Call centre workers: spill the beans

geerex

Doc_N wrote: »

I do agree with you that call centre staff are often exploited by their employers. But you add: 'I was good at my job'? Really?

You talk in derogative terms about 'the hard of hearing', 'ignorant foreigners', 'ranting idiots', 'the stupid' and add that you used also to hang up on anyone you thought would be hard work. You add that you showed utter contempt for customers.

Is that being good at your job?

You seem to have an attitude problem considerably bigger than that of the hapless souls who had the misfortune to speak to you, though. Maybe you should seek some form of counselling to help you.

I'm assuming that BT sacked you for incompetence - if not, they certainly should have done. Very few employers would want somebody with your attitude in any capacity - and I don't just mean call centres. Attitudes like that are corrosive.

Are you a UKIP supporter, by the way?

I was excellent at my job, had impressive feedback and received a good few awards for going the extra mile for customers. I just happened to manage my own quality control so that I didn't spend all my time dealing with morons. I wasn't sacked, I left as it was an interim job whilst I finished studying. I fully agree that I would have been sacked had they discovered the sheer amount of calls that I had "dropped" (although the system at that time had a few seconds "grace" to account for bad lines etc which allowed me to screen for people who really weren't worth the effort).

I like the UKIP question, what relevance it has is another matter. Are you a doormat? :rotfl:

geerex

Claree__x wrote: »

I'm not sure why I'm even replying after your last line - but I will.

My first job was in retail - paying £3.38/hour (nmw was £3.30 at the time if I recall). I moved from that into a call centre paying £5/hour. Not a lot - obviously - but at 16 it felt like a fortune in comparison.
Any call centre I've worked in has been above minimum wage and generally above retail/supermarket wages. I'm not saying they're "good" wages but they're definitely not the worst paid.

I was paid £2.15/hour in my first job. I fail to see your point.

Call centre work frequently pays less than an acceptable wage. A mere couple of pounds above minimum wage does not make it a good job, especially factoring in the health effects such as sitting for hours at a time, glaring lcd screens, and the stress of having to deal with people with all of the problems I've previously listed.
I would make prisoners work in call centres, that really would make them think twice about re-offending. :rotfl:

Podge52

You're not a people person are you geerex. From my experience people who proclaim they are good at their job rarely are.

dotdash79

warehouse wrote: »

What do you mean try? Either you do or you don't, and if you do then why don't they get them or read them?

Then you wonder why the public get the hump!

We will pass notes on to our hand over points, but sometimes they won't accept them or say they pass them on and don't. Sometimes these notes will have to get across 4 different systems and divisions/ companies.

For example we will log a call with BT Wholesale, who then pass it to BT Openreach, who will then pass it to Kelly communications. Thats a simplified view, your issue could be reported to another service desk before getting to us.

We once worked out that 8 companies were involved in trying to deliver a leased line for a customer.

geerex

Podge52 wrote: »

You're not a people person are you geerex. From my experience people who proclaim they are good at their job rarely are.

I am absolutely a people person, I simply don't tolerate idiots or the ignorant. I find it frees up my time to deal with those that need it.

As for not being good at my job, I must have dreamt up the bottles of wine and vouchers that I received as gifts :rotfl:. Jealousy is a terrible thing.

CoffeeandStitches

This has made great reading! Just a few to add....

If you call, and your call isn't answered immediately, don't hang up and ring straight back. You got to the back of the queue and play havoc with the daily targets.

Don't lie about how long you've been waiting.

When you are on mute (call is silent), the agent can hear everything you are saying about them.

When you are on hold (listening to hold music), everything you are saying is still being recorded on the call.

Don't lie about something you have said on a previous call. We have recording for a reason. When you demand someone listens to it, and a manager calls you back, don't then accuse them of fabricating it.

Avoid calling between 12-3.

If you don't read your documents after you've been told to, and then six months down the line don't agree with the terms and conditions, don't expect anyone to be able to do anything about it.

Don't ask to speak to the CEO. He's not interested. Really.

Don't call and then demand to know how long the call will take because you are very busy. Call when you have time. We don't have crystal balls.

