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Goddamnit, I need another job. Not only am I sick yet again but I was more or less forced home early because of one customer. Stupid bitch would not listen to a word I was telling her about taking her through the rest of the first part of the process and screamed at me for a couple of minutes before I tried yet again {almost in tears at this point mind you because I was feeling so lovely} and she hangs up on me after screaming at me again. I get the feeling she's gonna try to put in a complaint against me {not that it'll get anywhere, the call centres are on a national network so no one can really tell who is who unless it gets escalated}. All this over me trying to explain why she needs to go see an adviser to complete the process {and I never even got to explain why she needed to go. I'm guessing she assumed she'd be forced to look for work or something}.
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Jun 3, 2010 13:59
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Oh goddamnit. Why do I have to have such awesome managers in this place? It just makes it too hard to want to leave. I'm looking for something else at the moment since the job is no longer suiting me, but my Team Leaders' line manager has to make me feel bad for doing it by telling me to take a comfort break after every call to rest my voice, screw the stats {I've got a case of tonsilitis that is getting better, but the voice still croaks a bit after dealing with a 30 minute call}. Honestly if it weren't for the people I work with on a daily basis I'd have gone long before now. Saying that, I did get a few appreciative folks through today that really made my day.
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Jun 9, 2010 19:13
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zero0ne posted:I thought I'd chime in and say that I do IT for a larger Call center, I doubt anyone has questions. We have to use one side of our baffle boards for work purposes {i.e for having things like script updates, call outcome codes and interpreter call codes} the other side can be decorated as we see fit as long as it doesn't have questionble content. Small toys are also allowed on the desk as for some reason management acknowledge that our job is stressful enough for some of us to have something to bash around when we get frustrated.
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Jun 11, 2010 21:34
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I know this is technically a double post but no one else has posted again yet and I need to rant so... Anyways we just got told on Thursday at the team meeting that we aren't meeting out customer service targets because apparently we're refusing to say "have I fully answered your query?" at the end of every call. Now we all knew we had to do it for jobsearches but we have *never* been told we had to say it after general enquiries or actual claims. Queue a lot of confusion and resentment because the team I'm with is apparently the only one that got told we had to do this no matter what, no excuses. I can see my Team Leader's point, after all we can only change the way things are done if we can show we simply cannot reconcile a much faster talk time with actually reading the whole script as is {and that means actually reading the whole script every time}. My only problem is that since other teams are apparently not doing this, it's making us look bad in the stats compared to the others because they're apparently not looking at people reading the entire script  . Plus the way the thing is worded is actually making us give terrible customer service, but no one really cares about that.
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Jun 19, 2010 07:24
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Oh hello thread, wondered where you went. Well at least they're honest and that's pretty much all you can hope for. It's quarterly review time here so we have to fill out this little form about how well we think we're doing in our job. I hate filling out those things because the questions are never clear about what it is they're looking for  . I'm muddling my way through mines at the moment before my meeting on Friday morning, I just hope that it's what they want.I got a cracker of a call today though {in a good way that mde me laugh for ages}. Accent is more or less included because that's part of the charm.  : Right can I get your postcode and number or name of your property please : It's *begins to reel off phone number*: Can I just interrupt for a second? I asked for your postcode. : Oh! Sorry hen, My minds awa' with it the day.: That's not a problem, it's getting late in the afternoon and its pretty hot out there today.: Yeah it isnae half. *give correct information this time*.Later on : *reels off statemet about emergency payments at post offices*: But I have a bank account.: Yeah, but this just in case we have a problem with our computer systems.: Oh I know the feeling, computers can be pretty iffy at times {note: the tone in her voice indicated she thought I was having computer problems now}.: Actually this is just in case the banks don't like our direct debit for some reason.: Oh hen, I'm so sorry. I must be goin' deaf in my auld age *laughs* you must think I'm a right idiot the way I've been going on today.: Not at all Mrs *blah*, it happens to the best of us, especially when we need to do something as stressful as sort this kind of stuff out.: Aww, you're a right wee star. It basically made my entire day and I don't think I stopped grinning for a good 15 minutes afterwards.
