|
jassi007 posted:I think that one point you made has a lot to do with the ability to withstand these types of jobs. I don't have a sales quota to meet. I just fix stuff to the best of my ability. As long as I'm taking a reasonable number of calls in a reasonable time and meet some qa scores I'm ok. We have upsale programs where we can sell or offer some things and get a small commission, but we do not have to. I like the system, I'll offer something in a very low/no pressure way "oh hey you could get faster internets" but if I don't want to, I don't have to. quote:Because of this thread, every time I call my insurance or credit card company, I ask if they would like me to tell their manager how awesome they are. The credit card agents consistently refuse and just ask me to answer the survey, but the insurance people are usually surprised and happy. This is fantastic. My workplace takes customer compliments into account on reviews, and it helps in so far as raises. It all depends on the company, some call centers are so terribly negative to their employees it doesn't matter, but ones like mine it does matter. Our supervisors use our metrics as a friendly competition, like "my team has 96.7% avg. qa this month Bob, better get on your guys!" It is kind of cool, in so far as a call center can be "cool"
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2012 17:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 20:52 |
|
|
IfIWereARichMan posted:Because of this thread, every time I call my insurance or credit card company, I ask if they would like me to tell their manager how awesome they are. The credit card agents consistently refuse and just ask me to answer the survey, but the insurance people are usually surprised and happy. That's because insurance people (at least one the ones I've dealt with) are generally fairly well paid and work for the company themselves. Not outsourced to hell.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2012 22:03
|
|
|
So who else had to work yesterday? I did, but it wasn't too bad. I was really sick over the past few days, so I couldn't really go out on NYE anyway, which made me much less bitter about having to go into work at 8:30am on NYD. And hey, I got paid $23.70/hour for 8 hours of the most low-stress day I've had in weeks, getting to hang out and goof off with my favorite co-workers, meanwhile getting tons of poo poo done. Would have preferred not to work yesterday, but it could have been much worse!
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2013 02:33
|
|
|
CUMGUARD posted:So who else had to work yesterday? I did, but it wasn't too bad. I was really sick over the past few days, so I couldn't really go out on NYE anyway, which made me much less bitter about having to go into work at 8:30am on NYD. And hey, I got paid $23.70/hour for 8 hours of the most low-stress day I've had in weeks, getting to hang out and goof off with my favorite co-workers, meanwhile getting tons of poo poo done. Would have preferred not to work yesterday, but it could have been much worse! I did. $25.50 an hour. 20 minutes on average between calls. After lunch went into "huddle" (being off the phone) and watched movies with the guy who sits across from me, playing the "Is It a Porn Title?" game, going through IMDB pages on my phone and reading out titles to which he'd tell me if it sounded like porn or not. I'm sure the people who were still on the phones loved us.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2013 03:24
|
|
|
cuntvalet posted:I did. $25.50 an hour. 20 minutes on average between calls. After lunch went into "huddle" (being off the phone) and watched movies with the guy who sits across from me, playing the "Is It a Porn Title?" game, going through IMDB pages on my phone and reading out titles to which he'd tell me if it sounded like porn or not. Haha, I didn't get a single inbound call all day and I made like 4 outbound! Of course, I get very few calls anyway due to my specific situation and gating. Back in the day, I'd get maybe 5 inbound tops (would make a shitload of outbound usually though). With my new schedule, working days, I take a shitload more inbound, but even on an extremely busy day, I rarely do more than 25...
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2013 03:51
|
|
|
CUMGUARD posted:Haha, I didn't get a single inbound call all day and I made like 4 outbound! Of course, I get very few calls anyway due to my specific situation and gating. Back in the day, I'd get maybe 5 inbound tops (would make a shitload of outbound usually though). With my new schedule, working days, I take a shitload more inbound, but even on an extremely busy day, I rarely do more than 25... Our expected amount of inbound is 40 - 50. Today I took 60 and wanted to die a little bit. On NYD I think I took...I wanna say 11?