If you want to speak to a woman/man specifically because your issue is sensitive, ask. It's really not a problem. And it's much nicer than trying to extract elusive information that you aren't willing to give to a member of the opposite sex.

Similarly, if you're hard of hearing and want to speak to a man / woman / someone with a clearer accent, a simple, 'I'm sorry, I'm a bit hard of hearing and am having trouble with your accent / volume / pitch, could I speak to someone else please?' We honestly don't mind.

And to echo the majority of what everyone else has said....

Be polite. Whoever you are and whatever you do, we're not beneath you. Just like you, we're working hard to support ourselves and our family, and it doesn't make us any less of a person because it's a service role. I once had someone tell me he was a pilot, as if that meant I should be falling at his feet. Surprisingly, I didn't. Similarly, I had someone pretty famous on the blower once, and he was genuinely one of the nicest, politest calls I have ever dealt with. If you're ranting and raving, shouting and swearing (highlight for me was, 'Why don't you just eff off and die, you b*^%h), take a moment to think how you would feel if that was someone speaking to your spouse, child, parent or even grandparent in that manner.

:beer:

worried_jim

CoffeeandStitches wrote: »

Similarly, I had someone pretty famous on the blower once, and he was genuinely one of the nicest, politest calls I have ever dealt with. If you're ranting and raving, shouting and swearing (highlight for me was, 'Why don't you just eff off and die, you b*^%h), take a moment to think how you would feel if that was someone speaking to your spouse, child, parent or even grandparent in that manner.
:beer:

I had the pleasure ten years ago of dealing with Charles Kennedy of the Lib Dems and he was simply charming, also dealt with Kate Moss- just as nice and an actress from Eastenders (Kat?) all lovely people.

Regarding swearing and such I actually used to quite like it it would make me laugh like a school boy, I once asked a chap if he kissed his mum with those lips after effing and jeffing- he blew his top and offered to drive from Glasgow to Brighton for a fight!

Also had a customer who wanted to know when we going to remove the props from Star Wars from his passageway - care in the community at its finest!

Money-Saving-King

Claree__x wrote: »

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?

At the end of the day this thread asked call centre workers to spill the beans about how to get the best from the person on the other end of the line. People have replied and to be honest it's pretty obvious if you're rude or shout etc you won't do as well as you would if you're nice.

hollydays

Claree__x wrote: »

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?

You are clearly very professional. Some customers are angry , and have a right to be angry. Owning the problem, and sorting out the mess made by previous colleagues is your job.

duchy

I was working last night and one of the staff explained to the customer he'd have to run a test on her equipment which would take two minutes.
Her response
"I'm not going to hold on like a peasant-I'm far too important. Run the test and call me back -there's a good boy"

Moving on

I do accept that service can be variable in call centres - the sheer number of people employed make that inevitable and some people are simply going to be better at handling customers than others -just like in anything else in life. I get told on a daily basis that I'm "the best person " the customer has ever dealt with . I usually just thank them and say I treat my customers how I'd like to be treated myself.

I quite like dealing with angry customers -there's a buzz in turning a call around from disaster to success but when a customer is sulking or passive aggressive then I am unlikely to "go the extra mile" for them . Often there are two ways to sort a problem - pass it along to the relevant team on a queue to be dealt with when they get to it- or take ownership and push it through yourself. Ms Passive Agressive or rude is less likely to get the second option. It is human nature (angry is fine- I can sympathize -I get angry myself -but rude - nope - I'm not a doormat....and I really can't abide grown men and women who sulk like children.


Talking of best times to ring -when I worked Saturdays we had what we called "the X factor factor" we'd go from back to back calls to big gaps between calls as soon as it started-same when big football matches are on.

Oh and if you've had to wait a while to get through- We KNOW (we have not even had time to breathe between calls)! And whilst you spend the first five minutes moaning about the wait before telling us what you are calling for- you make the problem worse for the people behind you in the queue.

One more thing- Please don't call when you are drunk -We can tell and it rarely goes well if your thought and reasoning processes are at best a bit blurry !!