Announcement

**GayleShy** · 04-25-2007, 02:42 AM

Yeah, but you need to remember that 6 seconds to you or me is like six minutes to an SC. They have no real sense of time.

**BusyBee** · 04-25-2007, 03:13 AM

Myabe you could start constantly narrating everything.

"I'm typing the phone number into the computer. The computer is bringing up the account. I am now reading the account details and reviewing the numerous notes left on your account pertaining to your behaviour in previous calls."

Do it all in a nice flat monotone

**myswtghst** · 04-25-2007, 03:22 AM

We basically have to do just that, BusyBee, as they mark us down for too much dead air on monitors, even though our customers are (mostly) well aware that certain requests take time to process. For example, when I do a repair or exchange request for a customer, I basically get their info, then enter it into about three different forms. They don't want me to keep asking them, and I don't want to mess up the info, so I usually just make a joke about how redundant our system is, and let them know it'll take a minute.

**Amethyst Hunter** · 04-25-2007, 04:16 AM

I hate impatient SCs with the fire of a thousand suns. I've been known to literally throw up my hand in a stop-position and ask them to slow it the fuck down (not necessarily in those exact terms, much though I'd love to) when taking in information. I understand impatience, believe me (thank you very much ADD), but I am by nature a slow-moving, slow-processing person and as such am incapable at moving at the speed of light. Don't like it, SCs? Too bad, sucks to be you.

**iradney** · 04-25-2007, 04:38 AM

Ugh, I feel your pain CC. My favourite is when they interrupt my greeting to launch into their tale of woe. What the hell, you troglodyte, gimme a chance to finish my greeting! It's 5 seconds, max, and we HAVE to give it!
And then of course, those are the same ppl that ONE BREATH LATER ask which department they're in and who they are speaking with - this is all information they could've gotten if they'd let me finish my greeting!

**TNT** · 04-25-2007, 05:05 AM

It always seems as though the customers who have the longest complaints are the first ones to do the "Hello.............?" business.

Me: Thank you for...
Customer: My bill has never been right. It shows me be billed for Cinemax on January 19th, when I know I didn't order it until the 20th. Also, I had a 4 hour outage on February 4th I haven't been credited for. The tech was late for the install back in September, or August, or maybe July, how are you going to compensate me for that? By the way... evil cable monopoly... calling attorney general... lawyers... blah, blah, blah. Exactly how much are you going to credit me? And why aren't I getting any emails from Aunt Matilda?
Me: (pausing for two seconds to figure out wtf just happened...)
Customer: Helloooooooooooooooooooo? How much credit do I get?

**greensinestro** · 04-25-2007, 01:39 PM

Quoth BusyBee View Post

Myabe you could start constantly narrating everything.

"I'm typing the phone number into the computer. The computer is bringing up the account. I am now reading the account details and reviewing the numerous notes left on your account pertaining to your behaviour in previous calls."

Do it all in a nice flat monotone

You know what? At Bellsouth, they actually expect you to say this to the customer, minus the comments about their behavior of course.

If you have any dead air on a call, it can be scored against you. If you had to sing a tune, it was acceptable as long as it was not dead air.

Some customers have actually become upset with you talking to them while looking at their information. I had a guy once who thundered at me, "Stop it with the friendly chit chat and help me with my problem. I don't like your friendly tone and as you can tell, I am not a nice person." No shit, Sherlock! However, I do not come from your planet either, where rudeness and meanness are the way of life.

**greensinestro** · 04-25-2007, 01:43 PM

Quoth TNT View Post

It always seems as though the customers who have the longest complaints are the first ones to do the "Hello.............?" business.

Me: Thank you for...
Customer: My bill has never been right. It shows me be billed for Cinemax on January 19th, when I know I didn't order it until the 20th. Also, I had a 4 hour outage on February 4th I haven't been credited for. The tech was late for the install back in September, or August, or maybe July, how are you going to compensate me for that? By the way... evil cable monopoly... calling attorney general... lawyers... blah, blah, blah. Exactly how much are you going to credit me? And why aren't I getting any emails from Aunt Matilda?
Me: (pausing for two seconds to figure out wtf just happened...)
Customer: Helloooooooooooooooooooo? How much credit do I get?

Oh, I hate that. And, there is no use telling the customer something like "I don't even have your account pulled up because you did not provide me with your telephone or account number." In November, upper state New York had an internet outage for a week, and the onslaught of customers calling in starting without preamble or even the chance for you to get past "Thank you for calling...." was awful. And yes, it was a week's worth of outage, yet the majority of them wanted a month free, six months free, you name it. We gave them a week.

**tamezin** · 04-25-2007, 05:10 PM

Quoth CrazedClerk View Post

Not 6 seconds later, WITHOUT fail, I will hear "Hello?" or "you still there?"

It is the dead air thing. Depending on the type of phone system your company is using there may not be any background or underlying static indicating the line is still open. Your customer mistakenly believes the line has gone dead or been disconnected. I have had this happen to me before. I am not trying to be sucky, just wanting to make sure I don't have to call back.

**Becks** · 04-25-2007, 05:28 PM

Quoth Amethyst Hunter View Post

I hate impatient SCs with the fire of a thousand suns.

Merely a thousand?

**MadMike** · 04-25-2007, 07:31 PM

Quoth tamezin View Post

Your customer mistakenly believes the line has gone dead or been disconnected.

I had the exact opposite happen once, when I was trying to arrange an exchange of a defective video card I had bought for my computer. I had just given my information, and the guy went to process the authorization, and things got quiet. I waited awhile for him to tell me everything was good to go, but after awhile I started to wonder what was going on and asked, "Are you still there?"

Silence.

Then I looked down and found out my stupid cat was laying on the phone cord and managed to somehow knock it loose.

**CorDarei** · 04-25-2007, 09:24 PM

Quoth CrazedClerk View Post

Ok, this has been happening lately and just drives me nuts.

I will answer a call and ask a customer for their phone number.

Not 6 seconds later, WITHOUT fail, I will hear "Hello?" or "you still there?"

did you tell the customer it will be a moment while you look their info up? If you ask them for their #, and they give it to you w/o any confirmation you received it, they could be curious if you did and that's they reason they're saying "hello?"

**bigjimaz** · 04-25-2007, 11:57 PM

Thank you. Give me a few seconds to access your account.

That took 4 seconds for me to say. Now you only have 2 seconds of dead air.

**CrazedClerk** · 04-26-2007, 02:37 AM

Quoth CorDarei View Post

did you tell the customer it will be a moment while you look their info up? If you ask them for their #, and they give it to you w/o any confirmation you received it, they could be curious if you did and that's they reason they're saying "hello?"

Usually I DO tell them it will be a moment and they still come back with a "Hello?" after a mere five seconds.

Announcement

Wait a fricking minute will ya! (impatience rant)

Wait a fricking minute will ya! (impatience rant)

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