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2013 04:18
|
|
|
My usual inbound is 20-30. I'm part-time (barely) though, so I work 7 hour shifts instead of 8. We've had two sales in December, though, and so many people were out on vacation that a slow day last month was 50 or so. It was killing me. Hopefully January is slower. EDIT: 50 again today! It's actually not so bad now that I'm taking aniracetam. Still alert and not a burnout case by the end of the day. Ugly In The Morning fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Jan 3, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2013 14:56
|
|
|
So for the new year, they've changed our metrics. They've completely eliminated handle time! Oh, but now we have a new metric of "Customers Helped Per Hour". Which is totally not handle time, no sir. Misdirected calls don't count any more either, so uh, take more calls. Also, using our lovely 'Wizard' helper software is now 20% of your final review or something, because we paid too much for it and don't care that no one likes it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2013 16:16
|
|
|
you ate my cat posted:So for the new year, they've changed our metrics. They've completely eliminated handle time! Oh, but now we have a new metric of "Customers Helped Per Hour". Which is totally not handle time, no sir. Misdirected calls don't count any more either, so uh, take more calls. Also, using our lovely 'Wizard' helper software is now 20% of your final review or something, because we paid too much for it and don't care that no one likes it. Are you still working for Verizon? I don't do FiOS support anymore (thankfully. Teleperformance can suck my balls) but I have a few friends who work there and they were telling me all about iCAD wizard the other night and it sounds like a giant pain in the rear end. I'd be the one guy on the floor doing all of my tickets in vRepair or something.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2013 03:29
|
|
|
Yup, still there. Pretty much you have to remember that you know more than it does, then you lie to it to get your desired outcome. Generally it's just a huge pain.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 14:06
|
|
|
So, interesting day today. New Jersey called. By that I mean, everyone in New Jersey called us. To complain about Mobile stores or mobile issues at regular stores. Cambrige. Orange. Newark. Green Acres Mall. Garden State Mall. Paramus. Paramus again. Fort Lee. Jersey City. Paramus again. Mount Laurel. Secaucus. Howell. Paramus again. They just...they just kept calling... THEY JUST KEPT CALLING!!!!  Oh, and one call from Lansing, MI. Some dickhead complaining about three "hoodlums" in a store. Apparently they were using "profane language" and "smelled of of the marijuana". And he pronounced marijuana with a hard J, like Mr. Mackey from South Park. Those "hoodlums" are the only paying customers we have left, aside from the elderly, the redneck, the mentally unbalanced and immigrants who have arrived in the United States in the past 90 days.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2013 08:28
|
|
|
Some customers are nice. I helped a lady on Monday who I don't recall as being rude at all (and I usually remember the ones who were outright asshats) and gave her my email for follow-up after discussing options for coverage changes after her rate increased. I ended up out sick the next day (& she had emailed me stating she wanted to go ahead and make the changes). So when I got back in, I replied apologizing for being out & making sure she didn't need further help (she had called in after I didn't respond). I just received this reply: "Hi Supkirbs, I got it all taken care of. Thanks for following up on me though. And I'd really like to apologize for being short with you during our conversation. I realize rates go up, and it's certainly not your fault. Anyway, sorry if I was snippy. Hope you are feeling better. Take care. Thanks again for your assistance." It made my day that she apologized, even if I didn't think she was snippy at all. I guess when you're being cursed out all day, it dulls you to what normal people might consider snippy.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2013 20:16
|
|
|
I learned today if you change one digit in one of our corporate directory lines, instead of getting to loan officers you get an offer for generic Viagra.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 03:26
|
|
|
Someone managed to rattle me yesterday with a sucker punch question in the middle of a routine call, god drat. "Hello, I need to make a change to my policy"  "Sure I can help you with that"  "I just made a change and got a declarations page from you showing XYZ Bank as the lien on my car, but we paid that off." "No problem! I'll go ahead and remove them from the policy as a lienholder, anything else today?" "Also, you still have Jane Somebody listed as a driver on my policy, my daughter. Does she still need to be listed? She was killed in the accident recently..."  *checks claims note, sees *** FATALITIES *** * "I.. uhh, n-no of course not..." 
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 04:56
|
|
|
When I worked a call center for CITI, people calling in asking why they where getting advertisements for their dead family members while crying was always just horrible. I can take angry, indifferent, screaming and yelling; but a true sobbing person from emotional grief of a loved one I could never handle. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2013 06:51
|
|
|
ratbert90 posted:When I worked a call center for CITI, people calling in asking why they where getting advertisements for their dead family members while crying was always just horrible. I can take angry, indifferent, screaming and yelling; but a true sobbing person from emotional grief of a loved one I could never handle. I think thats playing it up honestly. Like you didn't remember they were dead? That would be more annoying than sad to me. It's a business and they don't always know whats up with people. Why literally call in crying about it? I just don't get it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 01:17
|
|
|
TokenTrevor posted:I think thats playing it up honestly. Like you didn't remember they were dead? That would be more annoying than sad to me. It's a business and they don't always know whats up with people. Why literally call in crying about it? I just don't get it. What magical land do you live in where customers/callers are rational, intelligent, functional people?