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Jun 22, 2010 20:50
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Had no net for three weeks and I'm glad it back now. We now have more freedom with out script. Woohoo, I might hear you say. Yes it's great.... but apparently we still have to read the explanations after questions if a customer answers "yes"... when if they answer yes they don't need the explanation {the question about dependent children comes to mind here}  .Things have being going well for me customer wise recently, though I think that's more to do with the fact that the vast majority are students and people who do term time work. Still get a few idiots through now and then {no I'm not from Poland you twat! You never heard a Scottish accent before? When you're clearly from Newcastle?} Most of my rants are about the stupid flightpath targets. Now I understand having to do the calls in less time, but let's face it, not everyone is going to have the information we need right off the bat {even if they're calling up for information about a job they've found. Half of our delightful customers don't think to have a pen and some paper handy}. Will be quite amusing to see peoples' heads explode when I finally hit my peak way before everyone else {when I've currently got some of the best stats in the entire centre}. The other stuff is about things I can't really rant about here because of the department I work for and we can't really control it anyways .ETA Do I have a fair chance of making $14 an hour? $16? The above really depends on who you work for. I'm civil service so I get a bit of a pittance compared to private companies, but I get better perks to make up for it. If you are looking for call centre work, look around and see what the employers are offering you, not just for wages, but for other things like holidays and stuff. How boring does it get? Like most have said it depends on how slow it is. I'm hardly ever bored during our busiest periods, but for when it is quiet I can sit and read a book, draw or write. No internet access except from your own time {essentially lunch time}. How rampant is the abuse from customers? Due to the nature of the work I do, it varies considerably. Some customers are the highlight of my day and remind me that there are actually good people in the world. Others make me want to walk around to their houses and punch their lights out. If the customer is actually abusive though, we warn them and terminate the call and have a marker put against them {just in case they're the type to go punching people that work in the next stage of the process}. I've dealt with some really properly terrifying customers {one of which was threatening to slice the guy outside the phone box open.... yeah had to let a manager deal with that}. In my case, I'm allowed to pass off the really pissy customers to another agent. How stressful in genenral is the job? The job I do can be stressful at times, but honestly, it isn't that bad. Yeah, we have targets now, but when a call generally takes about 20 minutes to complete and half our customers don't have the information needed and wander off to go get it, we can't really control how long our calls are going to be. Do you get much down time between calls? First thing in the morning, especially towards the end of the week, we can go about 40 minutes between calls. On a really busy day though, once you go back into ready time you get another one straight away. On average; I'd say down time between calls for the work I do is about a minute, maybe two. How casual/enjoyable does the atmosphere tend to be? It is fairly causual when it's quiet, people will talk about the day's news, the latest gossip from the outside world etc. Team meetings {at least for the team I'm in} tend to be a little chaotic because it's pretty much the only time everyone gets a chance to talk to one another. Do your fellow employees tend to be cool or insufferable? I can only talk about the other members of my team since the different teams tend not to interact too much. But my team mates are fantastic. We're like a little, completely dysfunctional, family. If anyone has any issues they will most likely find someone to talk to about them and we are united by our apathy towards the bigwigs and our frustration towards our more irritating customers. Like I said, team meetings tend to be a bit chaotic but ultimately they're *fun*. I got lucky with the team I'm part of though, some other teams aren't as well bonded. I guess it helps that we've got some people who have been doing this job for something like 7 years {since just before someone decided we needed call centres to handle customers} and have retained some sort of personality. gomababe fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Jul 31, 2010 |
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Jul 31, 2010 18:26
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Fil5000 posted:Not got any books I could name but a few tips from dealing with escalated complaints calls: I think that covers most people actually. I'd like to add that if you get the blessed ability to hang up on abusive customers, do so after giving them a maximum of two warnings. You should not have to take poo poo off someone when you either can't do anything directly or they will not let you help and you can get rid of them without getting yelled at by your supervisor. I know not all places will let you do that, however, so keep that in mind.
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Jan 13, 2011 19:58
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A good thing to lighten up the mood somewhat. Got a call from a customer who had some issues that meant speaking on the phone was incredibly difficult for her to do. This was the end of the call:: Thank you so much for your help, you've been so kind: Not a problem at all, I'm just doing my job.: No, I really mean it, you've made me feel so much better. Now I can relaz and hopefully everything will be sorted out.: You're very welcome and I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day now we've got this all sorted out for you.: Are you in a local office?: Unfortunately not, it's a national number: that's a shame, is there any way I can pass on the compliment to a manager?: You can pick up a leaflet to do that at the local office, just ask in at the front desk.: Thanks again. Calls like that really make my day and this one made me feel a million times better for being on a late shift despie the fact that I'm feeling icky.
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Jan 14, 2011 20:43
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Dang, it's been ages since I posted in here and I don't even have any stories to share right now  . I do, however, have a quick question: Des anyone havw a favourite stress thoy they like to keep on hand to bash about so they don't lose it with the customers? I've had a few, but my latest one is starting to fall apart at the moment and I need something a little sturdier now the new tax year's just started.
