Call center thread!

[reptiledude987]

Ko we've been talking about so I'll start it. Lets hear call center stories from bothe ends of the phone!!!

[millertime89]

Oh where to start... We had a guy earlier today who asked if we could remove the negative credit reporting from three years ago. He stated his payments should have been postponed (we have a variety of reasons to do this and all can be backdated, but all except for being in military and being in school won't remove negative credit reporting when backdated). He was in Korea teaching English but wouldn't confirm if he was in school or the military at that time. He said he couldn't answer my question because it would violate a federal law. Since we deal with federal loans, my (admittedly snarky) response was "Removal of the negative reporting is also a violation of federal law without sufficient cause."

He didn't like that one bit...

[Minkness]

Being in insurance is dicey. I'm just happy what I do isn't life threatening stuff. Cell phones, while they may feel like an extension of our bodies, aren't! Lol

That being said, it's still insurance. We have policies just like everything else out there. It irks me to no end when I explain a denial and refer to the terms and conditions they signed when buying the phone and adding insurance to it, and their response is "Who actually reads those things?!"....and, because I am talking to them over the phone, they are 100 times more rude than if they were face to face..

This brings me to my story though lol. (Yes, I make short stories long, sorries!)

So, got a transfer from a CSR that this guy was pissed about his denial and wanted to speak to someone other than her. I get the account info and take the call. Instead of the customer was an instore representative. He asks about the denial and I explain why. He asks that I talk to the customer. Sure...this guy comes on all ready cussing and screaming on the line. The phone is soon taken from him by his wife, who is equally loud and rude. I explain the denial again to both of them and they don't like it so throw the phone at the instore rep. (I could hear the phone hit the counter) who asks, BEGS me to do something for the customers because the husband was threatening him over the counter that if he didn't fix it he'd get beaten. O.O

I was stunned...apologized profusely, then suggested they call local authorities. The line promptly dropped.....I must have sat there for 10 minutes, shaking from the thought that me doing my job may have got someone else beaten up x.x

[millertime89]

Right now, the person I'm talking to had a payment retracted by her bank and was wondering why her due date was moved back by a month... You made a payment, advanced your due date, then had your bank retract it. What did you think was gonna happen?

[reptiledude987]

I just had one where the cx was convinced that the line on their statment showing the payment was a charge. Took 15 min to convince them that this was reflecting the payment made as ther was a cr beside the payment amount. Still didnt belive me and hung up. Some people just cant be helped... and on to the next.

[Sublimeballs]

I could never do what you guys do... I have no patience for people like that.

[Minkness]

I agree it's not for everyone. But, I have always been all about customer service and experience, so really love my job, even if it gives me migraines sometimes. I'm working to move up as well to be part of the compliance or quality teams so i can work on the other reps to be as good at handling people, explaining things, and turning a bad experience into a not so bad experience.

That being said, I am rough when I call into customer service lines as a customer, because I expect MY level of service lol. I try not to be too hard though because we all have our bad days.

[Sublimeballs]

I wonder how you guys would perceive me on a call; calm, assertive, not gonna put up with crap but if I'm in the wrong I drop it. Always works

[Minkness]

You would be a perfect customer to deny! =D

[millertime89]

I'm on webchats and emails so I can yell and curse to my heart's content as long as I don't type it. It was a means to an end for me. It got me out of NE and to CO. I'm moving away from customer service to something more my style in a week.

[Minkness]

What's your style?

[millertime89]

Here's the thing that a lot of people forget. We're humans too. If you're calm and don't berate us we will usually go out of our way to help solve your problem. If you're a **** we can just add easily give you the run around.

If we mention a survey for God's sake take it and unless the service was really, truly awful, give us a high score. We depend on that **** and a single mediocre sore can hurt us quite a bit.

[Minkness]

Omg yes! NPS was a nightmare and a half! And I was good at it! Thank god I don't deal with that any more with my position x.x

[pdomensis]

Right now, the person I'm talking to had a payment retracted by her bank and was wondering why her due date was moved back by a month... You made a payment, advanced your due date, then had your bank retract it. What did you think was gonna happen?

This whole thread is totally foreign to me, but this post cracked me up; not the customer, but that fact that you're on a snake blog posting about this while dealing with the person. I will definitely keep this in mind next time I deal with customer service.

[shaunyboy]

when calling Sky TV if there's problems with our systems,we get an Indian call center...

they cannot understand my Scottish accent,no matter how slow i speak...

and their English with their accent is next to impossible to understand,so....

it's my poor wife who gets the job of calling up to get our Sky fixed

i don't have the patience :angry::angry::angry:


cheers shaun:)

[Minkness]

This whole thread is totally foreign to me, but this post cracked me up; not the customer, but that fact that you're on a snake blog posting about this while dealing with the person. I will definitely keep this in mind next time I deal with customer service.

I can't speak for everyone, but alot of us multitask. For instance, my job I am to speak on the phone and 'if I can' process backlogs, which I also do when not on the phone, while at the same time notating and taking care if the cx issue.

I kind of hate that expectation though so I generally just deal with one ir the other and multitask something else I like to do because it tends to keep me sane and calm. Nit to mention that alot of what we deal with is repetitive. So, while the issue at hand is important, dealing with it is something we can do in our sleep (and in fact my mom heard me scripting when I was sleeping once lol).

When I was a csr, they encouraged coloring books, board games, and puzzles, but not phones....now were I am now we aren't encouraged to do those things, but we are told to listen to music from our cell phones, though we aren't supposed to watch shows/movies. Lol.

I personally listen to music and chat with online friends. Though if a call is particularly difficult for some reason, wether it's tje situation I need to research or the customer is hard to hear/understand or very upset, I make sure they have my full attention.

So please don't tjink tjay just because a representative is multitasking that it's bad. (Not saying you do, just wanted to be clear)

Shaun....I can only imagine lol. I deal with the thick indian accept allll the time because that's who our help desk is, and alot of who are the client reps. Whenever I get one on the line, I know it's going to be a long call. XD

[millertime89]

I'm on webchats and some people are REALLY bad about responding in a timely manner so I keep this, FB, and a few other websites open. I've also got music playing.

[Minkness]

Our chat team handles up to 3 chats at one time. And things like fb and YouTube are blocked lol

[millertime89]

Our chat team handles up to 3 chats at one time. And things like fb and YouTube are blocked lol

We do 3 as well (was 6 when I started over a year ago, I could only ever manage 4 at once) but they don't have FB or youtube blocked because we can use them on break.

[Minkness]

We aren't supposed to use our comps for personal things lol. So even things like amazon is blocked lol.

[millertime89]

Well we're not supposed to except on breaks but... screw that.