|
On the long list of things I will say on my last day is: "Why don't you start your own 15 billion dollar loving insurance company?" when someone gets angry and idignant about how we rate their car, or their new neighborhood they just moved into and know literally nothing about, other than they think it's "safer" because there are more white people or gated communities or some poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2013 17:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 11:31 |
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:On the long list of things I will say on my last day is: "Why don't you start your own 15 billion dollar loving insurance company?" when someone gets angry and idignant about how we rate their car, or their new neighborhood they just moved into and know literally nothing about, other than they think it's "safer" because there are more white people or gated communities or some poo poo. That is about the same line of stupid that we get as a cable company. "I'd switch if their was any competition but you won't let Comcast in my area." Right. We're keeping them out. Not that they don't want to spend a hundred million for cabling a tiny city to get a fraction of our customers that want to switch. aka they don't want to loose tens or hundreds of millions of dollars because you are mad.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
jassi007 posted:That is about the same line of stupid that we get as a cable company. "I'd switch if their was any competition but you won't let Comcast in my area." Right. We're keeping them out. Not that they don't want to spend a hundred million for cabling a tiny city to get a fraction of our customers that want to switch. aka they don't want to loose tens or hundreds of millions of dollars because you are mad. You think you can treat me like this because you have a monopoly on the area? I'm gonna call your president. Sure, go right for it, it's gonna come straight to our department again anyways. e: quote:On the long list of things I will say on my last day is: "Why don't you start your own 15 billion dollar loving insurance company?" when someone gets angry and idignant about how we rate their car, or their new neighborhood they just moved into and know literally nothing about, other than they think it's "safer" because there are more white people or gated communities or some poo poo. I know I'm going to be walked out on my last day. I'm not sure if I'll make it to that point or not. I might not make my full two weeks. Gothmog1065 fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Nov 5, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2013 19:34
|
|
|
Goddamn I hate bowing down to customers who claim they've been offered fantastic poo poo that doesn't even exist in our system and for which there is no interaction note. Getting lied to my face is one thing, but having to pretend they're saying the truth is just unbearable.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2013 20:50
|
|
|
Colonel J posted:Goddamn I hate bowing down to customers who claim they've been offered fantastic poo poo that doesn't even exist in our system and for which there is no interaction note. Getting lied to my face is one thing, but having to pretend they're saying the truth is just unbearable. Let someone else do the bowing? Unless your just in that lovely kind of position. When people make up fantastical poo poo, I say "oh gosh nobody noted that, and I can't do something like that. Do you know who you spoke to?" Stick to that unless they ask for a sup or give up basically. I find that when you run into someone that you just can't work with, sticking to what you said and repeating yourself eventually gets them to give up. I suppose that if you have firebreathing metric nazi's on your back though, it might be different. Our company basically has loose call time metrics which I have never in years of working here come close to not making per month. So I can afford to spend the time to grind someone down when they go off with impossible demands. I honestly wish we had escalations position, I'd take it. I like helping customers our company has hosed, and I love brick walling customers who are full of poo poo. jassi007 fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Nov 5, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2013 21:10
|
|
|
Today's customers were the usual brand of stupid. There was this one woman who, even after being told I was calling for Asshats Unlimited (twice), proceeded to complain FOR SEVENTEEN MINUTES about Fedora Junction. Lady, I can do jack poo poo for you. Even if she was complaining about the store I was calling about, I still can't do much except listen and pass the info along. Sometimes I really wish I could hang up on people. I CANNOT HELP YOU. I was trying to jump in and steer the conversation back on track, but she kept interrupting to keep complaining. I guess she just wanted someone to listen to her. Another woman was really not happy at being called (apparently someone had already called her and I guess they didn't save and code the call properly?) and screamed such ugly things at me that I lost my cool completely and got extremely flustered. She fed off my audible discomfort and worked herself into a frothing rage before hanging up. I was in tears by the end, and it was only a minute or two long. That was like my third or fourth call. I got some poo poo going on in my personal life and I guess the stress of that is getting to me more than I thought. On another note, there's this Team Leader at my work who we'll call "Willow". I don't like Willow because Willow is not at all interested in actually being a TL. Luckily, I'm not on her team. At my job, when you have a question or problem, you raise your hand and the closest TL comes over to assist you, even if they're not YOUR TL. Everyone except Willow is really super nice and happy to help. With the exception of about five or six people, when she sees someone raise a hand, she ignores them completely, sometimes turning and walking the other way to gently caress around somewhere else. It's lovely as gently caress to have someone screaming at you and the only TL on the floor just straight refuse to acknowledge you. I would love nothing more than to smack the poo poo out of Willow. There are plenty of capable CSRs on the floor who could have her job and be amazing at it, but we're stuck with this useless piece of poo poo. Apparently her supervisors are cool with it, since no one ever seems to tell her to loving do something.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2013 05:21
|
|
|
If there's at least one major lesson I've learned from working in a call center for the past few months, it's having a new-found appreciation and empathy for the movie Office Space. I am now one of them! 
