As some of you know, I used to work for a radio station – best full-time job I’ve ever had in my entire life, bar none. But I had to give that up last fall to finish my master’s degree – the station needed somebody who could focus laser-like on its needs, and I needed Thursdays off to be on-campus. The solution was to go back to the place where I hid out for seven years and put my life back together after my journalism career self-destructed. That place is an outsource call center in my hometown. They have incredibly flexible scheduling, treat their employees very well, the pay is decent, management is excellent and the work sucks rotten eggs.
What do I do? Well, you know when you’re standing in the check-out line at Macy’s and the store clerk swipes your card four times, then punches in the numbers twice and then informs you that your card doesn’t work, so you whip out your cell phone and make a half-panicked, half-pissed off call to the 800 number on the back of the card? Yeah, I’m the guy who answers the call.
No, I won’t tell you the name of my employer or who our client is. Any other questions?
Does your cube have any decorations? Mine did when I worked in a cube farm. My girlfriend (who I met at the cube farm) also got to benefit from my decorations.
Not mine. When I’m not there, you’d never know anyone worked in that cubicle. Even my personal coffee cup (which has my employer’s logo emblazoned on it) is in my desk drawer. Years ago I used to decorate my office with personal artwork, coffee mug collections, etc. As you know, in a cube farm (zoo, village, etc.) one is moved fairly frequently as needs of the account change, so it got to be a huge pain in the ass to pack everything up and move it. Now, I grab my coffee cup, walk to the newly-assigned cube, log in and get to work. And the day I find other employment, I’ll leave with my trusty coffee cup and nothing else.
There are some who “nest” in their cubicles, and these tend to fall into two groups. The first is the middle-aged, working class women who need photos of their families and other talismans (talismen?) of their lives surrounding them at all times. Maybe it’s how they handle the stress.
The second type are what I call the “cubicle professionals,” the ones who have decided to make this their life’s work. They are very good at what they do and they are the ones I turn to when I get into trouble. They have a future with our company (few will actually ever get promoted, but all will continue to get proficiency and longevity pay raises) and on their shoulders rests the productivity and profitability of the company. I respect, love and admire them, but I never want to be one of them.
We’re trained to ask for “a phone number where you can be reached.” Often, I have to “research” a caller’s question and call him/her back; give me a cell phone every time, because I hate leaving messages about your personal financial stuff, and you can’t reach me by phone. If a call-center worker asks for your home phone, just give 'em your cell phone number – they really don’t care, as long as it’s a good bet you’ll answer when that number is called.
Your cube walls: high (can’t see over them when standing), medium (can’t see over them when sitting), or short (hi everybody!)?
I was thrilled when we were told we were completely redoing our call center. All new desks! New chairs! New everything! But man, I was royally pissed when those new cubes went in with their crappy medium-height walls. Still, it was better then the short stub walls some departments had.
No speakerphone. B’sides, everybody else is on their own calls. No, I just keep reminding myself, “Hey, you’re the loser who can’t keep a simple checkbook. And I’m the guy who’s going to be sipping cabernet sauvignon at a fine restaurant tonight while you swill beer and hate the world.” It gets me through the day.
Our center used to have high-ish walls – five feet down the centers, four feet between cubicles. They had overhead storage, desklights, pretty elaborate. Sometimes I felt isolated, like it was just me and the caller, and that can be pretty demoralizing; mostly, though, it was cozy and private and I liked that. Two years ago, while I was working elsewhere, they sheared everything off so the centerlines are just four feet and everything else is “Hi, everybody!” They also eliminated all walls from the team managers’ “offices” so they just have over-sized cubicles. I actually like it better, and all the old hands say they do, too. I can’t say why it’s better, except that I feel like I’m part of something, and I never get that isolated feeling.
But no, no plants. They’re not allowed in the center because they require water, and people aren’t careful about watering their plants, and either the plants die and look like crap or people spill the water, which is really not good for the computers and telecommunications equipment, and it ruins the furniture, etc. Fake plants are okay, but they get dusty and nobody likes them. Coffee pots and hotplates are prohibited, too, including those really cool coffee mug warmers. Electric christmas lights, plug-in fans, radios, lamps, all verboten for safety reasons.
If I call and abuse you, will you put me on a list so that I get placed on hold for 20 minutes the next time I call, or do something else to get back at me?
re: pant/plants. Thanks for the laugh. Second funniest thing I’ve heard today. The first was a ticket in my own work docket.
Couple of questions.
People calling because their card was declined. How does that break down as far as, “Sorry sir, you haven’t made a payment in three months.”, “Sorry ma’am, you’re over your limit.”, “That card has been reported stolen/ fraudulent charges.” And how many are something that you can release for use, assuming you can release any at all.
Second, you’ve mentioned that you’ve had this job before. Any humorous and/or horror stories you can share?
OOh, a very timely thread. In the Netherlands, three outof five times when I call a call center, I hear a recorded message saying: “this call may be taped for training purposes”.
I hear it too often for that being possibly true, so what is the real purpose of that message? “Be polite or we’ll have your antics on tape?”
Yes and no. It’s more for the representative. They get the call played back to them and video of their desktop and what they were doing during the call played in unison.
Oooh - I can answer that one! I used to work in the training department for a large insurance company (I’m a technical writer), and they used recorded calls frequently in the call center classes. It’s probably one of the best ways to learn - you get to hear the call, and the trainer can point out what went well, what the customer support representative did well, where the employees should be able to tell that a customer’s getting agitated, how to handle difficult callers, what could be improved, all sorts of things.
My company recorded probably every call, but I’m not certain how they picked which ones were used in the training classes. In addition, managers listened to a sampling of calls weekly or monthly, pulled randomly from the tapes, to see how their employees were doing and to analyze trends. (Maybe that’s where our training calls came from. No idea.)
Recorded calls are really very useful for call center training and improvement.
