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Part of my job as the marketing manager at a leading service supplier
is to handle escalated issues. These bubble up to me after a customer
talks to a customer service representative and at least one
supervisor. I have the discretion to offer bill credits for the amount
in dispute plus up to $100 as a good-faith gesture.
Before contacting a customer or determining the amount to credit, I
listen to the calls between the customer and rep or supervisor. I’m
sorry to say that compared to last year I have heard more customers
curse and yell at representatives this year, sometimes driving reps to
tears. While our company sometimes makes mistakes, that does not give
customers the right to treat company representatives like dirt.
If I believe we made a mistake and the customer was respectful in
questioning the error, I will apologize, offer to correct the bill and
some additional bill credits. If we did not make a mistake, I may
offer good-faith bill credits while explaining the issue to a
customer. However, if the customer was rude, I will not offer
good-faith bill credits regardless of who was at fault. (I will
correct a billing error, but do nothing more.)
The messages I want to share with fellow Consumerist readers are: 1)
Be respectful of the people who call on the phone – they may work
for a corporation, but they are human. 2) If you can’t say it on
broadcast TV, don’t say it to a rep. 3) You catch more flies with
honey.
Full article (I'd highly recommend reading the comments)
http://consumerist.com/2012/08/dear-...yees-cry.html/
Several issues are mentioned by commenters to explain why they are rude to frontline call reps including:
- Language/accent problems
- Lack of product knowledge/training
- Lack of empowerment/ability to correct issues
- Use of scripts
- Annoyance at the phone tree/menu/process by which you need to reach a rep. It seems that for a lot of folks they start the call agitated because of the convoluted process it takes to reach an actual human.
I've worked in a call center before and I know it's different everywhere but in my particular center (doing support for cell phone customers), the following was true:
- The six weeks of training I got was laughable and taught me only how to do the simplest things, such as activate a phone and take a payment. By the time I hit the call floor on my own I felt highly unprepared for what I was facing. It took me about six to eight MONTHS to really learn the systems we used and how to deal with most issues. The thing is, most of this knowledge was gained not in a training room but self taught while taking calls either through trial and error or combing the knowledge base for answers.
- We did have scripts, but they usually weren't required, they were just recommendations/suggestions on what to say. The only scripts we had to say verbatim without exception were the greeting ("Hello, thank you for calling company X, my name is CC, how may I help you today?") and the dead air script for when we didn't hear anything on the other end of the line ("I apologize I seem to be unable to hear you so therefore I am going to disconnect this call. If you need further assistance you can call us back at 1-888-XXX-XXX or go to companyx.com. Thank you for calling company x and have a nice day").
- Within the system we used, I did have a wide latitude as to WHAT I was able to do for customers. I could, for example, waive a $200 ETF fee, add discounts to accounts, provide bill credits, change the name on the account, alter the contract end date and even send a customer a free phone if I wanted to. But the thing is there were only VERY specific circumstances in which we were allowed to do those things and some (even though I know precisely how to do them) could only be done by a Supervisor. The ETF waive in particular was a fireable offense for us frontline lackeys.
- The last point I would like to make is: You get what you pay for. Of course we'd all like intelligent, knowledgeable reps that speak English well and are empowered to help us, but unless company X is willing to pay $15-20/hr to hire such people, that's just not possible.
Of course the only way company X could afford to pay those wages is if they increased the cost of the products. Since the North American economy is largely price driven, the odds of this happening are of course, slim to none.
is to handle escalated issues. These bubble up to me after a customer
talks to a customer service representative and at least one
supervisor. I have the discretion to offer bill credits for the amount
in dispute plus up to $100 as a good-faith gesture.
Before contacting a customer or determining the amount to credit, I
listen to the calls between the customer and rep or supervisor. I’m
sorry to say that compared to last year I have heard more customers
curse and yell at representatives this year, sometimes driving reps to
tears. While our company sometimes makes mistakes, that does not give
customers the right to treat company representatives like dirt.
If I believe we made a mistake and the customer was respectful in
questioning the error, I will apologize, offer to correct the bill and
some additional bill credits. If we did not make a mistake, I may
offer good-faith bill credits while explaining the issue to a
customer. However, if the customer was rude, I will not offer
good-faith bill credits regardless of who was at fault. (I will
correct a billing error, but do nothing more.)
The messages I want to share with fellow Consumerist readers are: 1)
Be respectful of the people who call on the phone – they may work
for a corporation, but they are human. 2) If you can’t say it on
broadcast TV, don’t say it to a rep. 3) You catch more flies with
honey.
Full article (I'd highly recommend reading the comments)
http://consumerist.com/2012/08/dear-...yees-cry.html/
Several issues are mentioned by commenters to explain why they are rude to frontline call reps including:
- Language/accent problems
- Lack of product knowledge/training
- Lack of empowerment/ability to correct issues
- Use of scripts
- Annoyance at the phone tree/menu/process by which you need to reach a rep. It seems that for a lot of folks they start the call agitated because of the convoluted process it takes to reach an actual human.
I've worked in a call center before and I know it's different everywhere but in my particular center (doing support for cell phone customers), the following was true:
- The six weeks of training I got was laughable and taught me only how to do the simplest things, such as activate a phone and take a payment. By the time I hit the call floor on my own I felt highly unprepared for what I was facing. It took me about six to eight MONTHS to really learn the systems we used and how to deal with most issues. The thing is, most of this knowledge was gained not in a training room but self taught while taking calls either through trial and error or combing the knowledge base for answers.
- We did have scripts, but they usually weren't required, they were just recommendations/suggestions on what to say. The only scripts we had to say verbatim without exception were the greeting ("Hello, thank you for calling company X, my name is CC, how may I help you today?") and the dead air script for when we didn't hear anything on the other end of the line ("I apologize I seem to be unable to hear you so therefore I am going to disconnect this call. If you need further assistance you can call us back at 1-888-XXX-XXX or go to companyx.com. Thank you for calling company x and have a nice day").
- Within the system we used, I did have a wide latitude as to WHAT I was able to do for customers. I could, for example, waive a $200 ETF fee, add discounts to accounts, provide bill credits, change the name on the account, alter the contract end date and even send a customer a free phone if I wanted to. But the thing is there were only VERY specific circumstances in which we were allowed to do those things and some (even though I know precisely how to do them) could only be done by a Supervisor. The ETF waive in particular was a fireable offense for us frontline lackeys.
- The last point I would like to make is: You get what you pay for. Of course we'd all like intelligent, knowledgeable reps that speak English well and are empowered to help us, but unless company X is willing to pay $15-20/hr to hire such people, that's just not possible.
Of course the only way company X could afford to pay those wages is if they increased the cost of the products. Since the North American economy is largely price driven, the odds of this happening are of course, slim to none.
I AM the evil bastard!
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