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2013 19:36
|
|
|
100 HOGS AGREE posted:I once absolutely refused to continue troubleshooting someone's poo poo until they pulled off the road because they thought it was a great idea to try to get their VPN problem fixed while they were commuting on the highway. One of my favorites was some guy driving a tractor and asking for help with his DSL. I couldn't hear him and I was worrying about any poor bastards on that field. Or the people on laptops or phones trying to do stuff on the highway or while driving. I actually just ask them them if that due to safety concerns, would they please call back when they can pull over or something.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2013 20:52
|
|
|
Had a small victory today in that I found out our worm of an operations manager is getting put in charge of a different department. We now get the wall eyed, overly stern but mostly harmless Indian guy as our operations manager. It's not quite a step up but it's better than the one that got moved.  Also I got called into HR today because I handed in a doctor's note. Or rather I thought I did and gave them my physiotherapy exercise sheet instead. HR: We called you into the office because of your doctors note...we aren't quite sure what it means. Me:...Oh! Yeah my emergency physiotherapist made the least specific note I've ever read. I'm really sorry I can get him to write another one? HR: Yeah...I don't understood why he wrote stretching instructions or drew little pictures... Me: Wait, what? HR showed me the paper and I just started laughing, got my purse and pulled out the right doctors note in exchange for my exercise instructions apologizing profusely. So...that was strange. CatStacking fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Nov 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2013 21:59
|
|
|
Well, I get the next loving month off the phone? This person. They want me to run nesting next month which means I help the 3 new agents learn their crap. For a month. If they do good and don't nee help, I do jack poo poo. The tradeoff: I have to drive into work again (hour drive one way).
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2013 22:17
|
|
|
Treasure that, man. Only 3 agents? A whole month? I would shank a guy for that kind of offline time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 02:00
|
|
|
Yeah when I had to train agents I just had to cram it in between calls.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 02:55
|
|
|
The dialer was running superslow today for some reason, so there was plenty of time to chat between calls. The girl in the cube next to me told me a story. Once, she answered an inbound call. The guy calling asked to speak with Destiny. She assumes, since he's calling back, that Destiny is the CSR he spoke to before, so she tells him, sorry, we probably have several Destinys here, but I'd be happy to help. Guy replies that his buddy just told him to ask for Destiny, that he didn't say which one. My co-worker, beginning to suspect what's happened here, asks, "Sorry, but are you calling about Hats?" She said you could hear the embarrassment in his voice- he'd meant to call a 900 number. Oops! I suppose I've shot myself in the foot with my complaining about people who won't just say they don't want to be called. I had a guy today who spent about 12 minutes telling me that he didn't want to be called. He understood the need for the calls, but they were annoying, and on, and on, and on... after he'd already gone through the whole survey. I put him on the Do-Not-Call list, but drat, dude. I got it. To be fair, I guess I asked for that, didn't I? 
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 04:06
|
|
|
I think my all-time favorite call was the guy who was upset that he couldn't dial in to our dialup modem pool. Which is in Indiana. From France.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 04:50
|
|
|
The first call center I worked for had one ISP's number that was one digit away from a sex line. That was ... interesting.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 17:18
|
|
Oh. If you ply your dumb manager to talk about their life and plans during a stat meeting then they just gloss over the stats and say "on with you little scamp" even if they'd grill you about something dumb normally. Ugh. 
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 04:14
|
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:Oh. If you ply your dumb manager to talk about their life and plans during a stat meeting then they just gloss over the stats and say "on with you little scamp" even if they'd grill you about something dumb normally. Ugh. Wow, you didn't learn this in school? We had a teacher you could distract by talking about the days of steam trains. Some people are nice and easy to distract.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 09:18
|
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:Oh. If you ply your dumb manager to talk about their life and plans during a stat meeting then they just gloss over the stats and say "on with you little scamp" even if they'd grill you about something dumb normally. Ugh. Dogs work on mine. Every time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 19:09
|
|
|
The trainer for our group can be distracted for at least 15-20 minutes if you ask him any question about smartphones. "Seen any good jailbreaks for iOS 7?"