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 03:41
|
|
|
Calls always seem to come in waves. I spend a few weeks taking a larger-than-normal number of broken orders, then maybe it's new installs with broken poo poo, then maybe it's people who are down to their last nerve trying to get us to fix something. The worst was when I took 3 or 4 "My husband died suddenly this week and I called to get the name changed on the account, you guys hosed it up, and now I don't have phone service and the family can't get in touch with me to find out when the services are" calls in about a 2 month period. Sobbing, screaming, recently widowed women, pleading with me to fix something that is literally impossible to fix with the way our systems are set up, was just terrible. On a different note, we got our new chunk of PTO with the new year, so I took this week off. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed life this much. I really need a new job.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 05:10
|
|
|
Boomer The Cannon posted:I learned today if you change one digit in one of our corporate directory lines, instead of getting to loan officers you get an offer for generic Viagra. Yeah, our DSL support line was one digit off from a sex chat line. We sometimes got confused perverts or people referred back from the sex line.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 06:49
|
|
|
TokenTrevor posted:It's a business and they don't always know whats up with people. Why literally call in crying about it? I just don't get it. The caller has been upset by it and they're trying to do something. What do you think they're calling in for?
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2013 22:15
|
|
|
Benzoyl Peroxide posted:The caller has been upset by it and they're trying to do something. What do you think they're calling in for? Not crying as in whining. crying as in literally crying. You can't hear about someone that died without bursting into tears? and if so you take that exact moment to call the business that reminded you? I just don't get how that's the first thing to do, while you are still, for some reason, crying.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 00:10
|
|
|
^^^Because having to call in about it is another reminder of who they lost and what it was like to lose them? Seriously, I think empathizing on every call is a load of crap that can burn you out quick, but in that kind of scenario, drat man, that has to really suck on a whole other level than having to reschedule something or what have you.Aerofallosov posted:Yeah, our DSL support line was one digit off from a sex chat line. We sometimes got confused perverts or people referred back from the sex line. Our site has a major part of traffic go to "X"."Y".com. If you go to "Y"."X".com, it was porn. Customer service reps learned this the hard way when they got tired after giving the same address one too many times a day. Ugly In The Morning fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Jan 13, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 00:15
|
|
|
Ugly In The Morning posted:^^^Because having to call in about it is another reminder of who they lost and what it was like to lose them? Seriously, I think empathizing on every call is a load of crap that can burn you out quick, but in that kind of scenario, drat man, that has to really suck on a whole other level than having to reschedule something or what have you. I don't think I'm totally lacking empathy. I guess I just can't personally imagine trying to conduct business while crying. It'd have to be one or the other for me. Maybe that's where I'm getting hung up. Yea at my call center we sometimes have to make calls out to other places to check something for our caller, A girl from my class ended up getting a "Hey sexy for just a few dollars a minute I can make you feel good" type line when she dialed one of the numbers. She got flustered, laughed it off and dialed again, this time making sure to get the exact right number, Only to get the same voice again. The bank had given us the wrong number for their automated line. VVVVVV Like I said I'm not trying to sound heartless. I just think that if I was going to cry about it it'd be at the time I got the notice, or email whatever. or maybe after the call. Don't other people have business faces? I've lost many friends and a great grandmother but even when it's sad if I have poo poo to do I need to get that done. Maybe I'm just weird. Savage Shulkie fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 13, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 01:02
|
|
|
TokenTrevor posted:Not crying as in whining. crying as in literally crying. You can't hear about someone that died without bursting into tears? and if so you take that exact moment to call the business that reminded you? I just don't get how that's the first thing to do, while you are still, for some reason, crying. I understood by the use of 'literally' in your previous post what you meant, and I still stand by my response. I have to ask, have you ever lost someone close to you, or witnessed it happening to someone you know? I have, and completely understand people calling when crying, or calling and then starting to cry. Grief is not a pretty thing and can affect people in many different ways. I did some work on a survey for a large cancer researching company here in the UK. We were speaking to a lot of older women who had experienced losses of friends and family from cancers. One participant started crying about halfway through and said she just couldn't carry on because she recently lost a friend and it was still too raw. Of course I let her go and appreciated that she tried to take part despite being so fragile. Now that's not the exact same as actively calling in to a marketing company, or something, but you do have to agree to take on the survey if propositioned - so was this woman a timewaster, or some kind of idiot for taking part because of her friend's death? What if she wanted to carry on and cry through the whole thing, would you think that was weird? Just think about the people you are talking about for a minute and what their situations might be. I'm sure you'll be able to at least BEGIN to understand why they might behave in such ways.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 01:25
|
|
|
