Call centre workers: spill the beans

lufcgirl

Until about eighteen months ago when I got out, I used to work for EE, was promoted to Assistant Team Leader so as I remember...

-Calling first thing, so 8am was the best time, especially on weekends. After 9am weekends just don't bother, you'll never get through. Same goes for weekdays after 4.30pm.

-I worked in retentions, I didn't have a magic button I could hit because you say you're leaving that would match every single deal and give you what you wanted. Offers are dictated by your spend and the revenue you generate the company, not what a customer demands as they've seen it elsewhere. People were shocked when I would issue their PAC because I couldn't match the deal, thinking that we'd just give them it

-When you ask to speak to a manager, again there's no manager login, I used the advisors. So again, no special deals just the same as you've previously been offered.

To be honest the more arrogant you are, the more condescending and childish when you don't get what you want, the less I wanted to help. I loved retaining customers as that was how I earned bonus, but some people I'm sure just call for an argument. MSE when saying to ask for retentions, it used to annoy me as we couldn't do anything different!

daytona0

vikingaero wrote: »

Is it bad form to call up when sitting on the throne?:o

no, nobody gives a !!!! if you do that

Sox77

Years ago I used to work for a cable company and although we weren't able to lower the yearly price we could add channels free at our discretion. I used to find adding a few channels free for six months used to cheer people up

System

I worked in several call centres. Last cc job was Aug 2008.

When a major football match was on, it was dead. I remember WC2006, when England were playing, Scottish, Welsh and NI customers rang.

Please do not shout at us as you are causing yourself more grief and on the phone for longer. All my call centres I worked had this policy with regarding swearing. Three bouts of swearing after been told not to use that language and informed them of you have the right to terminate the call. I tell them to ring back when they have calmed down.

I once had a customer wanted to speak to my manager as I couldn't set up his direct debit to come out on 31st of each month. The system like with other companies can go up to 28th. He had none of it. Then spent 45-50 mins kicking off with my manager saying my payment for Direct Line comes out on the 31st. He was talking rubbish as my car insurance was with DL and I had it set up to be taken out on the 1st.

Don't ring with a long query 10 mins before the lines close. We were told to stay signed on the phone turrets until the time of our shift ending comes up. One call I took at 7:53pm and the security guard was shaking the keys as me and him were the only people left in the building at 8:30pm. I said the call centre was closed I can't see anything as lights were off and security guard was getting irritate.

Two more call centres were open til 10pm and put them in the queue again.

I missed the last bus and paid £12 for a taxi. I never got my fare back, got paid ot or allowed to finish work 30 mins earlier

puppet1984

I worked for a bank, in a inbound call center for credit cards not sure if i can say who.

I used to get frustrated at how many calls i had to deal with, where a previous adviser had not done what they said they would, and left no notes on the account.
I'd then have to deal with an irate customer who wasn't very trusting, I used to give out my full name, extension and leave full notes to get them to believe me.

A few tips, i might be different to others:

1) if you have been waiting ages, it's because the center is busy, I'm already working my bum off to get to the next call, so your not going to win any favors by shouting at me.
Also spending 10 minutes discussing waiting times, costs you money, (if not a free call) time and you're stopping me helping you with what you
actually rang up about in the first place

2) Charges, late payment etc. - granted I worked there a long time ago, putting aside the issue of if they are fair etc.
People used to shout all the time, I had discretion to refund and generally would if people were polite and honest.
Some examples, "It's been my 40th I've had a mad month and I forgot to pay"
"My husband ran off with someone"
On a side note, i left notes, if i accessed and account and they had loads of refunds, I would be less likely to refund.
Once had a guy use the same excuse, looked at notes and it was me who had refunded the previous month, I called him on it and he said "ah well worth a try"

3) Human error does happen, however sometimes my hands were tied:
Once had a guy who someone previously had set him up to take full CC amount by direct debit instead of minimum (Probably a post on here ha), anyway the adviser had left notes saying minimum but had made an error.
I dealt with his call about this after payment had been taken, he was a little mad to say the least, can't blame him. Anyway basically it's a long time ago and i can't remember exact amounts, but as a rough guide instead of £70 being taken - £3500 was taken, he had incurred fees, charges etc not to mention having no money.
It took me about 4-5 months to get him his money back as i had to go about 15 people higher in seniority, whom i could not contact directly so everything had to go from me, through 13 people and back.
Annoyed me
a) the person who could deal with it, didn't actually take ownership
b) i couldn't help the guy, except be his point of contact and make sure he knew any updates (sometimes I had no idea)
c) it took so long and so many calls i actually at the time knew his CC number.