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 20:36
|
|
|
Our trainer is a HUGE Star Trek fan. You get her going and she'll go for awhile before going "oh, I should be training you".
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 21:05
|
|
|
Gothmog1065 posted:Our trainer is a HUGE Star Trek fan. You get her going and she'll go for awhile before going "oh, I should be training you". loving  this is me but with Star Wars. My last training group was starting to catch onto it.Also, any sort of football-chat (particularly if it's about the Bucs) always makes me go off topic for at least 5 minutes.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2013 21:09
|
|
|
I work in a front end retail store for sprint, and I have to say that for the most part when I have to call in to our sales support, it's entirely pleasant. But one time I got a particularly rude rep on the phone who was dismissive, inattentive, did the wrong things on/to the account, and when confronted about it disconnected the call. I had to call back and explain to the next person what had happened - the customer is in the store with me, guy so I have to at least seem upset - and was told they would set up a "training opportunity" for the last agent on the call. I'm pretty sure that whole thing is a bullshit platitude - which is great I don't care - but is it really? What does a "training opportunity" consist of?
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2013 19:37
|
|
|
Wizard of Smart posted:I work in a front end retail store for sprint, and I have to say that for the most part when I have to call in to our sales support, it's entirely pleasant. But one time I got a particularly rude rep on the phone who was dismissive, inattentive, did the wrong things on/to the account, and when confronted about it disconnected the call. I had to call back and explain to the next person what had happened - the customer is in the store with me, guy so I have to at least seem upset - and was told they would set up a "training opportunity" for the last agent on the call. I'm pretty sure that whole thing is a bullshit platitude - which is great I don't care - but is it really? What does a "training opportunity" consist of? For me it's getting to e-mail that person's manager with how they went and hosed up. Gotta work today even though it's a national holiday (we're open 24/365). Overtime for a regular shift isn't bad.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2013 19:44
|
|
|
Well, i guess I'm going to have to have a serious sit down with the wife about possibly applying for a lead position. Less call taking, but angrier customers. I'll get a raise, and probably have to work a lovely shift (maybe midday if I'm lucky), and I'll have to drive to work again. Such a difficult decision Gothmog1065 fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Nov 12, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 00:28
|
|
|
Gothmog1065 posted:Well, i guess I'm going to have to have a serious sit down with the wife about possibly applying for a lead position. Less call taking, but angrier customers, but more power. I passed on supervisor that just came up. 2pm-12am Monday Thursday Friday Saturday. I have teo small children. My wife would have killed me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 00:31
|
|
|
jassi007 posted:I passed on supervisor that just came up. 2pm-12am Monday Thursday Friday Saturday. I have teo small children. My wife would have killed me. Luckily someone decided that all Lead/Sup positions would either have Friday/Sat off or Sun/Mon off so a weekend day every week. According to sources 5 of our leads applied for other positions within the company. I suspect more than a few will moveo n.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 00:58
|
|
|
Wizard of Smart posted:I work in a front end retail store for sprint, and I have to say that for the most part when I have to call in to our sales support, it's entirely pleasant. But one time I got a particularly rude rep on the phone who was dismissive, inattentive, did the wrong things on/to the account, and when confronted about it disconnected the call. I had to call back and explain to the next person what had happened - the customer is in the store with me, guy so I have to at least seem upset - and was told they would set up a "training opportunity" for the last agent on the call. I'm pretty sure that whole thing is a bullshit platitude - which is great I don't care - but is it really? What does a "training opportunity" consist of? I can't imagine being a jerk to someone who works for the same company I do. I used to email supervisors about 'coaching opportunities' or whatever, but the more escalations work I did the more I realized that nobody cares. That email isn't going anywhere useful. So now unless it's particularly egregious I tell the customer we take it seriously and I appreciate them bringing it to our attention, then generally it ends there. Sounds like you had a legit reason to complain though. Are you able to get feedback sent in from your management team somehow?
