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duchy

sunrisesoverthemountains wrote: »

Hi guys,
I have been reading the thread with great interest about TT. I just have a few questions for those of you who have been there a while. When you are working and newly trained do you have a lot of customers who are ranting and raving down the phone at you about not having any broadband service. In a four hour shift would this be every other customer? I just want to have an idea of how many annoyed customers this would be before applying.
And what do you do about the fact that when you are on the phone there is no background buzz that the customer can hear when the customer is talking to you, as you would get in a call centre, there must be times when it is very silent. Does this alert the customer to the fact that you work from home. How do most of you overcome this problem??
Many Thanks.:o

If you are scared of dealing with annoyed customers then maybe a call centre role isn't right for you. When you deal with the public no matter who or where you work for you are going to at times deal with those.
That said- my personal feeling is I deal with fewer difficult customers than I expected to be. In three years I've never had to transfer an irate customer to a manager and often the stroppiest ones at the start are the ones thanking you profusely at the end of the call. Depends a lot on your customer service skills and how well you can talk to people-TT can teach you the tech skills but people skills come more from your own personality. Depends what you define as a difficult customer-in a four hour shift I might get one but then I'm an experienced agent and I if I have a ranter-I let them rant on-and when they've got it out of their system I put down my coffee , tune back in and sort out the issue . A lot of the time people are bit intimidated by technology and think you're going to blind them with a load of technospeak. If you talk to them how you'd like to spoken to-99% are fine to deal with.

As for the quiet-It's rare the customer comments -and if they do I usually say-Yes I work in a quieter area (has the advantage of been the truth ).... or "Yes it is quieter here in tech" but quite honestly it isn't an issue.. Customers in general don't care if you are sitting stark naked on the top of Mount Everest just so long as you fix their issue !! How often do you think "I wonder if the person I'm talking to is working at home?" when you call a big company-Most people it doesn't even occur to them- all they want is their problem solved.

sunrisesoverthemountains

Thank you kindly for your reply,
It is not that I am scared of an annoyed customer, I have worked in customer service for many years. My personal opinion is that it is different to work from home even though it is the same job. I don’t know how effective the support is that TT provides to their home workers, but it is interesting to hear from someone who works with the company.
Thanks.;)

Sanity

sunrisesoverthemountains wrote: »

Thank you kindly for your reply,
It is not that I am scared of an annoyed customer, I have worked in customer service for many years. My personal opinion is that it is different to work from home even though it is the same job. I don’t know how effective the support is that TT provides to their home workers, but it is interesting to hear from someone who works with the company.
Thanks.;)

The only difference is the fact you don't have to get up, get ready and go out. The job itself is the same. Its online support rather than face to face, but there is plenty of it from both experienced agents and team leaders.
In my experience in this job, I find the majority of the TT @home agents are better at the job than some in house staff. I think we take the time to learn the job properly and don't see it as so much of a "conveyor belt" environment. While there is a reasonable turnover of agents, some of us have been there longer than we may have done had we been in a bricks and mortar establishment.

duchy

It really isn't any different-same job different enviroment- Support is probably better than in a bricks and morter call centre because your support can be with you instantly on a screen -rather than having to wait for someone to physically come to you (and when doing on-line support it's easy to support several people at once too). Same thing with asking a question of other agents-If you work in conventional call centre there may be 2 or 3 people you can lean over to and ask a quick question of........ at TT you could have access to thirty or forty people on your screen -much better chance of a quick response

I'd never worked in tech support before -my background is mainly travel and I found the transition very easy simply because there was plenty of support both peer based and from specific support staff.

I think the biggest difficulty some people have is the isolation-If you are used to working with a buzz around you -it can be a bit daunting that it's just you at your desk and the quiet Personally I like it-I don't have to listen to people rambling on about how drunk they got, what they thought of the X-factor the night before etc. Have to train the family that when you are working you can't be disturbed -but they soon get the idea-even the cats know not to jump on my lap when I have my headset on now (the moment I take it off one of them is there trying to jump on my lap though )

I love the fact I sit down 5 or 10 minutes before my shift-start my log in -whilst it's loading make a coffee and then start work. No buses, no parking, no expensive lunches, no high heels or work dress. If there's overtime it's easy to do as you aren't going to miss your bus home or have to drive/travel late at night - I also like the fact I work with a far more diverse range of people than a standard call centre as people choose to work from home for a variety of reasons.I often bake or cook whilst I'm working-start dinner in my break so it's ready as soon as I've finished-I think if I worked outside the home now I'd really resent that unpaid time commutting to and from work !
It isn't for everyone but it suits me.

Dory78

I personally think we have great support on the @home project. I've worked in a call centre before and yes you do have 'floor walkers' and a few people within easy reach if you need to ask a question, but as mentioned before this is nothing compared to the 40 or 50 people who can be around at any one time in the chat rooms online. There are designated support people but anyone can chip in with an answer and it means you get help fast without having to put customers on hold and infuriating them whilst you get help.

I love working from home, it fits in nicely with my family life and although it means I work late in the evening it also means I can spend time with my family during the day and don't have to worry about leaving for work 2 hrs before I actually start or coming home in the early hours of the morning! Besides where else can you roll into work 15 mins before you start in your pyjamas with soaking wet hair!!! (actually on second thoughts don't answer that!!!! lol)

duchy

I thought the support was exceptionally good on Sunday evening

Dory78

Only the best support agents work weekend nights

Lou76

I've been reading through all the home working threads for a while now, didn't realise you could actually do this sort of work from home, and I think I'm as clued up now as I need be.

Just wondering though, is it only evenings that TT do training, or is there daytime training as well?

I'm doing a Sign Language course at the moment (Mondays 6:30pm - 8:30pm) which doesn't finish until March. I'm trying to work out if it would be worth applying now, or if I should wait a few months?

That's assuming of course that I'll actually get taken on in the first place. :rotfl:

Sanity

The whole [EMAIL="TT@home"]TT@home[/EMAIL] is only evenings. Training and shifts both begin at 4pm. Shifts run 4-11 and training currently 4-10 until they change it.

You would have to be available Mon to Fri for 3 weeks initial training, but after that you can choose shifts of 20 hours or more from 4-11pm.

Lou76

Thanks Sanity (I've lost mine at the mo - damned sleep patterns lol).

The hours would [normally] suit me down to the ground; I have M.E. and Crohn's - I could get plenty of sleep during the day (when I'm actually wide awake it, annoyingly, seems to be evenings/late night) and if I'm having a "flare up" it would allow me plenty of time to take my medication (I can't take it everyday on the off chance, only when things are really bad (passing out, need to sleep and can't risk sleeping through) / I need to leave the flat, as I become immune to it otherwise Grrrr) to stop any problems on that score.

Due to these conditions I haven't worked for a few years but I'm desperate to get off benefits and start earning again, so home working would be ideal for me - I love the idea of going back to bed 5 minutes after I finish my shift, if need be. :T

I think I'll apply in the New Year and, hopefully, they'll be recruiting/training about the time my course ends.

I could of course give my course up, it's not a certificate course, it's a 20 week "introduction to BSL", but I'm thoroughly enjoying it and, dare I say, is actually giving me a purpose [albeit for a few hours each week] at the moment. That, to me, is worth it and has helped me to decide I really need to be working again - for my own mental wellbeing, if nothing else. :rotfl:

I can't thank the contributers to this forum enough, without you all I wouldn't have known about all the home working (genuine ones I mean) available to people like me.

At 34, I was worried I was already consigned to the [employment] scrap heap, I feel so much better knowing there's hope for me yet... :j