know the exact issue. Then on the call with the customer, I have an article that lists my responsibilities as a Tier 2. The responsibilities do not match what my QA test requires. The article tells me when to provide contact info for example, and despite it saying that my region does not ever have to provide contact information unless we want to. I generally just give it out as it makes customer's happy, but then I fail for the few times that I don't because I fixed their issue in like 2 minutes and they were just so happy they didn't need it  I hate complaining to the coaches, because they are really nice, but it's upsetting watching my stats go down over things like 'not working off this obscure article despite providing the instructions that were in it' and looking in the comments section to see "provided GREAT and APPROPRIATE EMPATHY" and seeing that I failed because I didn't offer an empathy statement right after the customer made a complaint. This and the complete lack of recognition when we do something well are really killing the joy I used to get out of this job.
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Sep 15, 2012 07:56
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Fil5000 posted:What language do they give you to use when a call is loving abysmal and has no redeeming features? I was taught "I like the energy in your voice" as the last ditch attempt to find something nice to say. We don't have "language" that we have to use. If the call loving sucks we more or less say so, but the 0% they get from an Autofail tends to say it all. Normally what I do is offer suggestions, and if I can, reference previous calls. "Normally, Lisa, your greeting at the beginning of the call is really enthusiastic. Can you hear the difference?" But that said I have never heard a call that didn't have one thing I could compliment. Even one call where the agent was YELLING at the caller and finished the call with "Yup, whatever." had the fact that she gave the right information and didn't budge when the customer freaked out about it.
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Sep 15, 2012 14:57
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cuntvalet posted:We don't have "language" that we have to use. Sounds better than the "you MUST find a positive thing to say!" angle I got taught. The best/worst call I can recall hearing is one that a customer asked for a transcript of where the agent did EVERYTHING right, right up until you heard the click of the customer hanging up. The recording system kept going for a second or two and caught the agent saying "Well, go gently caress yourself then", and apparently if it's on the recording, it HAS to go on the transcript (data protection act or some such bullshit). Yeah.
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Sep 15, 2012 15:09
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Fil5000 posted:Sounds better than the "you MUST find a positive thing to say!" angle I got taught. That's hilarious. Now, since the customer had already hung up, would you have docked the agent marks for that?
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Sep 15, 2012 15:12
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cuntvalet posted:That's hilarious. Well, I was a team leader rather than a QA so my goals wouldn't be 100% the same as a QA. I would probably have considered the call itself fine and had a documented discussion about the professionalism displayed post call, with any argument met with "DO NOT TELL THE CUSTOMER TO gently caress THEMSELVES WHEN YOU KNOW WE RECORD EVERYTHING, NUMB NUTS".
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Sep 15, 2012 15:49
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Fil5000 posted:Well, I was a team leader rather than a QA so my goals wouldn't be 100% the same as a QA. I would probably have considered the call itself fine and had a documented discussion about the professionalism displayed post call, with any argument met with "DO NOT TELL THE CUSTOMER TO gently caress THEMSELVES WHEN YOU KNOW WE RECORD EVERYTHING, NUMB NUTS". Sounds about the same as what I would do. I would have marked the call on it's merits alone, but during my coach backs would have been like "Please don't do that ever again." Luckily, I've never heard an instance of an agent swearing at a customer. Yet. That said I have heard this phrase: "If you know everything, then why did you call in?"
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Sep 15, 2012 16:11
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I generally dislike QA teams because they forget where they came from and tend to become corrupted by the tiny amount of power they possess and adopt elite personas. Okay, not of all them, I've just been unlucky.
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Sep 15, 2012 16:20
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ZeroDays posted:I generally dislike QA teams because they forget where they came from and tend to become corrupted by the tiny amount of power they possess and adopt elite personas. Okay, not of all them, I've just been unlucky. That's true of any small group of people with a specialised work role though. I've seen teams formed to deal with a specific and temporary business need turn into raging assholes who refuse to even consider supporting the people left in the core business because THEIR NEW ROLE IS VERY IMPORTANT AND CANNOT BE DISRUPTED.
