Comments on: Q&A On How Call Centers Work

By: Martyn

Martyn — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:02:27 +0000

The benefits of not working in America then i suppose. You can work in a job where you aren’t expected to be treated as human trash.

By: draceena

draceena — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:25:44 +0000

“Yell and scream at the call agent.”…I feel this is not a good thing to suggest, even as a joke. I work in a Call Center and although we definately cannot hang up on a customer that is irate, it usually means you get placed on hold more often and for longer periods of time as the agent is looking for their supervisor, who then will look for a higher up supervisor, ect, ect.

Alot of centers will give you a tracking or incident number and it is extremely vital you get this information so that a callback has a reference point and you don’t have to go through a thousand hoops again.

Get the agents name, and employee number or id if possible as you may be able to be forwarded to this same person, who already is knowledgeable about your issue or if they gave you incorrect information you can give this to a supervisor and the agent can then be trained properly.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:48:30 +0000

@Martyn: There’s not a chance you’d stay hired then (not here anyway), plain and simple.

By: Martyn

Martyn — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:34:57 +0000

Rich, the example Dell clip u posted is EXACTLY what i’m talking about. There’s not a chance i would have helped that guy, not a chance on this earth. Why should anyone be forced to put up with someone talking to you like this. Let me give an example. If this ‘customer’ had been in a retail store, shouting and swearing and being irate at the member of staff behind the till, most probably security would be called and he would be escorted out. So why is it acceptable for this behaviour, language etc to be used and tolerated over the phone? Talk about double standards!

By: Seth Grimes

Seth Grimes — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:52:16 +0000

Sorry, I’ll be more precise. The agent was incorrect. It was the procedure that was wrong. The procedure marched the agent through asking for information he didn’t need to have in order to resolve the issue. The agent was incorrect in insisting (if he did; I’m not going to listen to the call again) that the information was needed: “I’m just trying to find out what computer you have.” In the end, it didn’t matter what computer the person had or who it belonged to or what the caller’s phone number was.

If the procedure had allowed the agent to skip right to “hold down the power button for 10 seconds,” it would have saved the agent abuse and Dell money by allowing the agent to move on to another call.

Sure, the guy was abusive. The agent deserves a medal for taking that. Doesn’t change my view on the waste-of-time questions however.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:46:26 +0000

@Seth Grimes: No the caller was wrong. The agent was trying to identify the computer and who it belonged to (which wasn’t his) and the customer was being unruly about it. I’ll defend the agent on this one – the agent was correct in procedure.

By: Adam G.

Adam G. — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:45:26 +0000

If you are calling for device/data support on a mobile device the rep in data support will generally try to resolve the issue for you without a ticket. At least, that’s what we do at the company where I work. Tickets for us are sort of a last resort, since in reality any issues that can’t be resolved under normal circumstances will likely end up the the device needing to be replaced.

Yelling at the rep will get you nowhere, asking for a manager will most definitely slow the entire process down and no one really in really impressed that you are asking for a manager anyway. The first team I worked on, before I joined data support, had a supervisor who wasn’t even familiar with our primary billling system because she had been brought in from an acquired company and hadn’t been trained on the system yet. What good did it do anyone to speak with her?

A rep won’t necessarily get fired just for hanging up on a customer. The call had to be recorded and observed, and not all calls are, and then there is generally a termination/discipline process that involves the rep, his/her supervisor and human resources. If labor is unionized the chance of termination is greatly diminished, especially in circumstances where the rep was suffering serious verbal abuse. There may be coaching or discipline, but termination is not always automatic. At my company the official policy is to attempt to calm the irate customer, and if all else fails put the person on hold and transfer the call to a supervisor. The supervisor can hang up if necessary, but they rarely do.

Finally, you may or may not be able to obtain copies of tickets. You most certainly may not have copies of the notes in the company’s systems. At least, not without a subpoena. Notes are considered proprietary.

By: Seth Grimes

Seth Grimes — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:36:03 +0000

Ah, but that Dell caller was right: The tech *could* have told him the answer — to hold the power button down for 10 seconds — without marching him through through Express Service Code, name, phone number, e-mail address, and so on. EVERY Dell home computer is that same in that if you hold the power button down for X seconds, the machine shuts off.

I get the same thing occasionally. I’ll call in with an informational question. I’ll *calmly* explain that my question has nothing to do with my personal account, and I can usually get the agent to skip all the questions about my account.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:03:24 +0000

Yes you will be terminated if you hang up.

This guy didn’t hang up, he stuck it out and kept his job:

http://www.abum.com/54814/Dell-caller-flips-out-on-the-tech-support-guy.html

By: Martyn

Martyn — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:59:23 +0000

Yes there are many different types of call centre support. Regarding hanging up, so if the ‘customer’ is shouting abuse at you on the phone, calling you names, swearing at you, if you hang up the phone you will get fired? Seems a little harsh to me. After all we are human beings not human trash acting as a stress reliever to some angry idiot blaming his midlife crisis on you.