Rapscallion
12-07-2006, 09:32 PM
I got a day in sales today. Within one call, I'd scrawled "Please kill me" on a piece of paper and was holding it up to colleagues in the area.
I started when the phones went live, but since there are few calls at that time, I was by myself. A few other colleagues were around and agreed to take ringback numbers if people called while I was on the phone. I wished they hadn't been there.
First call:
"Munch, slop, KB317," she said, giving me the code between mouthfuls of breakfast cereal. I could hear her loud and clear.
After a few more codes and more mouthfuls of milk-sodden cereal later...
"You're sounding awful faint. Can you put the volume up?"
I knew that our phones can sound quiet to people from time to time. Incredibly, my fingers betrayed me as they found their way to the volume controls and...
"SMACK, SMUSH, CORNFLAKE DEATH SENTENCE..."
The second call:
"I'm just getting used to this Excel business," she said, apparently reading from a computer screen. "ZX215," she added, giving me one of the codes on her screen.
I read off the description, a method we have of ensuring that we've typed the correct numbers.
"That's not right," she said. I found the correct code for her, but the next code was wrong, and the one after, and the one after...
"I think I must have deleted the wrong row," she said eventually. She had about ten correct codes out of sixty.
Third call:
"I'd like to place an order."
"Can I have your account number, please?"
"Er, I forgot it."
*tweet* *tweet*
The main group of sales team came in at this point, saw my scribblings, and held me back from reaching through the phone lines to dispense justified vengeance...
Rapscallion
I started when the phones went live, but since there are few calls at that time, I was by myself. A few other colleagues were around and agreed to take ringback numbers if people called while I was on the phone. I wished they hadn't been there.
First call:
"Munch, slop, KB317," she said, giving me the code between mouthfuls of breakfast cereal. I could hear her loud and clear.
After a few more codes and more mouthfuls of milk-sodden cereal later...
"You're sounding awful faint. Can you put the volume up?"
I knew that our phones can sound quiet to people from time to time. Incredibly, my fingers betrayed me as they found their way to the volume controls and...
"SMACK, SMUSH, CORNFLAKE DEATH SENTENCE..."
The second call:
"I'm just getting used to this Excel business," she said, apparently reading from a computer screen. "ZX215," she added, giving me one of the codes on her screen.
I read off the description, a method we have of ensuring that we've typed the correct numbers.
"That's not right," she said. I found the correct code for her, but the next code was wrong, and the one after, and the one after...
"I think I must have deleted the wrong row," she said eventually. She had about ten correct codes out of sixty.
Third call:
"I'd like to place an order."
"Can I have your account number, please?"
"Er, I forgot it."
*tweet* *tweet*
The main group of sales team came in at this point, saw my scribblings, and held me back from reaching through the phone lines to dispense justified vengeance...
Rapscallion