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Sep 15, 2012 16:25
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ZeroDays posted:I generally dislike QA teams because they forget where they came from and tend to become corrupted by the tiny amount of power they possess and adopt elite personas. Okay, not of all them, I've just been unlucky. "You've bounced 5 sales a day in an in-bound 100% verbatim program, lets move you up into lower-level management!" It's not what you do, it's who you drink with and who you screw, and I'm sick of it. I don't give a gently caress about moving up, don't interpret that as me being jealous of people getting promoted over myself. I'm just pissed that they promote loving retards who can't do the jobs they've been assigned and end up loving the rest of us over.
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Sep 15, 2012 17:02
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Ours have gone like that as well. Let me guess, your QA reps got hired because they were too loving stupid to dial properly, as well? I didn't drink with or screw anybody...I just passed a knowledge test, had a good personality and did well on my interview for the job... 
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Sep 15, 2012 17:15
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Congrats. Maybe it's just our call center being absolute poo poo, then.
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Sep 16, 2012 01:55
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Congrats. Maybe it's just our call center being absolute poo poo, then. Though our boss (who is in India) caught wind of a rumour (no clue where he got it from) that we were being bribed/swayed in our scores by Team Leads? Which makes no sense because we're struggling with Team Leads telling their agents that QA scores don't matter and C-SAT is all that matters. ...It's making my job really damned hard.
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Sep 16, 2012 03:36
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cuntvalet posted:You guys actually get 100%s? I've never given anything higher than a 97%. The way our QA works is, calls are scored a scale from 1 (worst possible call) to 3 (good call, can have minor flaws but nothing that substantially affects the claim process). You can only get scored down in half-point increments. The next-to-highest score is a 2.5. It's not possible for us to get a free-form score like 97%. We have an overall quality index that we have to surpass to get a "satisfactory" rating at the end of the year. I believe it's .79 (although they change the target year to year, it was only .69 or so when I started). Oh, and 2.0 & 2.5 scores both have a quality index of .66, because our QA department head is a loving moron. Every call starts at a 3. You are expected to get 3s most of the time, unless you are retarded/lazy. You can't get a whole lot of 2.5s without dragging your index below .79, since a 2.5 counts for .66. To put it in terms of the American grading system, we have to maintain at least a B-average when the only possible test scores are 100%, 66%, or 33%. It's loving stupid as hell. So the scores are generally slanted toward the 100% end of that spectrum, unless you're retarded or lazy. Anyway, so far I've only gotten one 2.5 all year, and the rest of my scores are all 3s. And I'm #10 in my department (obviously below the people who've gotten straight 3s on every call), which consists of about 80 people. Maybe slightly less, we have a new hire class now and people quit left and right. Goddamn that was a lot of  . It's a dumb system though, making it hard to describe concisely.
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Sep 16, 2012 05:29
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Want to talk dumb systems? In training for QA we were told we have to be within 5% of eachother when we calibrate. So if I mark two parameters wrong (say...validation and provided accurate information) compared to the consensus and somebody else gets two that don't match (they have the same answers as the consensus for those two but maybe not for ticket tracking and closing the call)we're still perfectly dead on, even though we didn't agree on four things. Also the way the scoring goes, it's impossible to be within 5% of each other during calibration. The closest you can be (other than dead on) is 7%. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
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Sep 16, 2012 05:47
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martyrdumb posted:Ever since my department moved from a QA rubric to a "holistic" QA method, there's always room to argue your score up. Like yeah, I made a mistake in forgetting to ask one question, but my good tone and the customer's high satisfaction made up for it. My supervisor has told us to argue any score that's less than 100%. There's a very good chance of getting it bumped up at least a half-point (and on a 3.0 scale, that's significant). Well, the QA stats probably reflect on him as well. Basically call centers all turn into a free-for-all because every single person is judged almost entirely on one stat or another.
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Sep 16, 2012 15:37
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cuntvalet posted:Though our boss (who is in India) caught wind of a rumour (no clue where he got it from) that we were being bribed/swayed in our scores by Team Leads? Hm, sounds like a case where your team lead is only judged by customer satisfaction. Which I guess proves my point. 
