Call centre workers: spill the beans

dotdash79

I've worked for an ISP doing tech support, and a few things I would say to people.

A lot of stuff we can't fix it's down to BT, we do try as hard as we can but you could be 3 or 4 different companies away from an engineer as BT sub contract. We will try and pass notes but they don't always read them or get them.

Most of us don't mind if you swear about the situation, but don't direct it at us. Most of us love getting a fix on the call and will go to great lengths. (I once spent 3 hours talking a blind man through setting up his internet connection, and 80 min of that was after my shift had finished)

Not all of us are geeks, and if you don't know how things work say so we can change our pitch very quickly, also we know within a few seconds what your knowledge is.

Abbafan1972

KAPTAIN_KRUNCH wrote: »

I've just had to take a Data centre job, it's £5.50 an hour if your over 25, £4.50 if your under. They don't give you a proper wage slip so you don't know if you've been paid all your hour's, they take money off you for using there equipment I think, last week I worked 14 hour's which at £5.50 an hour should be £77, I had £55 put into my bank account. This is my 5th week, I've had my job seekers allowance stopped, my rent and council tax suspended. We work 4 hour session 10 till 2 in the morning and 4 till 8 in the evening, they let you go outside for a quick fag after 2 hour's then tell you to get back to work as if your on a chain gang ( am shaking it boss....I'm shaking it ). They ring people who are on TPS all the time.


I'd like to know what Martin think's of this, so much for Great Britain

Well alarm bells started ringing with the 1st line of this, because the minimum wage is £6.50. Did the job centre force you to take the job?

geerex

Doc_N wrote: »

You sound (if all that's true) rather an unpleasant person. Did you consider a career as a banker?

I just refuse to tolerate ignorance, rudeness, or stupidity.
Usually, at least.

AJXX

geerex wrote: »

I just refuse to tolerate ignorance, rudeness, or stupidity.

NEVER do tech support. Every single call you take will either fit 1 or more of those categories!

daytona0

Just a few email pointers to add for those thinking of emailing a customer service team like amazon/ebay (i worked for one of them);

- Night staff switch off a bit so try and email in early (1am until 9am) because you've got a better chance of getting a faster/better response. If they aren't busy then they'll have a 1-6 hour response time frame otherwise it will be around 24-30 hours. Both these times compliment an early email!

- If you've got a complicated problem then ONLY REPLY to the agent who has initially emailed you (unless they are useless). Every email you send to the general customer service address creates additional logs, notes and involves more than 1 agent. It is bad having more than 1 agent looking into complicated problems because you run into the possibility of being ignored by an agent who can't be arsed. This applies for amazon/ebay for example

- If you need to forward correspondence (say you've been in contact with a manufacturer for a faulty item and you need to show this to the likes of amazon) then try and email directly to an agent (reply to a previous email). DO NOT send it as a new email to the main customer service address and if you absolutely must have to do this then be sure to make it FAO: agent you have dealt with and also provide information on the problem. Otherwise, you'll likely get fobbed off

- If you don't get an email response then it is likely one of 3 things.... You might have asked an absurdly stupid question, or been flagged as spam (trying to sell fake watches from china to amazon wouldn't get a response). You aren't receiving responses (check junk mail in your email inbox etc). You have been fobbed off for whatever reason. If this occurs then simply call them up and this should be sorted out faster

- Agents tend to know what they are doing, so you only need to provide a summary of key points to get general problems fixed. Some customer problems do not require the customer to write an entire essay

- Saying things like "I will not be using your site ever again" or "I will only be going to amazon/ebay/other site in the future" elicits the following response from an agent; "Wish you would just go now and stop bothering me" or if they have a valid point "ok sound I don't care".

- If you put the content of your email in the "subject" box but keep the body of the email completely blank then you're a tool.

MABLE

I have always found being nice but not creepy is the best policy. If the advisor has attitude never rise to it. Most companies have a customer relationship dept and thats the dept which can make things happen.

BTW worked for a RM call centre on a temporary basis about 4 years ago and some of the customers were pure evil. However I would think their problem must not become my problem.

Never lost my cool and my attitude was its only a call but i always did my best to help.

MABLE

gycraig wrote: »

they know how long you have waited to speak to them so telling them you have wasted 30 minutes on hold is just wasting your time and theres.

Apologise for the delay as soon as you answer the call and that usually defuses the situation.

Claree__x

I worked in call centres for around 3 years previously (on the phones & managing) and the attitude of some of the advisors posting on this thread is mental! I know it's not cool when people are rude to you on the phone but that doesn't mean that you should do the bare minimum for them - how is that meant to help with customer retention/service?

Chrysalis

aileth wrote: »

I used to work for Superbreak and my OH currently works for Virgin Mobile, both in call centres.

For me, we were open 8am-11pm. The best times to ring were straight as lines opened between 8-8.30 or after 10 p.m., or Sunday after 9 p.m. We used to be so quiet we would sit reading magazines.

We had absolutely no room to move on the prices.

For my OH, they are open between 8a.m.-8 p.m. They are incredibly busy atm, so the best time is probably 8 a.m. He has some movement on prices, but again incredibly restricted. A lot of the time it's a case of computer says no. They are provided lists of deals they can offer in retentions for each particular customer based on different factors, Media customer, credit score grade, etc.

He has complained a lot of the time of Virgin Mobile not keeping their offers up with other companies, so basically he'll get a customer ringing through and saying, "I saw this phone for £10 at X", and on his system it'll say he can offer the same phone for £15, and there's absolutely nothing he can do to beat the £10, except try and offer a different phone.

I also can't agree more with being nice, even if you're having issues with the company. The centre agent will be so much more inclined to help you if you're polite and courteous. Your issue is not with them, they are a medium through which your complaint can be resolved. I've gone above and beyond for some people, doing things that are not in my job description, because they were so nice and I wanted to help them out.

My OH has had so many people ringing up and shouting, abusing him down the phone, spouting off fit for purposes and trying to be a backstreet Contract Lawyer, it really puts you off wanting to solve their issue.

interesting info on the retentions deal been different for each customers. Explains how some people can get really good deals whilst others cannot.

e.g. a trick with sky is supposedly to cancel , then they call you back with 50-75% off, since leaving I have never ever had a please come back call of them. I guess their computer doesnt tick the boxes for me.

Retrogamer

From my experiences of working in a call centre.

Managers manage the staff you're speaking to. If you know they're not doing their job correctly it might be worth asking for one. Since their role is different though most don't know how to do the role of the person you're initially speaking to so it won't help you by asking for a manager.

If i say i can't do something that means i can't do it for various reasons. Asking to speak to a manager or shouting and swearing isn't going to over ride that. I can't do something isn't the same as i'm not willing to.