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Apr 4, 2011 19:58
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less than three posted:iPod. I don't think I'll quite get away with that in my place.I sit directly opposite my Team Leader and my desk isn't surrounded by baffle boards on all sides. Besides which I haave enough trouble understanding some of my customers as it is without bringing music, however quiet, into it. It's been pretty good this week. The nice weather must be improving everyone's moods because I've had something like 6 compliments passed my way so far. An example to brighten everyone's day; : *after doing a search for a customer, having already taken 10 minutes finding 3 things for him* I can find one last thing for you if you just hold on a couple of seconds.... : Oh no need, this is more than enough to be getting on with. Thanks so much for your help. I really do appreciate it.: Not a problem, was there anything else at all?: is your manager there at all?: Yeah, just hold on a tick.My line manager had a quick chat with the guy and told me after he'd hung up that I had apparently been the first helpful person he'd spoken to for the last 3 months. He'd been passed from pillar to post with some of our other colleagues and was starting to get a little fed up of it. That really brightened up the rest of my evening because it was literally the last call I took for my day. It kinda pisses me off that it's such a surprise to our customers when some of us genuinely want to help them out though.
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Apr 7, 2011 18:34
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Speaking of accents, I swear some people have gone half deaf in this stupid country. I am from Scotland a part of the United Kingdom, not Australia, not Canada and most certainly not India or Paksitan {yeah I don't know about those last two either. Must be the microphone or the fact that when I've been home I speak rather quickly}, so stop clearly being annoyed that I don't have a neutral English accent from the South {for some reason this little fact pisses off more people from Manchester and Liverpool}. Still, getting people from Glasgow on the phone means I can talk at my normal speed and get through what would otherwise be a 40 minute call in less than 20 minutes without cutting any corners to get there. We've been doing online outbounds the last few weeks, which I've rather enjoyed because it's something different to do and you get a break in between calling people. We're on normal outbounds next week though, which is a pain because we can't preview the cases before we call people and the targets are a hell of a lot more strict when it comes to down time between calls. It's not normally a problem for me because I spend about 20 minutes before I start in the morning prepping, but it's a pain to have to do.
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May 6, 2011 22:45
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Fil5000 posted:When we first started taking calls from Scotland, my first call was from a Glaswegian, and I literally couldn't understand a word. It was the pace, the completely different slang, etc. It may as well have been a completely different language, frankly. After a couple of calls I got the hang of it but just the fact there's such a massive difference in accent between Glasgow and Edinburgh still staggers me. No worries at all, Glasweigan is a brutal accent to get around even in person never mind on the phone. I guess I'm used to it because it's the unofficial NED language/accent and we have a lot of them in my home town. I actually have more problems with people from Aberdeen and the North West myself because their A's and E's sound even more alike to my ears. I actually rather like a few of the Indian and Pakistani accents myself, along with several European ones; they're easier on the ears than some of the UK ones I get to deal with 90% of the time {even if it does sound like some of them are perputually pissed off or shouting}. Yeah the football thing is a huge problem in Glasgow, say the wrong team in the wrong part of town and you're guaranteed a trip to A&E. I don't give a poo poo about football myself but it's painful to watch people go absolutely batshit over Old Firm games. Luckily it rarely comes up in the calls I have to take, but most of these guys are also horrible racists and it gets really uncomfortable when they casually make comments about "those fuckin' Poles, Pakis and refugees gettin' free money, like." I'd rather get a Polish person on the line that can't speak English very well than have to talk to these people. At least the people that require language lines are polite.
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May 7, 2011 13:55
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Not much to rant about at the moment I'm afraid, unless you want a rehash of why our sickness policy sucks so much. I do, however, have a question. How do you guys preserve your voices so they don't get too badly strained? At the moment I'm having to spend half my day on the phone then going home 'sick' because there's no admin work for me to do when my voice finally does give out completely {I'm, currently trying to recover from a short, but nasty infection on my tongue that worked its way into my throat}. I don't like having to go home early when I know I can actually do some sort of work to finish out the day and actually build up some flexi time. I know the Union I'm part of would probably be completely outraged by the above, but there literally is no admin work available due to cuts. I'm lucky that half days don't count for the majority of the time {unless it becomes a 'pattern'}, but like I said, I'd rather be productive for the whole day.