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Sep 16, 2012 15:42
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Jesus, these QA things sound like nightmares. We just have a pure stat based system, you can calculate where you're at in it down to a few decimal places just by taking the temperature of the last few months as far as Elite and Top Performers and what they hit on stats. Like right now I know that if I continue my current (lovely nightmare) pace for rep aux (time off phones) and coding/making offers, that I'm pretty much guaranteed a $200 bonus at the end of the month. The stats are just pass/fail to meet requirements, but then exceeding targets can take you into bonus territory pretty easily.
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Sep 16, 2012 16:58
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I work for Wells Fargo's customer service call center and man... ever since they added this script we HAVE to say in the beginning of the call to inform the customer we are going to pitch a sale, my numbers have been slaughtered. I used to before be able to throw a sale in as a service or need now it's "hey, I'm a salesmen and your a number customer, do you want to listen?" Working for their call center pays pretty good but when you hear the little old lady and you have in your mind that this lady could possibly be suckered into another bank account, unnecessary services, and you have to do all this in 4 minutes or less, your soul dies quicker and quicker. The managers say "what's right for the customer" but come on... who are they really bullshitting? Right?
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Sep 16, 2012 17:16
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Announcing that you'll be pitching a sale at the start of a call will just inoculate the majority of customers against your attempts. That's pretty customer focused actually, as I'd much prefer to have some time to think of excuses during the body of the call than be blindsided at the end with a sales pitch. Thumbs up to your management who want less sales 
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Sep 16, 2012 17:20
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obscurehaven posted:I work for Wells Fargo's customer service call center and man... ever since they added this script we HAVE to say in the beginning of the call to inform the customer we are going to pitch a sale, my numbers have been slaughtered. I used to before be able to throw a sale in as a service or need now it's "hey, I'm a salesmen and your a number customer, do you want to listen?" I used to work for Dish and they started marking me down for not trying to sell to people who were like, you know, consistently behind on their bills and everything. Like... they don't need more stuff, man.
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Sep 16, 2012 17:27
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:I used to work for Dish and they started marking me down for not trying to sell to people who were like, you know, consistently behind on their bills and everything. Like... they don't need more stuff, man. Yeah I get dinged for not offering people things despite their obvious situation. Hey when someone is calling in to ask "when is the last possible day I can pay this and not be cancelled" and they're 2 months behind, I don't think automatic checking account withdrawals or a renters insurance policy is in the loving cards. My supe literally uses the same loving dumb example as to why we should offer every time "Well maybe they forget sometimes they have a bill and an automatic withdrawal will be a good value for them!" NO! NO! Tammy in Arkansas who is 23 and has 3 screaming kids in the background didn't just forget to pay her loving bill! I'm trying to help this woman as much as I can and not sell her more poo poo, geez.
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Sep 16, 2012 17:30
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obscurehaven posted:I work for Wells Fargo's customer service call center and man... ever since they added this script we HAVE to say in the beginning of the call to inform the customer we are going to pitch a sale, my numbers have been slaughtered. I used to before be able to throw a sale in as a service or need now it's "hey, I'm a salesmen and your a number customer, do you want to listen?"
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Sep 16, 2012 17:40
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obscurehaven posted:I work for Wells Fargo's customer service call center and man... ever since they added this script we HAVE to say in the beginning of the call to inform the customer we are going to pitch a sale, my numbers have been slaughtered. I used to before be able to throw a sale in as a service or need now it's "hey, I'm a salesmen and your a number customer, do you want to listen?" Either way, I think I"m on the shortlist for work at home with my current company. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.
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Sep 17, 2012 05:26
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For the first time in history I had someone on a call pitch me something useful. I wouldn't mind being sold things if it was stuff I wanted. I wish someone someplace could remember this. 90% of the stuff management in call centres want pitched is stupid.
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Sep 18, 2012 16:24
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sbaldrick posted:For the first time in history I had someone on a call pitch me something useful. I wouldn't mind being sold things if it was stuff I wanted. You are being sold stuff all the time whether you realize it or not. It depends on how bad/good the person selling it to you is.
