"We'er currently experiencing very high call volumes.."

wimblewomble_2

I hate this.
Then they give you a recorded message cross-selling you other products.

GGGRRR!!

Are they experiencing such high calls because their products are rubbish?

Or because they don't invest highly enough in customer services.

If I hang up after several minutes, and then decide to call their sales line, the phone is answered almost immediately.
Surprise, surprise.!

Double GGGRRR!!


PS: Yes, I know, I mis-spelled "we're" in the title.

trukdiver

wimblewomble wrote: »

I hate this.
Then they give you a recorded message cross-selling you other products.

GGGRRR!!

Are they experiencing such high calls because their products are rubbish?

Or because they don't invest highly enough in customer services.

If I hang up after several minutes, and then decide to call their sales line, the phone is answered almost immediately.
Surprise, surprise.!

Double GGGRRR!!


PS: Yes, I know, I mis-spelled "we're" in the title.

The line to cancel the service is usually the busiest!!

Evilm

Its better than interrupting the muzak every 30 seconds to say "we're experiencing very high call volumes...". I'd prefer to be left on hold for 2 minutes without those stupid messages or listen to their sales patter than keep thinking they are picking up every 30 seconds!

Also there is more chance they won't make their employees recite the sales patter at me when I get through as well!

pmduk

I froth at the mouth when they keep saying that my call is important to them! Obviously not important enough to answer it.

scheming_gypsy

wimblewomble wrote: »

Or because they don't invest highly enough in customer services.

If I hang up after several minutes, and then decide to call their sales line, the phone is answered almost immediately.
Surprise, surprise.!

Double GGGRRR!!
.

it's because more people are phoning up for customer services queries than to buy stuff. If they invested more in the customer services they'd have to put the prices up to pay for the staff to answer the calls...

I could explain how the phone systems work and why some departments are easier to get through to if you really want........

Outpost

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

I could explain how the phone systems work and why some departments are easier to get through to if you really want...

Please do.

scheming_gypsy

you just want me to type it all out for the sake of it don't you?

Outpost

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

you just want me to type it all out for the sake of it don't you?

Well I'd hazard a guess that the cancellation departments are probably staffed by one work experience boy and a dog versus the sales departments staffed by a thousand salespeople, hence why it's so much easier to speak to someone in one department than the other.

Either that or the cancellation department's system is designed to deliberately keep you on hold for ages in the hopes that you'll give up.

reehsetin

the worst is when they constantly play - we're experiencing exceptionally high call volumes - it's obviously not a blumin exception if it's every time I call, you are just pants!

scheming_gypsy

Outpost wrote: »

Well I'd hazard a guess that the cancellation departments are probably staffed by one work experience boy and a dog versus the sales departments staffed by a thousand salespeople, hence why it's so much easier to speak to someone in one department than the other.

Either that or the cancellation department's system is designed to deliberately keep you on hold for ages in the hopes that you'll give up.

(taken from my experience of doing 6 years as a telecoms department in an 800 seater insurance call centre, on an Avaya digital and then IP system)

Most call centre work on targets, % of calls answered and answered within x seconds so for their internal reporting / shareholders etc they need to try and keep to those.
They usually calculate their staffing levels from projected call volumes and obviously due to costs they can't have loads of people sitting there doing nothing.

When agents start at the company they'll have training for their relevant department, so not everybody can do any job although some people will be cross trained through promotion or department changes. That just means they can do the job, not that they will.

So on each call it comes in on an internal extension which may have an IVR with x amount of options, each of those options then goes to another internal extension and each extension has a skill set assigned.

So when a call comes in on extension 12345 and has 3 options it'll have a routing command such as:
if digits = 1 goto step x
if digits = 2 goto step y
if digits = 3 goto step z

step x - route to number 11111
step y - route to number 22222
step z - route to number 33333

if 11111 has a skill set of 4 assigned and 33333 has a skill set of 5 assigned etc, then only agents with those skill sets can answer the calls. If the customer services line is 11111 and it's queuing then it means all agents with skill set 4 are on calls. When you call the sales number you could be going to a completely different office, building, town or even city so they don't always have visibility of the calls on 11111 or agents with the skill set to take the calls.

That's also why banging 0 or # to get around the system and speaking to a human is pointless. The system is expecting one of the options it gave you; if you hit a different key it it doesn't recognise it and presumes you don't have a touch tone phone and transfers you onto the next step.
So instead of banging # 28 times and thinking you're bypassing the system, you might as well just press 1 once and wait in the queue.

Outpost

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

(taken from my experience of doing 6 years as a telecoms department in an 800 seater insurance call centre, on an Avaya digital and then IP system)

Most call centre work on targets, % of calls answered and answered within x seconds so for their internal reporting / shareholders etc they need to try and keep to those.
They usually calculate their staffing levels from projected call volumes and obviously due to costs they can't have loads of people sitting there doing nothing.

When agents start at the company they'll have training for their relevant department, so not everybody can do any job although some people will be cross trained through promotion or department changes. That just means they can do the job, not that they will.

So on each call it comes in on an internal extension which may have an IVR with x amount of options, each of those options then goes to another internal extension and each extension has a skill set assigned.

So when a call comes in on extension 12345 and has 3 options it'll have a routing command such as:
if digits = 1 goto step x
if digits = 2 goto step y
if digits = 3 goto step z

step x - route to number 11111
step y - route to number 22222
step z - route to number 33333

if 11111 has a skill set of 4 assigned and 33333 has a skill set of 5 assigned etc, then only agents with those skill sets can answer the calls. If the customer services line is 11111 and it's queuing then it means all agents with skill set 4 are on calls. When you call the sales number you could be going to a completely different office, building, town or even city so they don't always have visibility of the calls on 11111 or agents with the skill set to take the calls.

That's also why banging 0 or # to get around the system and speaking to a human is pointless. The system is expecting one of the options it gave you; if you hit a different key it it doesn't recognise it and presumes you don't have a touch tone phone and transfers you onto the next step.
So instead of banging # 28 times and thinking you're bypassing the system, you might as well just press 1 once and wait in the queue.

Some of the technical terms escaped me but it's interesting to know how these call centres operate.