I kinda like being acknowledged when I come through the door, although at certain convenience/gas stations, they don’t even look up and it’s a Pavlovian response-greeting they give you.
Before I left the hospital I once worked for, we too had scripted dialogue and the challenge was to not make it sound that way: knock-knock “Hello respiratory, may I come in.” (notice no question mark).
I like it over all, when it sounds natural and I do understand the reason for it, although it does sound a bit awkward to say “I hope my service to you today has been satisfactory, sir/ma’am”, before leaving their room.
The things the corporate suits make the peons say become so ridiculous that said peons rebel and don’t say it at all. I know when I get phone calls at my helpdesk monkey job I’m supposed to say some bullshit about “Thank you for calling the technology resource center my name is Legion and we are many” or something like that. I forget exactly what it is, I answer like they just woke me up out of bed. It’s offputting to customers and too long to say without it sounding like “I’m being forced to say this”
My days as a part-time retail/food service drone were back in the day when the script consisted of little more than “Hello” and “Have a nice day”. Even so, a friend bought me a keychain fob as a present, which said “Have A Nice Day. Elsewhere.”
It’s all about control. Employees are the voice of the company and so people at the top think that by giving them scripted verbiage that they can control the message. This is true, but the message that ends up being sent is “I am a hapless peon who has no power to help you” and “I work for a company that is willing to completely dehumanize its employees”.
I get why they do it – I’ve heard employees say some really stupid things offscript (though meaning well). The real solution, which is to pay more for customer service employees who have good judgement and people skills, then train them appropriately, is too expensive to be competitive in many areas.
I changed the mall entrance I normally used at a local mall when every employee at the Bon-Ton started making eye contact, smiling, and saying “Hello.” to everyone who walks through the store.
I don’t want to want to say “Hello.” to every person in the store who is folding shirts or straightening displays and it felt weird to just walk by and ignore them. The creepy eye contact and forced smile made me wonder if the new boss was a Scientologist.
I worked in a call center for a long time and got cursed at constantly by people who didn’t understand that the surveys were strictly scripted, and would say things like “I just ANSWERED that question, moron!” and “Why do YOU want to know my age?!” I finally got fed up and began telling complainers that my boss would be on my ass (not in those terms of course) if I didn’t ask each and every word of each and every question. Some whined, some hung up, but most cleaned up their act.
I work in a call center, taking insurance claims. We have scripts for a lot of the questions we ask, but I rarely adhere to them. My QA scores took a (small) permanent dive because of it, but I’m here to help customers make a shitty situation slightly better, not to make upper management happy. I’d rather get the customer off the phone 5 minutes faster than they expected and have them be happy with me and the overall claim reporting experience, as opposed to feeling like they just got beaten in the teeth by an assembly line of stupid stock phrases.
If I get fired over it, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. I doubt that I will though, because I haven’t been yet. My call speeds are the lowest in our department of 100 reps or so, and callers fucking LOVE me, and that’s a big factor.
Anytime my boss sits with me to listen in on a call, I go through the script perfectly. But when nobody’s around, I get the information I need, I make the customer smile, and I don’t sound like a robot doing it. If I had to stick to the script 100% of the time, I’d have attrited out by now (like so many others in my hire class). The surprised comments I tend to get at the end of calls (that was quick/you’re so professional/wow that usually takes way longer, thanks/I wish you worked for me) are the ONLY thing that make this job not suck. It’s a worthy trade-off.
I used to work as a quality manager in an in-bound call centre (including being one of the evil people who secretly listen in), and I see the pros and cons of the script, for sure.
I think it’s important for the employee to really understand WHY that certain specific thing needs to be said, and also to have at least a tiny degree of flexibility to use their judgement in those rare, rare instances where it is really, really inappropriate to say those specific words, but for the most part, a well-developed script is a really good thing. I definitely think that calls should be answered and ended exactly the same way by everyone, every time, but that it can’t be something overly long or silly, and that specific phrasing can be vital when dealing with sensitive, legal, or awkward issues.
In my experience, the way-high-ups WILL listen if told a script just isn’t working (my department got several changed) but not to drop them entirely, just change to something more natural/relevant/logical.
Also, I’m sure nobody answering in this thread is one of them, but there are definitely employees who will have that eye-rolling tone any time they have to say something scripted, and obviously that comes off as unnatural and stupid sounding. A lot of my staff’s quality scores were improved by listening to recordings of the “right” way and the “wrong” way to say the same words. Some people genuinely could not see how it could be said without sounding forced, and once they heard it, felt less self-conscious and were able to pull it off no prob - some of them even became some of the strongest advocates of certain scripts that were somewhat controversial in my department.
And yes, I know there are some things that will always sound dumb no matter how skilled the employee, but like I said, if enough people push for a change in it (with suggestions for a viable alternative, especially) it can often be done.
Scripting is used 'cause it works. I did my first Six Sigma assignment in this and was shocked by the increase in sales. It works. It’s annoying as heck but works.
Over the past holidays, I worked at checkout in a computer store. I developed a script for myself and never varied. I got 100% (which they said was impossible) on all my supervisor observations, 100% on my shoppers and because the script I developed for myself ended with “Please take a moment of your time go online and tell me how I and the store did for you.”
I won two $50 gift cards for having the most comment cards sent in about me. I literally BLEW the others out of the water, more than ten to one. I got virtually all glowing comments about me.
That’s the reason they use it. It works. And those scripts that don’t work are discarded and re-assessed quickly.
And YES IT’S ANNOYING AS HECK But that’s why it’s used
I recall being annoyed recently when I had to call tech support for a simple matter that would have taken about one minute if not for all the long-winded scripts the phone drone was forced to recite. In response to my request (to look something up), she didn’t say simply “Sure!” but rather something like “Ms. Scarlett, I will be extremely pleased to assist you with your issue today.” :rolleyes: Lather, rinse, repeat each time she spoke. Who talks like that?
Back in 1983 or thereabouts, I got my first Real Job, not babysitting or working for family. I was the take-out girl at Big Boy. Wore an ugly green gingham uniform and had to force my barely-long-enough hair into a (fake) bun. And this is how IO was required to answer the phone (yes, I still remember it verbatim after nearly 30 years):
“Thank you for calling Marc’s Home of the Big Boy, Northland Avenue. This is Scarlett speaking. How may I help you?” <gasp, gasp, gasp>
I wish you did too. I know I’m biased because I was the one providing that coaching, but I do feel strongly that well-supported, well-trained employees are so much happier and more productive that proper, on-going training is more than worth what it costs to provide. (not that you personally aren’t productive, just in general)
But that’s why it’s used