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Sep 19, 2012 01:04
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Our center has political dialing because they poo poo on or got poo poo on by almost all the other clients. Eavesdropping on those calls make me want to shoot myself. If you're in MD and getting called for some sort of casino issue, that's probably us.
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Sep 19, 2012 03:01
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savesthedayrocks posted:You are being sold stuff all the time whether you realize it or not. It depends on how bad/good the person selling it to you is. I always wonder just how much of the population is susceptible to marketing, but apparently it's enough of it to sustain the whole idea of marketing so presumably that's a large percentage. Personally, I'm one of those people marketing types hate; if I've decided I need a particular item I will spend a few days studiously researching all of the possible alternatives to find the <whatever> which best fits my needs. This often involves comparing various facts/attributes about the <whatever> in a spreadsheet. I recognize that this makes me an unusual case compared to most of the population. Most recent example: when changing electricity suppliers, I took the time to figure out my actual usage and create a (frankly, horrible) spreadsheet which allowed me to plug in the various unit prices from different companies to arrive at a cost per year, then went with the cheapest.
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Sep 19, 2012 14:25
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Selling at my job involves finding the best 'deal' for the client. Most of the time it really is good. You either get a better benefits package, or you get more ease of access for certain things. When sold to the right person, it can make their life so much easier. Unfortunately what tends to happen is coworkers taking advantage of those who can't speak english very well, or those who are elderly, or those who straight-up want something else, and they put the sale through without permission or they put it through despite there being something on their account which will immediately gently caress it up. I had to fix four of those yesterday just on my own; luckily all my clients weren't angry, just confused, and happy with my service. But man it wears you down when you look at the employee's name and realize there's a few rows down and you can't go and smack them for making that mistake, all you can do is send a message to their manager.  Oh also! I got my first Jesus caller the other day! I felt so stupidly proud of myself after.  Now dear, I need to ask you a question that I ask everyone I talk to in a a day. Do you have Jesus Christ in your life? ...Ah, I don't discuss faith over the phone. I believe it's a private and personal matter. But thank you for your concern, have a nice day. Okay dear, just remember only those who accept Jesus enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Byebye!At least she was a nice old lady. 
Chicken Doodle fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Sep 19, 2012 |
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Sep 19, 2012 18:27
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For a while some guy in one of our IT support departments got in on the Jesus thing. Him - "Ok Sir I've just remapped that for you and everything should be working fine, can I close the ticket?" Me - "Sure, thanks buddy" Him - "By the way, have you heard about Jesus?"
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Sep 21, 2012 09:18
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Well, as of today, I hate my job a little less. I guess all my whining and bitching got me on the list of people who can mentor the new hires. So today I get to set behind someone with my headset on, listening and not doing much else. Time to use my cellphone charger.
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Sep 21, 2012 13:13
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"So. when is the iPhone 6 coming out...." Really.
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Sep 23, 2012 04:14
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Has it been a trend that call centers slide down into what indescribably feels like a prison? I remember my call center job it was great, relaxed and alot of freedom. We were happy, until they buckled down and started taking in call center metrics from other sources like Comcast, DirecTV, DISH, etc and it became a nigthmare to work there. It turned into a prison where we couldn't have anything on our desks and had supervisors going up and down the aisles monitoring us, as if monitoring our calls wasn't enough. I saw this comment on CNN and that's why I ask if it has gotten worse everywhere at call centers: quote:Luke, you are so hostile, judgement and out of touch. My son is 26. He has two years of college. He was fired from a call center job (all he could find in this economy) that was both soul and mind numbing. The reason? He figured out how to draw squares on his computer screen and taught his cell mates - nothing more, just squares - to pass the time between calls, considering nothing else was allowed in the tiny cubicle. He would love more than anything to have a job, but no one wants someone who's been fired "for cause." And after a year without work, there is almost no hope. This is because the Wall Street crowd has raised unemployment to the point they can keep the workers who *are* employed terrified, compliant and willing to work nightmare conditions and hours. He didn't have the money to go to OWS. But, his sympathies were with them and so were mine, though I work and make very good money. So, you judge, but you don't know. You have no idea.
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Sep 23, 2012 18:51
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