Considering that I've had people start crying because their phone is broken, because they can't get to their email, because their tv is on the wrong input and they can't find the INPUT button... Crying because they have to call in about a dead loved one is understandable. That said, I can totally get what TokenTrevor is saying. Sometimes, I'll get calls like "My husband died yesterday and I'm trying to get our account changed out of his name and OH GOD GEORGE *sobs*". drat people, that poo poo can wait. Grieve for a while first, then call us next month or something. That's the part I don't completely get. If you wait till you think you can handle it, and it turns out you can't, guess what? I don't care, it really sucks that you're going through this, go ahead and cry. I don't get why people try to take care of poo poo that can wait immediately after some kind of loss. Is it because loss does weird things to people? I've been fortunate enough to not lose anyone that close to me, but I've seen people do weird stuff because they're just not processing things right because of what they're going through. I guess I can see that with some people, getting through all the stuff that needs to get done seems like the only way to actually DO something, instead of just sitting and grieving. Or maybe working in a call center has beaten all normal human emotions and feelings out of us. Hell, I'd believe that even without this conversation.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 04:28
|
|
|
Yeah, I can think of a lot of reasons why people wouldn't wait. It may seem silly to call up the next day but what if they're worried, don't know what the process will be like, or simply don't care what a call centre person thinks? Of course there will be lonely people just looking for ANY kind of emotional release with another human, and even the odd person who really is just playing it up. But my gripe with all this is that sympathy and understanding of mental health issues is lovely in the UK and USA. I realise this is the rant thread on a ~comedy forum~ but it rubs me the wrong way when people go on about STUPID STUFF THAT MOMS DO WHEN DADS DIE, GO AWAY MOMS!!!!! I'm curious now if anyone has read any studies etc of the effect that working in call centres has on the ability to empathise with others.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 13:13
|
|
|
This reminded me of a sup call I took. Our system is stupid in one way. To change the platform on our modems, we have to do something in our phone system that completely resets voice mail. Which means all saved calls get lost. A lot of our agents don't mention this when doing this procedure. A woman called in pretty pissed off because they did that, and she lost a voice mail of her nephew or son who recently died. It sucked but there was no way to get those voice mails back. There's no amount of money that can make that kind of pain go away. People do crazy poo poo, and sometimes a voice mail is the only way to hear someone's voice. Had the first agent had a brain, they would have mentioned it and had her download the voice mail on her computer, but they naturally failed to mention that. I've seen a few cases of similar things, a loved one left a voice mail and they died. I think, however, that some call centers do deaden a lot of people's ability to empathize. You really have to be able to change gears between calls and not let the last caller affect your next caller (Unless it was a positive one).
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 15:56
|
|
|
I think what the poster meant is if someone gets some reminder of a deceased person, take a minute to have your cry or whatever, compose yourself, then call and conduct your business. We all understand grief etc. but please refrain from conducting business while crying. The other party will be there in 10 minutes, and hour, a day, whatever.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 16:24
|
|
|
I find out next week or so whether or not I'm staying on my secondmento another department or whether I'm being kicked back to the call centre. Despite thinking the call centre I used to work at sounds better than most people's places in this thread I still really don't want to go back! It's funny, I have sympathy for call centre workers on the one hand but on the other I can tell when they are being lazy and not doing what they could do to help me, and those guys get me being awkward as gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2013 18:58
|
|
|
Benzoyl Peroxide posted:I'm curious now if anyone has read any studies etc of the effect that working in call centres has on the ability to empathise with others. It's not the phone jockey's role to play counselor. The job is onerous enough without being some bereaved cry-baby's snot tissue. If they want to blow their grief load they can call a suicide prevention hotline or some poo poo where volunteers are trained to pretend to care. Have a cry, get it out, man-up and then phone, and if your legs start to buckle, save your dignity and end the call, then call back later when you'll sound less like a loving seal.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2013 02:30
|
|
|
That's not the point. Are call center employees expected to be counsellors? No Are they expected to be stone cold and emotionless? No It is reasonable to expect a change in attitude if you are used to get yelled at over the phone. Regardless of how much we like to talk about not thinking about the last call we are affected by the environment we work in. If you get yelled at by users and management at every turn it is reasonable to expect that to affect your personality as well. Lets not forget that most people does not want to work phones, we do it because it pays the bills. Going to a job you hate, getting abused over the phone, getting yelled at by management, collecting a minimum wage and being told to be grateful for it day after day is a poo poo situation to be in. Repeat for a year and most people will start to change. I'm much more cynical today compared to a few years ago. I know I had a much higher expectation of the general public before I started working with IT. But as Benzoyl Peroxide said, I'd also be curious if there have been any studies on call center employees to empathise with others. In short, am I working in customer service because I hate people, or do I hate people because I work in customer service?
