Call Center Hell

Work is going alright. I have been getting 100% quality scores on most of my monitors. I should qualify for some incentives this month, hopefully. I still hate the job. It sucks.

I read on the internet where people like to complain about how bad the customer service is on the phone. I wish that for one moment these complainers would stop and think about how they treat the person on the other end of the line. I take calls all day long from people who are verbally abusive and downright nasty just because their satellite isn't working properly. They scream at me and call me names that would make a sailor blush, all because they have to wait until (gasp!) tomorrow for a technician that I am sending out for free.

The next time you call customer service and are greeted with a less than enthusiastic voice just remember that the last 15 customers probably wore down your rep and he or she would just like to deal with someone who is calm and understands that not all problems can be fixed right away. A little patience goes a long way. Because honestly, the moment you raise your voice I stop listening. I will not credit your account and most likely I will do nothing until you say the word supervisor. Then I will transfer you. I also make notes in the account as to what names you called me and how many times you swore at me. The next rep that gets you will read the notes and most likely give you nothing as well. That's how it works. However, if you are nice and understanding I will bend over backwords to give you anything that I can. And then if you like what I did please ask to speak to my supervisor. Supervisors like to take compliment calls. It makes everyone in a good mood. It also makes me feel like I am doing something useful.

One day I answered the phone and there was a man on the other side screaming about pay per view. He wanted me to credit back every automated phone fee since he opened his account way back in 2000. I explained that there was no way to do this since there wasn't a technical reason for why he was ordering them over the phone. I explained to him further that he could order from the remote if he plugged in the phone line. Then he proceded to call me every name possible because he didn't want to plug in said phone line. I explained that this is how the ppv orders get from his machine to his bill. His response was I am a good customer, your company needs to trust me. I explained his options again and explained that I am the technical department and that I will be more than happy to test his phone line if he will please plug it in. What followed was some of the most abusive language I have ever had to deal with for a half an hour. I am not allowed to transfer to a supervisor unless the customer asks. I had to wait for him to finish ripping me apart to transfer to the supervisor. The very next call was a guy who had his roof collapse after someone moved the satellite dish. It was pouring rain inside his house and ruining all of his things. He was calm and nice to deal with. I told him that I expected him to yell at me and that I was really suprised that he wasn't more upset. He told me that bad things happen sometimes and that he couldn't control his roof caving in and he just had to wait for the damage claim to come back. No big deal. I was very impressed with this man. He had every right to rant and rave at me. Instead he chose to calmly give me the information. He understood that it was not my fault. He understood that I was there to help him. He probably wasn't a terrible human being with an inflated sense of self worth and entitlement. These are the customers that I will bend over backwords to help.

So my goal right now is get promoted to something other than CCR by the beginning of August. At that point I will start looking around for something better. I am well on my way to a promotion. My stats are good and the supervisor has me help out the new guys with quality and I have to help train at team meetings. I am working just enough overtiem to get noticed. I want a job in Quality Assurance or Supervisor or Trainer. I will take any job that will get me off of the phone however. I will even be the janitor.