yes...................and?

[TelephoneAngel]

One sucky customer, one awesome colleague whose calls I was listening into this morning.

AC - do you know your account number?
SC - yes

sc says nothing else.
ac puts the customer on hold turns to me and says, there, he can stay on hold till he gives me the account number.

30 seconds go by.
sc - did you want my account number?
ac takes him off hold and takes the account number.Mutes the customer again and sys to me "you see, he knew I wanted it, he just wanted to be a prick".

Maybe I should try that rather than the alternative which is to ask for it again and feel my anger rising.Bet he gets carded for that though.

[Andara Bledin]

See, that's the problem with open questions like that.

They should have trained you, prior to putting you on the phones, to ask questions/make requests that don't allow for such douchebaggery.

So, instead of:
Do you know your account number?
you could ask:
If you have your account number, pleas tell me, now.

I keep trying to tell the girl (she's old enough to be a woman, but nowhere near mature enough) answering the phones at work to say, "Who may I say is calling?" as opposed to, "May I have your name."

^-.-^

[draftermatt]

I'm typically asked "what's your account number?"

Seems that would avoid the issue.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Personally, as soon as the customer said that he knew his account number I would have asked for it. Putting the cu on hold/mute until he provides it without prompting is not awesome at all, sorry to say. If I had been the customer I would have considered the person on the other end to have been rude.

.

Well, you know, a person can hardly complain about rudeness when he knows full well he's going out of his way to be a prick.

Co worker did prompt it. And from the get go. SC clearly wanted to play games, so, games got played. He can hardly complain.

Pricks are pricks becuase they forget that other people can and will be pricks, too. What they really want is to be the only prick in the room. That doesn't always work out for them.

[Amina516]

IMO, saying "Do you know you acct number?" Is the SAME as asking "Can I have your account number?". As the caller you KNOW what the worker on the phone is getting at. The SC was trying to be a dick and got dicked in return. I say colleague is still awesome...

[sevendaysky]

Hmm. I'm fifty-fifty on this one. Suck on both sides. My friend used to work for a call center. She had like... five screens to get through until she got to the one to input acct numbers. If someone started rattling off the number before she was there, she had to scramble for it or ask for it again. It COULD be that the customer was waiting for a prompt so that he didn't start reading it off before time. But it's equally likely the custy was being a dick, so.. I'll give them both a pass on this one.

[Sunsetsky]

People drive me crazy with stuff like that all the time. I get the:

Me: Thank you for holding can I help you?
SC: Yes.
*silence for about 10 to 20 seconds*
Me: Okay?
SC: Oh...well...

[Andara Bledin]

Me: Thank you for holding can I help you?
SC: Yes.
*silence for about 10 to 20 seconds*
Me: Okay?
SC: Oh...well...

And, that is why I lead with, "How may I help you?" to avoid that stuff.

Obviously they need help, or they wouldn't have called, so I skip the formalities and go straight to asking what the hell they want so I can get it for them and get them out of my hair that much faster.

^-.-^

[scruff]

Being in a major recession and in the Building Industry, we've lost most of the support team. So everyone takes phone messages.

When I pick up the phone and ask if I can take a message cos *random co-worker* is not present, I want

"Hi! Tell *co-worker* to ring me, Fred Smith, electrician! on 012999999, re site address MiltonKeynes Flat 500! thanks!"

Not;

"Well, *half an hour site history description*, and *co-worker* might have met Fred, and even seen site Jade, and might like the colour blue and cheese, do you think they might like kittens... Oh, and do you need a contact number? Cos I'll have to ring yo back if so..." *headdeskheaddesk*

Seriously, why ain't people taught in school to leave coherent phone messages?

[elsporko]

I wouldn't consider the customer a dick. Seems obvious the worker wanted the number but the customer also could have been waiting for a prompt because they thought the number would be needed later and the worker was just asking before they began the process and wouldn't have to stop if he didn't have it, or the customer may have been waiting the the worker to be ready to enter it.

If anything this is a bad worker story since workers are paid not to be jerks and putting a confused person on hold instead of simply asking for the number is rude.

[EricKei]

Seriously, why ain't people taught in school to leave coherent phone messages?

My phone messages -- especially at home -- usually instruct people to "leave a number and name if you actually expect a call back"

My personal fave outgoing message, tho, is a movie reference: "You know what to do and you know when to do it. *beeeeeep*"