SC Wants to Know All About TA's Work

[TelephoneAngel]

ME - hello, how may I help you?
SC -I dunno
me -ok, do you have a problem? Do you need any help?

SC-I wanna know what you do and how you can help me

me - I would need to know what sort of problem you have before I could tell you that, I do a lot of things to help according to what the problem is

SC- so you don't know what your own job role is, huh?

me Erm, if you ever do have a problem please phone back and I will be happy to tell you what I'll do to resolve it.

*TA hangs up before SC can get another round in*

[saturnz_dragon]

Hahaha wtf. People are so stupid.

[ShadowTiger]

I'm awful with acronyms, so when you said "TA's work" I thought you meant "Teacher's Assistant." But then again, I'm kinda dumb.

I suppose, if I was in this situation, I would likely have wanted to reply to the "so you don't know what your own job role is" with "Man, this conversation just got weirder than the time someone called me to help them find their pants. I am out."

[saturnz_dragon]

[QUOTE=ShadowTiger;701277]I'm awful with acronyms, so when you said "TA's work" I thought you meant "Teacher's Assistant." [/ QUOTE]

I thought the same thing at first

[baileysinmycoffee]

Wow that's probably the most ignorant thing I have heard an SC say in a while. We're call center CSR's, so most likely we are trained and cross-trained in different areas so, dear customer, why don't you take that stick out of your butt and tell me what it is that you need assistance with. I'm technically a "billing" CSR, but I also get service and sales calls as well. I hate it when they say "Ummmm I don't know if I'm at the right department or if you can help me" Well we're not gonna know and I'm certainly not transferring you anywhere until I know what you're calling about.

*end of rant* LOL

[Green_Fairy]

sounds like a clear cut case of "holy crap i'm bored i'ma gonna call some call rep and annoy her!"

[bainsidhe]

Sounds like a prank call to me. Whatta jerk.

[Andara Bledin]

SC-I wanna know what you do and how you can help me

Answer: I take calls from customers who are in need of assistance, and based on their needs, attempt to render that assistance or transfer them to another representative more capable of doing so. As you have indicated that you are not a customer in need of assistance, I bid you a good day, sir. *click*

Moron.

^-.-^

[Cazzi]

I'm awful with acronyms, so when you said "TA's work" I thought you meant "Teacher's Assistant."

First thing that popped into my head was territorial army!

[RayvenQ]

Same here Cazzi

[TelephoneAngel]

Actually I think mabe it was a scam, trying to work out which sort of problem would get the best result from me in terms of how i would try to solve it.The the customer would call back to get another call centre agent and MIRACULOUSLY have that sort of problem and need it sorting out.

I would have been hours answering the question though even if I had tried, because like others who have said the same thing, although I am a call centre agent I have been with the company for many years and also worked on the sales floor and with home visit agents, therefore it is quite rare that i ened up with a phone call that i can't deal with in some way even if it was not meant for me.Whereas other call centre agents without all that eperience have to pass on wrong phone calls to other departments.

My answer would have gone along the lines of

if your problem is

X i would do Y
b i would do c
G I would do V
B and G combined i would do xyz

and so on and so on and so on

[Ashaela]

I hate those questions - mostly because I always get them from someone who already has a chip on their shoulder, is looking to pick a fight, and has an entitlement complex which has them convinced they don't need to waste their time talking to anyone who's low enough on the totem pole to have answered the phone on the first ring. The implication is that I will tell them my job is "telephone operator" or "secretary," thereby proving to them I'm not intelligent or informed enough to handle their very special and unique situation.

The fact of the matter is (a) everyone in my department has to know something about everything that goes on in the agency, so we're just as likely (usually more, in fact) to have the answers as anyone else; (b) even my supervisor jumps in to take phone calls when it's busy or we're short-staffed, so assuming the person you're talking to is an ignorant flunky is kind of... ignorant; and (c) regardless of your question and whether I can answer it, you ain't gettin' nowhere unless you go through me. Which means that no matter how many times you tell me that you know I can't help you, I'm not transferring the call until you tell me your name and your question (and nine times out of ten, a transfer isn't required at all because we know almost EVERYTHING.) The GC doesn't take calls, the ED doesn't take calls, and especially not from Joe Podunk out in Texarkana who just wants to yell at them. Even state senators don't go straight to the ED - they may get there eventually, but it still goes through me first to verify who they are and what they want, and then her assistant to verify if it's something that the ED really needs to handle.

So someone asking me "What exactly do you do?" in that tone of voice is just looking to start an argument. I usually answer in one of two ways, depending on my mood; either I give a total infodump overload describing all different aspects of my job until they cave and ask me specifically whether I deal with their particular question, or I will say something like "Right now, I'm answering the phone and waiting for your question."

[EricKei]

My particular favorite is when I pick up the phone (often on the first ring >_>) and the caller is ACTIVELY speaking to someone else in the room, rather than finishing their original conversation and THEN paying attention to the person she just called...It doesn't help that they're almost always shouting when they do this...