No, you apparently aren’t very good. Listening to what people say and not tuning out is basic. Just because you know more doesn’t mean you’re good at your job. If this thread is anything like how you talk to real people then you are heavily deficient in the social aspect of your job. The fact that you think someone who is telling you what you are doing wrong is posting just to piss you off–that’s ridiculous. You apparently take even the slightest criticism as a huge insult.
And, yeah, I do it too, but that’s the reason I don’t do social jobs. And, I know, you’re only doing it because that’s all you can do right now. That’s fine. But all this talk about how great and wonderful you are is ridiculous. It’s the type of talk that makes people want to prove you wrong.
Last night I had to deal with a nameless (blue) shuttle service arranged for Mrs. Cad. Long story short, because of their misinformation she did not get to check in until 8:05pm (about 45 minutes after the plane landed) and at that time was informed that her 8:05 shuttle was just leaving the stand and no there is nothing they could do. So I had to drive to the airport to pick her up while calling the shuttle company to find out WTF was going on. Here was the customer service solution.
CS: I can refund your money.
Me: So you are saying that you are not going to charge me for the service you DIDN’T provide?!
CS: Sir! It’s not going to help to get angry at me. It’s the best I can do.
Needless to say, this is not over.
Oh and why do I have to put in my info into the phone tree and then repeat it for everyone I talk to?
Well, actually, I have some of the best customer satisfaction surveys in the building, out of about 600 people. I’m certainly in the top 20% on that consistently, and often the top 10%.
It’s not because I’m particularly nice, though. I get pretty testy with elderly people who can’t hear me, have trouble with technology, etc..
Here’s a secret. I get good surveys in spite of my rude tone, exasperated sighs, and general attitude issues.
Guess why? Because my callers know that I give a good goddamn about fixing their issue.
And I’m generally quick, and knowledgeable, too. Most people like all 3 of those.
Rudeness isn’t that big of a problem in customer service. Being polite without caring is a sure way to piss off most people, though.
And there’s YOUR lesson, smarty. Since you don’t work in customer service, you, of course, are not very likely to know what actually WORKS in that particular job.
This annoyed the hell out of me too, for a long time. After working in tech support and customer service for a while, though, I realized that it’s because sometimes people call from a different phone, and their friend’s/relative’s/neighbor’s account is the one that pulls up, because that phone number they are calling from is listed for the other party’s account. This happens a lot in customer service, for some reason.
Also, a wife/husband/child/caretaker will often call in on someone’s account, and you need to know if you’re talking to the account holder or not, for some issues. This is actually the bigger issue.
I think it’s a self-rationalizing excuse for you to be an asshole. It’s something I’ve talked about in other threads but you consciously decide to to it: The basic human nature of “That guy is being a jerk/is angry/is making me uncomfortable, therefore anything I do to him is completely justified, even if it objectively exceeds his crime because I’m angry about it (and I refuse to admit I’m angry so I’ll make it be all about him)”
You really are that stupid. I held an adult responsible for her own actions and said she should learn a few lessons about personal responsibility. I never explicitly said she should go to jail. You put those words in my mouth, and you’re the one willing to give an adult a pass and blame it on someone else.
Now go back to that first thing I said above, stop rationalizing your own anger as being other people, and own it. Unless you’d rather go to step 2 there where you once again try to blame it on everyone else.
I once got a call from a woman and was 30 minutes into the call when it came about that I was talking to the wrong person. Their names were exactly the same, but there was a single letter difference in each the first and last names, and the serial number of their product was identical except one had an H and the other had an 8 in the same spot. Sounds very similar on the phone. They lived 2,000 miles apart. Somewhere along the lines their customer information had gotten a bit mashed up.
Now that was a freaky coincidence.
But yeah, having people call from their friend’s or parents or siblings phones and having that information come up is fairly common. Or sometimes a work number that used to belong to someone else, or a rolled-over phone number.
I agree. If you ever want that person’s business again, you might ought to offer a GOOD explanation, an apology, a refund, and even a coupon toward a future service.
They’re not coming back unless you can turn their frown upside down. Not only that, but customers like me rarely complain about poor treatment…we just badmouth the company to everyone we know, online and IRL.
I can get behind this. Seven years in a call center working on annuities. Lots of calls from agents, which were usually okay. Sure, some of them were pushy, but I think you have to be if you’re a successful insurance agent. Just part of the whole package. And most of the customers were okay, too; most of the calls were just service questions, anyway.
But then you’d get the people who wanted to argue about tax laws. Or about interest rates. Interest rates were the worst; explaining how daily compounded interest works is a headache. Once, I was even asked to send out a letter detailing the method by which we calculated interest. Not the name of the method, but a formula and an explanation as to why that was how it was calculated. Fortunately, for that one my supervisor was able to step in and say, no, we don’t send out letters that explain mathematical concepts.
Many of these people would assume that since I was working a call center job, I didn’t know what I was talking about. They would argue about things like mandatory withholding or qualifying events. There were few problems with those assumptions:
1.) My working a call center job reflected a lack of common sense re: my major in college and my romantic choices, and not a lack of overall intelligence.
2.) I dealt with these issues day in and day out. They were mostly schoolteachers. I wanted to say: all right, we’ll make a deal. I won’t argue with you about educational methods, and you won’t argue with me regarding tax laws on qualified retirement plans.
3.) Even if 1 and 2 weren’t the case, that doesn’t excuse being an asshole.
Call centers are thankless. Glad I’m in grad school.
QUOTE=Frylock;15495275]I am missing something. I don’t see how what the CS agent said in that dialogue in any way runs afoul of what you’ve just said.
[/QUOTE]
Apparently they want more than that.
From a guy paid $9-12 an hour (usually) to answer the phone with (usually) no power to do anything more than file the complaint and issue a refund.
And of course, it’s all his fault. He’s an incompetent asshole, he doesn’t know how to do his job, he should be fired, he should quit, he should get the CEO on the line, and he’s being a dick by abusing the half an ounce of power he has by not doing all of these things, going back in time to pick her up himself and then give them a pony as compensation for their trouble.
That’s the usual summary of what phone support people did wrong and should do, according to some people on this board.
Frylock
Look at it from my perspective. Everytime now me. the wife of the kid fly into DIA, I gotta ask myself do I take the chance that whoever will be left stranded at the airport. And if someone is stranded, the best they can do is not charge me for not picking me up?
And as an update the Nameless Blue Shuttle has charged my card and told me that the Advocacy Department will review it and I PROBABLY will get a refund in 3-5 days. When I told that customer services rep that there was no “probably”, “maybe” or “likely” when I dealt with their CSR the first time. Her reply was that she wasn’t telling me that I wasn’t geting the refund.
Me: But that’s not the same as guarantying the refund. The guy told me I was getting the refund as I was driving to the airport to pick up my stranded wife that you refused to pick up.
CSR: I’m looking at your record and there doesn’t look like there is anything here that would refuse your refund.
Me: All I know is that I was told that I was told I would get a refund. If it is not your policy to guaranty a refund, then your issue is with the original rep in Ft. Collins and not with me.
CSR: The Advocacy Department will contact you in 3 to 5 days.
Chimera
I never claimed anything about the CSR but the fact is that his company left someone stranded at an airport. As a REPRESENTATIVE specializing in CUSTOMER SERVICE how is it that he takes on an attitude of “That sucks i.e. I don’t give a fuck she’s still sitting at the airport frustrated and I will do the very minimum and immediately tell you that nothing else can be done i.e. I don’t fucking care if you ever use our service again. Have a nice fucking drive to the airport asshole.”