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 00:50
|
|
|
taremva posted:Are they expected to be stone cold and emotionless? No
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 09:02
|
|
|
Semprini posted:If I got to be stone cold in work, that'd rule. Drinking beer and hitting folk with chairs? What's not to like? Swedish phrases do not survive translation ITT poo poo that does piss me off: The client banned overtime starting january first. Rather then have extra people back when the new year starts we've been running with a skeleton crew since people were on vacation. Guess who's working overtime tonight? Both people on the same shift got sick, and I'm the only one who can take it. If not, my colleagues would have to take an 18 hour shift and they have a right to 8 hours of rest per day. So this will be my third 12 hour nightshift in a row, alone, but at least this one pays well. My manager foots the bill for food, so now I'm looking for the most expensive take away I can find.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 15:34
|
|
|
Woo losing my temper by the third call of the day. Woo searching for jobs in between calls. Woo...my soul...
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 15:52
|
|
|
cuntvalet posted:Woo losing my temper by the third call of the day. I'm on lead while we start up a merger for call centers. Job searches ahoy!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 18:08
|
|
|
Gothmog1065 posted:I'm on lead while we start up a merger for call centers. Job searches ahoy! All I can find in my city is factory work or ads for THIS VERY CALL CENTRE! I sort of want to die! We were never scripted and they keep adding more "mandatory" scripting. In that we don't have to say the exact words but we have to say something kind of like it. Woooo!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 18:32
|
|
|
Do the factory work. I can absolutely guarantee it'll be better and you'll enjoy it more.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 16:34
|
|
|
you ate my cat posted:Considering that I've had people start crying because their phone is broken, because they can't get to their email, because their tv is on the wrong input and they can't find the INPUT button... Crying because they have to call in about a dead loved one is understandable. At my old job, I went 8 years without having the whole "loved one died" phone call, but I would honestly say that this type is worse. These people are almost guaranteeing to not work with you, because they are either having a frustrating day and just "lost it" during their phone call with you, or they simply cry over everything. I would have people call me up, everything would be fine with my instructions on setting up their email client to get their email, then something minuscule would happen, say.. entering in a password incorrectly and having Outlook prompt them, and then queue blubbering idiot and Niagara Falls pouring from their face. A simple <10 minute phone call suddenly becomes a 30-45 minute phone call. But I never escaped discussing death during a phone call: we had a shady hosting platform that would allow an account holder to have unlimited domain names/web space/traffic. So it was home to a lot of shady website re-sellers that charge an exuberant hosting fee, while only paying us 30-40 bucks/mo. I felt so bad for a lady that called us directly one time, instead of the account holder, when her domain expired. It was registered to the account holder (not her) through a registrar, and they found the account holder's decomposing body in a ditch, complete with a bullet to the head, after being missing for 2 weeks. There was nothing we could do except let the domain run the "expiration course" and hope no one snipes it in the end.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 19:32
|
|
|
MA-Horus posted:Do the factory work. I can absolutely guarantee it'll be better and you'll enjoy it more. Done the factory thing before. Hated it and lasted 4 days, promised myself I'd never go back.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 22:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 20:52 |
|
|
It's funny, 2.25 years in to this job, the thing I hate most are normal vanilla service calls that I have done 45,000 times already. The calls I love? When people are insane pissed off and rambling crazy nonsense. I just sit back in my chair with a smile on my face and listen to them go off, and if it's their fault they're pissed off? They're ten times as furious! I had a guy today saying that a manager was supposed to call him yesterday and he stayed up all night waiting for a manager to call him, and now he wants to be compensated for it. He wants money from us! How loving nuts!? Another guy ranting about his rate increase started going on and on about gay marriage and wiretapping and Obama this and that and I need to get my head examined, the world should have ended in December, etc. *kisses fingers* Mwah! I love it.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2013 19:09
|
|