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Jun 3, 2011 06:53
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OK so now I'm really peed off. According to my line manager if I still haven't got my voice back by tomorrow then I'll need to take sick leave until it comes back to full strength because I'm only allowed to do two days of admin {which I did last week because my voice decided to go completely}. The thing is, I'm still perfectly capable of doing other work, I just can't be on the phones because for some stupid reason my voice has decided to up and go for almost a week now. I'm going to the doctor's tomorrow first thing to find out what's up, but I've got two weeks left in my backslide period {I haven't been off sick for three months now, I'm just having a lovely run of luck} and I cannot risk taking any time off work until that's over, or risk being fired. I will reiterate, I am perfectly capable to go into work and do something other than be on the phones, and frankly I'd rather go into work and do something rather than sit at home and get bored. Any advice from anyone that's either been in a similar situation themselves, or knows of someone who has? I'm starting to get paranoid.
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Jun 5, 2011 09:18
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Thanks for the advice guys. I was going to the doctor's this morning anyway since I'm a little worried at my voice being gone for so long despite resting it and drinking plenty of fluids. Even if the only thing s/he can do is give me a med cert for this week, at least it's a start {I'm having to go to the open clinic, can't get an appointment for anything less than three weeks away in this place}.
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Jun 6, 2011 07:56
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I may be out of call centre work for good. I ended up getting dismissed from my job due to my absence levels {which I'm not going into right now}. While I am appealing the decision, I might just have a much better job lined up doing customer service for a small company just outside town. OK so it's back shift through the week, but I'm sure it's better than getting my soul destroyed having to deal with customers going through hell because of government cuts.
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Sep 2, 2011 16:48
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Thanks for the support, it's very much appreciated. The Union were up in arms about it and the Head person is taking charge of it from here on in. I am already due 5 weeks' pay instead of notice and 100% compensation, but I think they're waiting on the appeal decision before paying it. It's a pain since I have two large bills I wanted to pay off asap before starting the jobsearch, but that's life I guess.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:59
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^^^^^ I have a few positive comments made here while I still worked in my last job . The thing is, most call centre work is basically soul destroying and the only people worse than you {in the customers' and managers' eyes} are those that rely on benefits to live {i.e the sick and disabled as well as the currently unemployed}.
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Sep 7, 2011 15:02
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Fil5000 posted:I used to enjoy being on the phones - the only thing that really bugged me was when I was working my backside off and some people were clearly gaming the system to do as little as possible. When I made it up to team manager, I found out just how hard it actually was to DO anything about the people that are gaming the system and just made a point of telling people that worked for me that if I caught them deliberately fabricating figures or otherwise screwing around, there would be consequences. Not all the other managers had that way of thinking though, so occasionally my team got fed up because I wouldn't let them get away with poo poo that other people would. That said, I think in about three/four years of managing people I only had a couple of people quit, had to dismiss one, and another got dismissed for attendance issues (even after I'd bent over backwards to accomodate them), so I assume SOMETHING I was doing was right. You're not my line manager for my last job are you? Because that rant sounds eerily familiar  .
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Sep 7, 2011 18:15
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Fil5000 posted:Depends if your in the UK or not for a start... Specifically the midlands. I hope I never ranted like this to my staff though. Well... yes UK, but in the South West (Dorset specifically). It just looked really familiar since my Line Manager was often fairly honest with us when it came to these sorts of problems is all (and she did bend over backwards to try and accommodate me when I lost my voice for 4 weeks there).
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Sep 8, 2011 08:44
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Ok, so it looks like I'll be re-joining you guys pretty soon. I start a new job as a Caseowner with a large bank today. It honestly can't be any worse than the last job though, when things got bad there, it tended to be really drat bad {like bomb threats, yay}. I'm guessing I'll be training for at least a couple of weeks to start with, so I might be a while before I'm posting any stories, but you can bet they're coming at some point.
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Oct 21, 2011 06:55
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Welp, looks like I'll be joining you guys once again soon enough. Just got told I'll be starting at a local call centre for a major bank to deal with complaints on the 30th. Sure, I need to rearrange a dentist and mental health team appointment and I need to tell my mother I can't come home for my birthday as planned, but I have a job after five whole months of searching. I'll probably come to regret this within the week.
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Apr 20, 2012 17:36
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Well, the start date's been pushed back by a week, I think someone noticed that there was a bank holiday the week after we would have started :p. Not complaining; at least I don't have to cancel any of my appointments now.legsarerequired posted:This isn't how my call center is at all (then again, my call center is owned by a Fortune 500 company). I dunno, the first week I was with the Jobcentre was kinda disorganised because apparently some paperwork got forgotten about until our first day {got to love all the red tape government departments need to go through}, then again it was made pretty clear what the job role was before we even applied for it...
