Things what bug me.

[reynardo]

Yeah, it's been one of those nights. Too long, and I'm too tired. And I also feel like 1001 things from the last few weeks are piling up and just rubbing at the annoyed spots on me.

Those people who know me well will know that for me to be angry, pissed off and annoyed takes a great deal of pushing. Maybe it's a really good thing that I'm runnning away to sandypawozbun's on Tuesday for hers and usagi_ozbun's wedding.

So, under the Lj cut, you will find a list of things that are currently annoying me. Boring, I know. but what else is a Lj for it not for angsty ranting.



it pisses me off annoys me when:

Customers I am helping over the phone do not listen to what I am asking them to do, and then blame me for not getting the system working.

My son forgets to tell us about homework he has until the night before it is due.

We have cable TV in the office, and because there's a majority of techie males, we end up watching Police Academy 7 and Under Siege instead of the documentaries or the music channel.

Customers start their call with "Well, I was speaking to a technical person - could you put me through to one?" when they hear my female voice on the phone.

I bring in a set of CDs and then realise I'm at one of the few machines not to have CD playing capacity.

I'm trying to help someone, and they won't trust me with something I need to help them, like their date of brith for identification, or their address or password.

Due to the constraints of shiftwork and time, I cannot spend quality time with my bunny on his birthday.

Due to the constraints of shiftwork and time, I cannot spend quality time with my beloved son either.

I end up eating snacks and not-good-things all the way through a shift. Three snacks a day does not replace meals.



Mind you, I've had one good idea. A lot of the people in this office get "recognised" when a customer praises them to their supervisor, or when a customer sends in an email about their good work. I've discovered that this is because the CSRs helping them actually ask the customer to recommend them. Some of us, while hoping for recognition, don't like asking for it. It feels like fishing for compliments.

So I'm going to ask that the recorded message that people have to listen to if there's a queue include "Did your Customer Service representative impress you with their high level of helpfulness and assistance? Send an email to XXXX@CCC.com.au with their name in it - their high morale means better service for you." Or something like that.

Comments

*huge gigantic huggles*

[sarin-girl.livejournal.com]

I totally understand your pain....
sucks sometimes doesn't it?

BOFH

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

Customers start their call with "Well, I was speaking to a technical person - could you put me through to one?" when they hear my female voice on the phone.

Argh. Kill them. Kill them in the face.

This is when you really really wish your logs weren't auditable and you could sweetly ask them to channel "ls -l" to "rm -rf".

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

My son forgets to tell us about homework he has until the night before it is due.

He sounds like a clone of Dylan Madeley.

[lisanne.livejournal.com]

Customers start their call with "Well, I was speaking to a technical person - could you put me through to one?" when they hear my female voice on the phone.

When I was in Tech support, what annoyed me more than people thinking I was just a phone answering receptionist type thing, was when they actually said to me that they didn't think I could help them. The fact that they wanted to judge me by being a young sounding female, so naturally I couldn't help with anything technical - they needed to speak to a male! The only thing that bothered me more than that was when it was a female who said it.

[notasquirrel.livejournal.com]

u kno, {helpfulchitter} i thinke a skwerl kud reelee improove yor moode.

yiz, {thoughtfulflick} a skwerl wud defunitlee doe ite.

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

Argh.

Sometimes, what you really need on your phone, between the buttons for "hold" and "transfer" is a button for "smite".

call centres are crap, the work is crap, the politics are even crapper

[stilkil.livejournal.com]

Why does Adam have to tell you about homework assignments? *puzzled*
From about the age of 10, (that's when I started getting homework), I never told my parents about my homework, (except perhaps the odd 'major' project, and that's because they usually I had to ask them to go to the library), I just did it. If I didn't do it, or left it too late to do a decent job, that was my problem and my responsibility to deal with. *meh*, I think this is something I don't get.

When it comes to the technical person/female thing, its a battle you will never win. I just smile and say brightly 'you are!', and charge on right into it before they have a chance to think too much about it. Then if they thank you with surprise at the end, chirp brightly, 'they don't just pay me to look pretty you know!'. I finds that shuts them up pretty quickly ;-) Water off a ducks back, water off a ducks back....

The reason mindless movies get the vote is that if you get to watch anything actually interesting, or requiring more than 1/2 a brain cell, you will get a really long crap call right in the middle of the _really interesting bit_. That would piss _me_ off more. I quite like perving on Steve Segal anyway ;-) Vote for the perve factor and you'll at least get _something_ out of it.

Ok, call centre truth number 1.
The only way you will get noticed/liked by your team leaders is producing the 'goods' they require. Firstly this is through your stats. Always, always make your stats, minimum. No excuses. Try and consistantly make at least the next 'rung' of stats from that. Secondly, its the customer feedback. Now the rotten truth of this is, customers are 99.9% more likely to bother submitting a complaint in writing than they are a commendation. If they do what you suggest, and pop it on the IVR, most customers will use this to complain. Watch your departments complaints go up, a lot. The complaining types are the only ones who will right it down anyway.
If your customers thank you for your help at the end of the call, ask them to send off an email, if they don't thank you, don't ask. If they have called in a few times, they will know why you are asking and will have no problem playing the game with you. Its just the way it works, its crap, but that's the way it is. You play along or you lose to some smary arse-licking creep who doesn't know his right from his left click *shrug*.
Call me to talk further about this if you want.

They other things....well, don't really have anything real to offer on those counts, apart from to say, your job is a means to an end and its not forever. The people close to you know this and will not think less of you for it. Just remember its not forever.

Call centres are the Temple of the Sugar God. Find a vegetable that works for you. I like baby beans....mmm...crunchy....mmm

And seriously, call me on the call centre stuff. I've worked in enough of them over the years.