Ok,
So everybody needs to work.
Work is what puts food in our mouths and roofs over our heads, and Chinese-made clothes on our bodies.
Working in a call centre is one job that you can have.
I have encountered call centre workers who go above and beyond the call of duty, call centre workers who make my day, take their time explaining things my simple brain can’t comprehend, and generally have a great sense of communication and sense of customer need.
These experiences far outweigh my bad experiences, until lately.
It seems that HR at “call centre jobs R us” have lowered their standards of employment.
It seems that they’ll hire anyone who can use a telephone and read a script on a cubical wall.
I don’t recommend this job to anyone who is:
a) A fuckwit
b) unhelpful
c) arrogant
d) dismissive
e) assuming
f) brain-dead.
Is making every aspect of call centre communication (the waiting, the transferring, the endless rote reading from the script in front of them to answer questions, the horrid on hold music) all just a way to force me into internet communication with my telco/bank/warranty provider?
I don’t know.
All I ask is that whomever is there, sitting in their little gerbil booth with a Madonna mic and a laminated script in front of them waiting to help me out, use some of their own initiative when answering questions.
“I’m sorry I can’t tell you when that will happen, that’s another department’s duty, if you like you can call back between 10:00 and 10:05 every second Thursday to ask them when it will happen” isn’t the kind of answer that I want to my question.
Thanks go to the last guy I just spoke to then, who used his own brain, even used the phrase “yes, I know it’s a hassle, though as soon as we send it out to you, which won’t take that long, you’ll be up and running, thanks for your patience” made it all better.
A whiny “sorry that’s all I can do for you, there’s no other way around it, there’s no other options” in my general direction only infuritates a customer more.
A tiny bit of compassionate talk, however fake, goes a long way to making the person who’s sitting there on hold feel a lot better about not getting whatever they called up to get.
I know it’s not real, you know it’s not real, but it does make me feel better about sitting on hold for twenty minutes listening to your corporate jingle replayed over and over with some Peter Sculthorpe type remix every now and then…
xx aa
You are dealing well Andrew. I always feel a touch homicidal when I have to endure wait music. I am ready to rip someone’s head off before I even get to the unenthusiastic employee of the call centre.
My latest dealing with a call centre ended in tears the other day. All my tears of course. Some knob tried to tell me it is MY fault that my address is wrong on their computer and I am now being charged late fees on bills I never recieved. Oh, and the best bit? Now I will recieve a $5.50 charge from them because they have to re-send bills I never actually got. All because they can not possibly fathom that I can not recieve mail at my residential address. I didnt put the Po Box down for shits and giggles! Is that so hard to understand? Am i expecting too much from these people?
/end rant.
In short, I feel your pain.
On a vaguely related topic, I find the new cold-calling software amusing. I have been called a couple of times to hear that I am on hold, and that someone will be with me in a minute. Then some telemarketer gets on the line.
Let me repeat that. Some software calls you and automatically puts you on hold to squeeze some more efficiency out of their centre. That’s just taking gall to a new level.
Oh, I agree andrew (not G). Don’t call me to sell me stuff (esp at work !!) have me on hold and say “don’t hang up” ! It just makes me want to………..hang up !!!
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Oh yes Andrew (not G). They are great too.
I also have issues with the companies that you call and instead of typing into your phone keypad what department you want, you know have to say it. I would rather be discreet instead of having to wail “Bill extension!” down the phone in the middle of my work break room. Of course the automated response is “Sorry, I did not understand that. Please hold”. THEN they put me through to someone that can help me. Do they make it hard on purpose?
Very frustrated recently when I needed help with my computer. I kept getting foreign people on the line, (nothing against them, they are nice people!)and I can’t understand a word they are saying!! I kept saying “Pardon”, or “Which key was that”?. Then finally I’d get it and they would tell me if it din’t work, to ring them back.
It never worked, 10 calls later I’m told my computer is faulty and they would send someone out.DERRR!!!!
hey i know wat u mean i think everyone does who has had to be put on hold it totally sucks. also do u agree andrew wen u finally get soemone on the line u cant understansd a word they r saying. im not being racist or anything but its true. i feel like jsut saying can u plz put someone on the line that i can understand. write back xx leeny. p.s hey go on scrabulous i want to challange u to see how good u really are im signed under leeny. so is my challange accepted lol. come on today wenever u can
This is why I like to go into a business shop instead of dealing with a call centre. One of the advantages of moving to the country is that there are very small (if any) cues so it is easier and quicker than dealing with a call centre. And less stressful.
Another advantage of moving to the country is that we very very very rarely have the telemarketer call us. I forget about these things until I babysit a friends house in the city and the marketers drive me so crazy that I stop answering the phone.
Whenever I get the feeling that I might move back to the city I remind myself of peak hour traffic, telemarketers and being ripped off by mechanics. It puts that stupid moving idea right out of my mind.
One thing I hate about the call centre is that you have to your account no etc into the phone ‘so they can have all your details and be ready to serve you’ but when someone serves you they ask you for all of the information you just punched into the phone.
Recently, I’ve realised that calling the Dept of Education and Training here in Perth is worse than telemarketers. You have to be a strong person to sit through the abuse from them. They make you feel stupid when you don’t understand something and if you force your point because you know you’re right, they hang up. Definitely don’t attempt to discuss a pay issue with them. I’ll ask everyone else at work and the registrar before I pick up the phone from now on.
About once a week, I get a call from some telemarketing geniuses asking for “Mr Dell”. I keep telling them he doesn’t live here and that I don’t know him, then they decide they can talk to me instead. I decide they can’t. I ask them to remove my name from their list, though I realise that is futile.
I get a lot of those stupid prerecorded calls that place you on hold immediately too. I hang up before the recorded message finishes. Are there really that many people who stay on hold to make that system worthwhile??
As for telemarketers calling from abroad, there is usually a delay between answering the call and hearing a voice, so I hang up on them pretty quickly as well. There’s no point me wasting their time (putting it very politely) by letting them give their little spiel.
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