rude call centre customers!

Pelican_2

I have very little sympathy for the people who work in call centres, mainly because they simply do not care about the customer and tend to be students doing Summer work or similar stop-gap workers.

Having 'done battle' with many a call centre, I can honestly say that despite my being very polite and clear, I am spoken to as if I am 1. a moron, 2. a liar, and 3. tedious.

One recent ongoing saga is Comet customer services. I have called them in excess of 15 times re. a faulty (still in warranty) fridge freezer (costing over £1000- so I really have no choice but to do battle). The last time I got yet another new name. He asked me to repeat what the problem was, despite having my file in front of him. I sighed and said, "the fridge is still faulty despite 4 engineer visits". Then I paused. He said, "yes, I can see that in the notes". So why bloody ask me then!

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details of Comet- I'm sure it's been said before.

The main point I want to make is that I do not believe it is the fault of the call centre workers. They do not have any authority to really help, and rarely puyt you through to a supervisor because, I suspect, they are told not to. The real problem lies with the companies and the lack of training they give to the call centre workers, and the overall lack of customer care they provide.

Whilst there is very little excuse for a call centre worker to receive abuse from irate customers, sadly it is an indicator of the poor service the customers have received (albeit by another colleague, perhaps). I wish companies would take note and put the customer first.

singlehouseholder

_Andy_ wrote:

Code monitoring is a big issue in call centres. The centre I last worked in gave CSRs an 'allowance' of 30 minutes for all breaks, including toilet breaks, in addition to lunch hour, per day.
It may have been possible that your conidition was/is now covered by the DDA in which case the employer should have been more flexible.
As an ex-union rep I've seen a couple of cases like this where the employee, for medical reasons, needed to have more break time than normal.

I've been for two medicals, and the last one advised that I be treated as covered by the DDA, bit late now though. We were a regional call centre, performing in the top 5, dealing with local customers. So they shut us down and now have national call centres that take calls from all over the country which is pathetic. I don't consider myself to have a strong accent, but people from "dahn sawff" often struggled to understand me. Hey ho, cant complain, not a phione monkey no more- just a desk monkey now

nenya

You know i agree - a lot of staff in the CC that i work in are just students who are in it for the money. However, it does depend on who you get when you come though to the call centre. For me, my idea of a nightmare would be to call up and talk to one of my close collugues because he has a natural sarcastic tone of voice. Or to another friend who just frankly turned around and told a customer 'well if you can't be bothered to read the letters we send you then what do you expect?'. Okay so she has a point but also she could have handled herself better.

In my call centre, we do have some very, very helpful people who always do there best for the companies and customers, but some people have to realise it is very difficult for something some of our targets are daft - like today i had some very difficult quieries and i had to be off the phone for over an hour sorting it out. I actually got a call from my managers manager to ask me why i wasn't on the phone. I had to tell him it was because i was dealing with a queiry and the customer wasn't very happy. YOu know what he say? 'Well you're not hitting your call targets!' and he bleets on and on about how we should follow problems though and do our best for the customers. I may have the courage to tell him where to get off, but I asure you not everyone does.

kenshaz

regularsaver1 wrote:

kenshaz - all day i've been searching jobs, i finally want to get out of the world of banking . yippee!!!! How are you btw?

Life is thrifty and thrilling,because I am a MSE and impulsive.

It is important to enjoy your job,but do not do anything reckless,what type of career change would you like,it must pay well and interest you.

regularsaver1

My degree is in marketing and PR so have lined up an interview. I sort of fell into finance - it was all good, but getting a little routine
also thinking of more studying

kenshaz

regularsaver1 wrote:

My degree is in marketing and PR so have lined up an interview. I sort of fell into finance - it was all good, but getting a little routine
also thinking of more studying

A challenge,adrenalin,I did a leadership course ,and apparently I am a resouce investigator ,I think you are too,I like to seek :search: out new ventures,then I get bored.