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Apr 24, 2012 00:03
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Hello there call centre goons. It's been over 3 years since I was let go from my call centre job and now I am working for a large bank in a new department and am much happier for it. The job now has a telephone element though so I thought I might as well come back and at least browse through the thread.I only do outbound calls thankfully, but one of my colleagues had her first really lovely customer the other day and got a bit upset about it (she's the youngest in our team and this is her first 'grown up' job). I was able to calm her down, but my TL wants the team to get some ideas about how to handle calls like this in future (the guy was screaming down the phone at her and I could hear it from the other side of the desk while on the phone to my own customer). While I do know how to handle that myself now, I would appreciate any other suggestions that I can bring up in the 'buzz' meeting to do with this next week. To be on topic, I've had my fair share of customers being a little on the annoyed side because although we're their bank, they'd rather we talked to their third party instead. I had one swear at me for two minutes while I told him I could send a letter instead and it wasn't a problem and another was a customer's partner who hung up when I said I needed to talk to the customer in question before I could confirm where I was calling from and she was in the background telling him to hand the phone over. Both of them would have been reasonable to deal with if they hadn't gone so OTT. Thankfully it's not as bad as it used to be, the first scripts for security made no sense whatsoever and just confused all the customers we called, but there are still improvements to be made and things change all the time in this place. I'm just glad I'm not timed to the minute and tied to the desk all day long.
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Jul 20, 2013 21:29
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Is there really a tactic? You just get mostly inured, and maybe if you're lucky you can figure out a way to make the calls drop without it being obvious you're doing it. I'm the inured type because I've dealt with way worse in said call centre job (death threats anyone?), but most of the team has never worked call centre before so they're not used to this type of poo poo and the TL is the type to try and get suggestions in before people have mini breakdowns followed by an asthma attack. Since I believe we are allowed to hang up on abusive customers, I'm suggesting the 'three strike rule' for the milder cases with just the 'one strike' for the worst ones, worked pretty well in my last job and it should be fine with this one. I was just wondering if there was anything else I could put forward from other people with experience of dealing with this.
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Jul 20, 2013 22:07
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:We can hang up on people at my work, it's never come up but generally we're allowed to give a polite warning telling them that if they continue to use harsh language we will end the call and then do so if they keep being completely unreasonable. Then we'd have to tell management because the call's already flagged (the recording system is set to flag any call it thinks has foul language) and they'll need to review it to see exactly what happened and then move on from there. If it was really bad and the agent couldn't have done anything to appease the caller, they might even open up a dialogue with the caller's manager about the incident. But this is all corporate so we always know who's calling and everything can be tracked pretty specifically, so it really depends on the specifics of your desk. All our calls are recorded and we tell the customer this in the greeting once we confirm it's them and our TL is very good about keeping on top of any training needs and irate customers. THat setup sounds wonderful though, but obviously with some customer who swear like sailors in their day to day language it might prove a bit tiresome for the managers to go through all those calls :p. Actually most of the customers I deal with are perfectly pleasant mostly because there is the potential of us giving them money instead of the other way around (I think most will gather what department I'm working in now from that), it's just the odd partner or caller who is ultra suspicious who tend to get narky (and I encourage the suspicious ones because for all they know it could be a scam as we have don't have the means to confirm we are their bank due to Data Protection, which tends to diffuse the situation right away). The elderly customers are the best to deal with, some of them are so lovely it's unbelievable 
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Jul 21, 2013 08:00
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This was probably primarily the reason I didn't get given any notice when I was let go from my call centre job, even though it pissed the union right off and I was always overly polite to customers never mind the abuse hurled at me. Onto a different note, I kinda screwed up a call with a very aggressive customer yesterday and it probably lead to a possibly incorrect decision even though they were being entirely uncooperative and wouldn't listen to a drat word I was saying or give me the information I was actually looking for. I feel really bad about getting intimidated and have no idea how to justify "lying" to the customer during the call (I had the wrong questionnaire up at the time because I'd been looking at the info for a different customer beforehand and didn't notice until after the call). It's a pretty huge mistake and I need to figure out what to say if QA have a look at it because it'll be a major fail. I probably have nothing to really worry about, my quality scores are normally top notch and I did ask for extra training on dealing with aggressive customers before due to being easily intimidated and didn't get it because I was a temp agent (I get the feeling I'll be getting it now). Still, it would be nice to know how to handle to blowback when it comes along.
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Aug 3, 2013 06:26
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 03:23 |
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And it looks like I get to join the ranks of call centre employees once more. Starting a new job with an international technical support company in their call centre but looking to move the hell up since I was the only one they interviewed with any experience in a call centre and customer service environment. No doubt once the training period ends after Christmas I'll be moaning about the job, but for now, at least it's something permanent and my partner and I can at least start making plans for the future.
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Dec 16, 2013 07:27
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