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Hi folks,
As a first time poster I hope I get this in the right place!
I'm currently temping at the moment, having recently had a change in circumstance - but my main work back ground has been in the customer service arenas - some face to face, but most over the phone.
A couple of stories that stick with me are:-
The wonder of loyalty cards
One of my first 'proper jobs' was working on the helpline for a loyalty card for one of the large stores here in the UK. Mainly it consisted of little old ladies ringing up for replacements of lost cards, or trying to get points added to their cards from receipts they'd saved from when they hadn't had their cards on them, changes of address/name etc - generally, pretty straight forward stuff. This particular points card gave you 4 points for every £1 spent in store, which is actually pretty generous compared to some of the other points schemes out there. One lady called and said that she wanted to use her points to buy some hair straighteners that were about £150, and wanted to know how much money she'd have to spend in store in order to get enough points on her card. It worked out to around £2000 - cue the lady in uproar and the very cheek of it! Now granted, that is a lot of money when you work it out - but what I tried to explain was that the points were a 'reward' for shopping in that store - you got the points because you spent the money, you didn't spend the money to get the points. I also pointed out over the next 30 minutes of phone call that most people that shopped in that store also looked out for the numerous 'double points' weekend and special offers (receive 500 points when you buy an own brand mascara etc), in order to build up their collection of points. She still wasn't quite getting it and thought it was outrageous that she had to spend so much 'to get anything back'. I tried pointing out also that if she had to buy certain items anyway, she might as well get them somewhere she was getting a better reward for them - she could spend £30 in one shop and get 30 points (= 30p), or spend £30 in our shop and get 120 points (£1.20).
I don't think I managed to get through though - so I don't know if she got the hair straighteners!
"Why are you abusing me like this?"
This was for the same company but on their general customer service line. We had had an email around from the supervisors about this woman - we were told not to get into conversation with her, and just transfer her to this one particular supervisor who had (bless her!) been assigned to deal with this lady's complaint. In the next 15 minutes this SC spoke to almost all of us on the help desk - we knew it was her because the agents that were on the phone suddenly went "Customer service, how can.." pause "I'm sorr..." pause "Well..." Look around from the agent shrugging their shoulders "She hung up!"
SC then came through to me:-
Me:"Good morning, customer service how can-"
SC(Interrupting): "Is this (company)?"
Me:"Yes, how-"
SC(Interrupting):"This is SC (name of woman as seen in our warning email) and can I ask why you're abusing me?"
Me:"I'm sorr-"
SC(Interrupting):"Yes, well, I need someone to help me!"
Me:"Certainly, one moment and I can put you through."
SC then hangs up while I try to ring through to the relevant supervisor. We found out eventually that what had happened was this SC had been into one of the shops to buy a £10 phone card and some bubble bath for her friend who was ill with cancer. She wanted a particular brand and type of bubble bath, which the store didn't have in stock. She then wanted the pharmacist to recommend something else - the pharmacist said that since he didn't know what ingredients were in that particular bubble bath, he couldn't recommend something else. The pharmacist rang another store to see if they had it in stock, so they could read him the ingredients - they didn't have it either. It seems the SC caused so much of a fuss, the pharmacist ended up ringing another company's store and getting them to read the ingredients to him - the SC then got the bubble bath and a £20 phone card for free, as a gesture of goodwill. The SC - apparently still not happy with this level of service, called that stores area manager, wanting that pharmacist fired. When she was told that wouldn't happen, she then somehow got the numbers for 2 other area managers (nothing to do with that particular area), and called them trying to get the pharmacist fired. She then somehow managed to get through to the MD's secretary/PA of the head office - wanting something to be done and dealt with! Eventually they had to write a legal letter to her, advising that they had made a donation in her name to a cancer research charity, and considered her complaint dealt with fully and to please not contact the company again.
I would guess that the lady had some other issues going on - and it wasn't just that she was an SC - but it was one of the most extreme cases I'd come across at that time.
