And considering I was a customer service rep, I totally know the bullshit. Don’t tell me you can’t refund the extra $5 I paid on Wednesday for second day service when the order won’t get here until Monday. I know you can. When I ask to speak to your supervisor, at least pretend to check to see if she’s available before telling me she isn’t. When I ask when she’ll be available, don’t tell me I can call back “later, maybe tomorrow”. When I ask to speak to whoever is in charge at the moment, don’t tell me there isn’t anyone. When I ask for clarification that there is no one in charge at the moment who can help me, don’t tell me that you all are, in fact, grown-ups and can take care of yourselves.
Seriously, I was frustrated that I wasn’t going to get what I ordered on time. I was polite, because I know what a shit job customer service is. I also know that you keep customers (and keep them happy) by making $5 concessions when they are frustrated.
I can’t speak for other call center employees, but I know when my supervisor is available and when he isn’t. But then, I’m a second tier helpdesk person and our SOP is that our supervisors do not take calls. You don’t get beyond me, so asking for my supervisor is not going to get you anywhere.
Yeah, I would have refunded the extra $5 if you weren’t getting it by Friday, but then again, I probably would have warned you on Wednesday that it was pointless because it wasn’t going to go out until Thursday and “second day” from Thursday meant Monday.
I’ve been dealing with helpdesk organizations for over 30 years. Even with those that have such SOPs, quite often accounting doesn’t, and the same is often true with sales.
You may want to put out the vibe that you’re the last word. The only time I skip trying to escalate when the current tier isn’t getting it done is when the time to do so is more than the cost of the issue at hand, and even then I consider the bigger picture of the relationship between my company and the vendor.
That being said, half the people are dumber than average. But it’s a very bad idea when customer service people start treating customers as if that were the case.
If you don’t help me I* do* get beyond you. If not by you putting me through, then by contacting someone senior in your company directly. Then you’re unemployed.
This is not how the world actually works, but if it makes you feel better to think that it does, you go right ahead.
It is amazing to me how many people apparently think that they personally hold the power to get any person working in customer service fired immediately by simply phoning “someone senior in the company.” Because CEOs and other such people have nothing better to do than to field calls from angry customers and fire employees instantly based on those calls.
SOP doesn’t mean ironclad. If you don’t have the experience or intelligence to apply discretion to the SOP, you’re more likely to get some feedback from whomever I escalated to.
I don’t think I’ve ever caused someone to be fired, but I know I’ve generated disciplinary action. The key is writing down everything said, names, and dates and knowing what you’re talking about.
When the situation isn’t “standard”, part of your job is changing the operating procedure.
Look, pal, you’re one among the multitudes. The guy above the guy that didn’t do whatever bullshit thing you wanted and had a petulant hissy fit over doesn’t give a shit about it any more than the guy below him. I mean yeah, he’ll probably tell you what you want to hear, and if you make enough of an ass of yourself, you can have pretty much whatever you like. But you’re not getting anyone fired. Sorry.
As frustrated as I am with the dude I was talking to last night, I am not interested in getting him fired or even officially disciplined. I didn’t get really frustrated with him until he would not put me through to his supervisor, or tell me when his supervisor would be available, etc. I even said to him when I first asked to speak to someone else, that I wasn’t upset at him and I understood it was probably not in his power to give me the refund.
I’ve been ordering from this company for close to 10 years and I’ve never asked for a refund of anything before. I’ve even overlooked a couple of errors because I know it’s human to make mistakes. My whole problem was with this guys attitude toward me. He actually said to me, Look we are actually all adults here and don’t need supervisors looking over our shoulder all the time.
Because they will want to keep their customers, and if they’ve fucked up, and their rep doesn’t either fix it or get me to someone who does, they’ve added to the fuck-up.
It’s hardly precious to want what I pay for, and expect someone to do their job.
The “get you fired” bit was hyperbole, but I’ve read enough of Chimera’s posts here before to know that he’s more than a little over-fond of blaming the customer for his inability to give them the service they’re paying for.
Are you guys telling me that you’ve never talked with a customer service rep who you KNEW was being a dick to you just because he could? Cause that sounds like what Rhiannon is talking about.
Ha. Hahahaaaa! Oh, that’s rich.
I’ve worked in a call center for years. (hey, spare me your pity. I actually like my job).
This is the funniest shit people say to us on a daily. Want to go on speaker phone/mute and make the day of a bunch of hardworking salesmen? Say that shit right there. Gold.
I won’t bore you with the layers of details, but trust me on this. My supervisor does NOT take calls. The kind of sales desk I work is unique in a lot of ways. It is DRUMMED into our heads when we start that we need to forget every cliche we ever heard about customer service and do exactly what we are trained/paid to do. We are given a lot of rope as far as making adjustments, discounts, decisions. But we are given NO rope on the subject of escalations. One doesn’t get a supervisor at my desk. Period.
People think that big businesses are all the same. They aren’t. Some of them are unique in the way they need to do things in order to stay productive. You have no clue which businesses have a more ‘customer is always right’ kind of policy, so it is better not to humiliate yourself with grandstanding.
Nothing better than kicking back with the supervisors and program managers, having coffee and donuts and laughing at the customer who figured out how to get to a manager and complained about the sales agent who wouldn’t put them through. Good times.
I have a good story on this point. I moved to a new place, got a new phone line put in, and suddenly started getting messages on my machine from people looking for some sort of insurance forms. None would ever name the company they were looking for, so I don’t know if my new number was 1 off from the place they were looking for, or just an old number that got re-issued to me.
I finally got sick of it, and put a new outgoing message on my machine, to the effect of: If you are looking for insurance forms, I don’t work for the company. I don’t even know what company you’re looking for. This is my private home phone line. I can’t help you get the forms.
One day I got a message on my machine. Some rude crazy woman telling me she was upset at my rude answering machine message, and she was going to call the company’s main office and get me fired for not providing her with the forms.
Look, lady. Did you miss the part in the message that said I don’t have the fucking forms, don’t work for the fucking company, and don’t even know what fucking company it is? How exactly are you going to get me fired? Oh, and you’re still not getting any forms from me.
In my 19 years of dealing with customers, it has been my observation that the reason the customer service representatives think you’re stupid is because you are, in fact, stupid. The rare exception to that requires action. The remainder requires only the concealment of contempt.
It may come as a surprise to you, but the agent probably couldn’t. There may be a policy that forbids it. The computer system itself may not even allow it.
Plus many “second day service” options ordered on a Wednesday would not come until Monday, depending upon time of day ordered and whether that day of service is counted from when the order was placed or when the item would hit the fulfillment house. This is explained in fine print that most people never bother to read. In cases like that, even if they have the ability and are authorized to give that money to you, they wouldn’t do it as a general rule if it’s just that you read it wrong. Some agents are empowered to make exceptions if they think it would be worth it, but many are not.
Agents sometimes are at work during some hours with no direct supervisor scheduled. Or the supervisor may have a vacation day or be out sick. In cases like that there either may in fact be nobody in the building or available on a phone line who would count in any way as being a supervisor, or the only supervisory type in the building would not know anything about the policies or tools for the customer service department.
Or the policy may be that nobody gets to a supervisor. Often the agent would love to be able to get you to a supervisor to get you to someone who could do what you are asking or to get you off the phone but are not allowed to.
There would be nothing to check in these circumstances: no supervisor is available and the agent would already know without having to ask.
:rolleyes:
That almost never happens. It’s also rare, but I’ve actually seen customers get separated from the company when they try to contact someone more senior in the company more often than customer service reps getting fired.