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 01:39
|
|
|
The last call centre I worked at the majority of the call centre support were assholes to the staff. To be fair the majority were jaded older guys who had been working in call centres for years and tired of the same poo poo all the time, no excuse to call someone stupid for asking a question. They also would actively avoid escalations anyway possible, usually by pulling people on the phones to floorwalk because they were "too busy" on calls.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 14:22
|
|
|
you ate my cat posted:I can't imagine being a jerk to someone who works for the same company I do. I used to email supervisors about 'coaching opportunities' or whatever, but the more escalations work I did the more I realized that nobody cares. That email isn't going anywhere useful. So now unless it's particularly egregious I tell the customer we take it seriously and I appreciate them bringing it to our attention, then generally it ends there. Sounds like you had a legit reason to complain though. Are you able to get feedback sent in from your management team somehow? Nah, it was so long ago it doesn't even matter. Turnover rate at call centers is pretty high, so the guy might not even be working there anymore. Also, let me say - I am always polite and friendly to call center guys because gently caress that I don't want that job. But I have a question - do you guys like it when a caller strikes up friendly conversation during the lulls of data entry and research, or is that annoying? Because I like to converse 
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 20:09
|
|
|
Wizard of Smart posted:Nah, it was so long ago it doesn't even matter. Turnover rate at call centers is pretty high, so the guy might not even be working there anymore. No, just shut up. I don't care about you your life the weather where you are and I don't want to talk to you about me, my life, the weather where I am or where I am. I am trying to do what I need to do to get your off the phone. Thats just me though. Some people loooove to bullshit.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 20:17
|
|
|
We're supposed to do that. I'll talk back if you talk to me, but usually I'm actually trying to fix your problem.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 23:25
|
|
|
Wizard of Smart posted:Also, let me say - I am always polite and friendly to call center guys because gently caress that I don't want that job. But I have a question - do you guys like it when a caller strikes up friendly conversation during the lulls of data entry and research, or is that annoying? Because I like to converse I'll be the exception- I like it when people are friendly and conversational because then it's easier to get the answers I need for my survey. I'm supposed to converse with my people, not just fire questions at them, and it really does work better that way. People don't like being interrogated, so if I can turn it into a friendly conversation, it goes better, just so long as we don't get off track too much. That being said, jassi007 posted:No, just shut up. I don't care about you your life the weather where you are and I don't want to talk to you about me, my life, the weather where I am or where I am. I am trying to do what I need to do to get your off the phone. Thats just me though. Some people loooove to bullshit.  And people who are extra chatty don't actually answer my questions either. They just wait for me to pause and then go on about some poo poo I don't give a gently caress about. So yeah, please chat with me, but allow me to keep control of the conversation. I'm not calling to shoot the poo poo, there's information I need to get from you. I'd prefer to have a friendly conversation because its more enjoyable for everyone, but there is a point to the call and I need to actually accomplish it. Really, though, it means the world to me when people just speak to me as if I'm human. So many people talk to me with such contempt, and it really wears on me after awhile.On another note, I have been filling in and taking calls on this certain campaign for like three weeks because they have more work than people to do it. I hadn't been trained on it until this last Saturday. Team Leads kept giving me poo poo about loving up the calls, and I kept saying I hadn't been trained, can I please be trained? They finally gave me a slapdash crash-course and turns out, I'm waaaay better at it once I know what the gently caress I'm doing! Whoa! The person that trained me made sure to put in the notes that I'd been taking those calls for weeks without a lick of training, though, so hopefully I won't get in trouble for all the fuckups. Hahahahaha. Sure.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2013 04:31
|
|
|
I kind of like responsive customers, as sometimes I need to do a long, boring process or wait 20 seconds for their details to load due to bad software, and customers who don't mind deviating from the point make those times so much easier. One of the things I was told about on my first review was to try to engage them more and not have 30 seconds of dead silence, so making small jokes tends to work best for me. One of my more recent ones was "So, we have you based in Charlotte (North Carolina)? How does she feel about that?". The customer laughed, and said I was funny, and was fairly understanding that I couldn't fix her problem on the call. It espoacially helps when I'm filling out the ticket, which otherwise results in either dead silence for ~ 2 Minutes or me just saying "OK, now I have all the information together I just needs to slam this ticket together and then I'll do x,y and z... I just need to do 2 more things now... OK one more thing and I'll go through your security questions... OK I'm just bringing up your (mentally, on both sides of the call)uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhh."
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 12:22
|
|
|
BioEnchanted posted:I kind of like responsive customers, as sometimes I need to do a long, boring process or wait 20 seconds for their details to load due to bad software, and customers who don't mind deviating from the point make those times so much easier. One of the things I was told about on my first review was to try to engage them more and not have 30 seconds of dead silence, so making small jokes tends to work best for me. One of my more recent ones was "So, we have you based in Charlotte (North Carolina)? How does she feel about that?". The customer laughed, and said I was funny, and was fairly understanding that I couldn't fix her problem on the call. It espoacially helps when I'm filling out the ticket, which otherwise results in either dead silence for ~ 2 Minutes or me just saying "OK, now I have all the information together I just needs to slam this ticket together and then I'll do x,y and z... I just need to do 2 more things now... OK one more thing and I'll go through your security questions... OK I'm just bringing up your (mentally, on both sides of the call)uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhh." You can't put people on hold? When I'm working on a service request and don't need any more information from the customer, I ask them to hold and I'll be back with their reference number in a couple minutes.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 16:52
|
|
|
We can, but we try to keep the client engaged, because being on hold sucks, and if we can't fix the problem over the phone then the hold music is unlikely to have improved their mood any .