As a first time poster I hope I get this in the right place!
I'm currently temping at the moment, having recently had a change in circumstance - but my main work back ground has been in the customer service arenas - some face to face, but most over the phone.
A couple of stories that stick with me are:-
The wonder of loyalty cards
One of my first 'proper jobs' was working on the helpline for a loyalty card for one of the large stores here in the UK. Mainly it consisted of little old ladies ringing up for replacements of lost cards, or trying to get points added to their cards from receipts they'd saved from when they hadn't had their cards on them, changes of address/name etc - generally, pretty straight forward stuff. This particular points card gave you 4 points for every £1 spent in store, which is actually pretty generous compared to some of the other points schemes out there. One lady called and said that she wanted to use her points to buy some hair straighteners that were about £150, and wanted to know how much money she'd have to spend in store in order to get enough points on her card. It worked out to around £2000 - cue the lady in uproar and the very cheek of it! Now granted, that is a lot of money when you work it out - but what I tried to explain was that the points were a 'reward' for shopping in that store - you got the points because you spent the money, you didn't spend the money to get the points. I also pointed out over the next 30 minutes of phone call that most people that shopped in that store also looked out for the numerous 'double points' weekend and special offers (receive 500 points when you buy an own brand mascara etc), in order to build up their collection of points. She still wasn't quite getting it and thought it was outrageous that she had to spend so much 'to get anything back'. I tried pointing out also that if she had to buy certain items anyway, she might as well get them somewhere she was getting a better reward for them - she could spend £30 in one shop and get 30 points (= 30p), or spend £30 in our shop and get 120 points (£1.20).
I don't think I managed to get through though - so I don't know if she got the hair straighteners!
"Why are you abusing me like this?"
This was for the same company but on their general customer service line. We had had an email around from the supervisors about this woman - we were told not to get into conversation with her, and just transfer her to this one particular supervisor who had (bless her!) been assigned to deal with this lady's complaint. In the next 15 minutes this SC spoke to almost all of us on the help desk - we knew it was her because the agents that were on the phone suddenly went "Customer service, how can.." pause "I'm sorr..." pause "Well..." Look around from the agent shrugging their shoulders "She hung up!"
SC then came through to me:-
Me:"Good morning, customer service how can-"
SC(Interrupting): "Is this (company)?"
Me:"Yes, how-"
SC(Interrupting):"This is SC (name of woman as seen in our warning email) and can I ask why you're abusing me?"
Me:"I'm sorr-"
SC(Interrupting):"Yes, well, I need someone to help me!"
Me:"Certainly, one moment and I can put you through."
SC then hangs up while I try to ring through to the relevant supervisor. We found out eventually that what had happened was this SC had been into one of the shops to buy a £10 phone card and some bubble bath for her friend who was ill with cancer. She wanted a particular brand and type of bubble bath, which the store didn't have in stock. She then wanted the pharmacist to recommend something else - the pharmacist said that since he didn't know what ingredients were in that particular bubble bath, he couldn't recommend something else. The pharmacist rang another store to see if they had it in stock, so they could read him the ingredients - they didn't have it either. It seems the SC caused so much of a fuss, the pharmacist ended up ringing another company's store and getting them to read the ingredients to him - the SC then got the bubble bath and a £20 phone card for free, as a gesture of goodwill. The SC - apparently still not happy with this level of service, called that stores area manager, wanting that pharmacist fired. When she was told that wouldn't happen, she then somehow got the numbers for 2 other area managers (nothing to do with that particular area), and called them trying to get the pharmacist fired. She then somehow managed to get through to the MD's secretary/PA of the head office - wanting something to be done and dealt with! Eventually they had to write a legal letter to her, advising that they had made a donation in her name to a cancer research charity, and considered her complaint dealt with fully and to please not contact the company again.
I would guess that the lady had some other issues going on - and it wasn't just that she was an SC - but it was one of the most extreme cases I'd come across at that time.
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