Granted not all people are like me and might not give a hoot, but the point i'm trying to make is sometimes, it's just as frustrating at our end as it is at yours.

Mupette

something thats been said a few times here is how customers speak to the call handler.


The company maybe at fault or you, threats to the call handler causes more damage than good.
2 years of having threats, shouting and screaming and temper tantrums caused me a breakdown. i suffered, my work suffered, my family suffered.

telling me you know about data protection but refusing to answer basic questions about your account and trying to be a smart !!!! about it, won't help, not adhering to the dpp as we call it, is a sackable offense.

threats to get your own way will not get you what you want any faster, so when you say you hope my family gets cancer is not pleasant

oh the list goes on....

System

Mupette wrote: »

something thats been said a few times here is how customers speak to the call handler.


The company maybe at fault or you, threats to the call handler causes more damage than good.
2 years of having threats, shouting and screaming and temper tantrums caused me a breakdown. i suffered, my work suffered, my family suffered.

telling me you know about data protection but refusing to answer basic questions about your account and trying to be a smart !!!! about it, won't help, not adhering to the dpp as we call it, is a sackable offense.

threats to get your own way will not get you what you want any faster, so when you say you hope my family gets cancer is not pleasant

oh the list goes on....

I remember one of my colleagues was asked where does he live so he could go his house and physically throttle him :eek::eek::eek::eek: All because of 11p. I cannot remember the full story about it.

I hated customers that shouted I WANT TO SPEAK TO A SUPERVISOR' before I was able to speak to them to get their account up, ask to clarify their name, address, password on the account. Then I did ask for their details, they shouted 'I WANT TO SPEAK TO A SUPERVISOR'. Customers don't seem to have a clue that supervisors will only speak to customers once I done DPA on them and the CSA tells them the problem. these customers made their situation more problematic by their attitude.

These customers just made my life hell and the temptation to write 'customer was a total a$$hole' on the notes was very high. Couldn't as customers have the right to buy the notes and managers did spot checks on accounts we were dealing with.

no1catman

Where I was - we didn't have to give our surname - one guy who did got berated on facebook - first name and id was sufficient.


It can be a pain - with the "I want to speak to a manager" from the caller - sometimes, glad to be able to pass it on, other once a little bit of information is given and not complicated after all - great to be able to sort it out!


Had one a few years ago when a guy started shouting (can at least put the sound down), then hand over to the wife - who carries on shouting!
More recently, had a 'normal' conversation with the husband, then the wife goes ballistic, wants to talk to a manager, by the time I'd found one to talk to - hung up!!

bairn7

I worked in several call centres during my student days. Largely, I did enjoy it. I have taken a few things away from my time there and it helps me now to play the game when I need something resolved. As for tips:

1) Be polite - think that's been discussed enough.

2) Appreciate that the person you're speaking to probably has a set procedure that they have to go through when dealing with certain types of calls and that they are (largely) there for your benefit. For example, when I worked at the call centre of a large satellite broadcaster, whenever I had a call reporting a fault, I HAD to get the customer to switch the box off property and restart it. 9 times out of 10 the customer would start moaning that they had already done this but 4 or 5 times out of 10 this would actually resolve the problem.

3) Don't come on the phone immediately demanding to speak to a manager. It gets the call off on a bad foot and demeans the person you're speaking to. At least give the call centre rep the opportunity to try to resolve the problem. When I worked for a now defunct (but at the time high profile) telecoms company, when someone came on and demanded to speak to a manager, we were allowed to get one of our colleagues on the line to speak to the customer instead. The customer never questioned whether the person was actually a manager and the issue was usually resolved then. Nine times out of 10 the issue was something that the original rep could've easily resolved.

daytona0

One campaign I worked for was an inbound company set up by a consurtium of larger retailers to offer completely free support for a specific technical issue. If it wasn't that specific issue then it wasn't any of our business!

Notable things:

- If you so much as complained then we had to make a note of your complaint. This is even if you shown some slight dissatisfaction, or a frustrated comment! That didn't sit right with me, but in principle a crank datatbase is a good idea :rotfl:

- Customers who answered a question which made them ineligible for the service (under all circumstances). The note was put on their account (under their address). On my first week there I went through diagnostics with a customer and they answered 'no' to a question. I completed it, only to find out that two agents had previously put a note saying that they had said 'yes'! Cheeky gits! They weren't happy when I told them to jog on...

- Being blamed for problems I have no control over, when I am simply there to HELP you fix the problem. Granted, some faceless company has caused you this problem BUT I DON'T REPRESENT THOSE COMPANIES!!!

- The previous bullet point, but with customers who genuinely DO NOT have an issue we can fix and refuse to be referred to a third party who will help. Arrgh go away!