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 17:53
|
|
|
If we put the client on more than 60 seconds of hold per call, on average, we get "coached" for it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 18:48
|
|
|
Colonel J posted:If we put the client on more than 60 seconds of hold per call, on average, we get "coached" for it. Wow thats insane. Our only issue was setting improper hold expectations. Like saying "Can you hold for a minute?" and coming back 5 minutes later. We would have to try to guess how long a situation would take, which was frustrating enough in itself. I don't know how I would have made it through calls with less than 60 seconds of hold!
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 18:55
|
|
|
My old work didn't let you put anyone on hold for any reason at all, unless you were transferring a call or asking a manager a question. So if something took 60 seconds to load or type up, you were expected to make conversation with them the entire time. EDIT: Here's what is helpful, in my opinion, based on my experience at a call center: - Whenever you can, fill out a survey, and rate it the highest possible score. Leave a comment, even if it's something generic like "I was so glad to be helped today." (If you simply *must* be super sincere and honest in an online survey in this year of our lord 2013, please remember that what *you* consider to be a good score might be very bad to the person in the call center. I got pulled off the phones and asked if I wanted to keep my job when I got a 7 out of 10 on "caring." It was my only score lower than an 8 out of 10 all month, and it was treated like a horrific deal.) - If possible, have your account information with you. If you don't have it with you, understand it might take a minute to pull up. - Don't lash out at the peons. Often we really can't do anything. If it becomes clear that we can't help you, calmly ask for a supervisor. - Let the CSR guide the call. I begin calls by: ... saying my name. "My name's Legsarerequired, and you can call me Legsarerequired." CSRs are often required to ask for a first or last name, then check if it's okay to call you that name. If you have a really complicated last name (I do), just say "It's better to call me (first name)" and that will save both of us like 30 seconds. ... "I have a question about my bill, since there are extra charges that I don't understand." Very short summary of your issue to start off. Even if it sounds unique to you, your CSR has probably dealt with 10 calls similar to it today since they ONLY talk to people having a problem. This gives the CSR an idea of what systems they need to pull up and then they'll probably ask you follow-up questions, where you can ask for more. Often times when people give lots of details up front, it's stuff that's kind of irrelevant, or they say it super fast and I frantically type it down and need to double check with them later anyway. ... If you're filing a claim or making some kind of order, DO NOT BEGIN THE CALL IN A HUGE BREAKNECK RAMBLE WITH YOUR POLICY NUMBERS, DATES, NAMES, ETC THAT WE WON'T REMEMBER OR KNOW. Often we're filling out a form, and while we can write down unneeded information for when we get to it, but again, often times a) people bring up information that's irrelevant or b) they say a lot of information (both important and un-important) super fast and I end up spending more time double checking and clearing up details. ... If you have an older parent or grandparent who struggles to keep up with conversations/to keep track of documents/has a hearing impairment, it might be easier for everyone involved if you just make the call on their behalf. Ask the CSR what you need to do to get your name added to policies or whatever, or what they need to say to allow you to help them with the phone call. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Nov 17, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 19:37
|
|
|
TokenTrevor posted:Wow thats insane. Our only issue was setting improper hold expectations. Like saying "Can you hold for a minute?" and coming back 5 minutes later. We would have to try to guess how long a situation would take, which was frustrating enough in itself. I don't know how I would have made it through calls with less than 60 seconds of hold! An agent I managed once put a customer on hold for about eight minutes straight. I made her listen to the call in full and wouldn't let her skip over the eight solid minutes of our lovely hold music. Didn't happen again. But yeah, sometimes you need to use hold - I think our official policy was to put them on hold for a maximum of one minute at a time, maximum of three times per call. Longer than that and you were supposed to offer to call them back after you'd done whatever it was that was taking so long - all of which seems like common sense to me, but some people put customers on hold for eight minutes straight so I guess it needed to be a policy.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 19:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 11:31 |
|
|
legsarerequired posted:My old work didn't let you put anyone on hold for any reason at all, unless you were transferring a call or asking a manager a question. So if something took 60 seconds to load or type up, you were expected to make conversation with them the entire time. YES YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES THIS
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 01:47
|
|
