The title says it all. I’ve always believed that they record the phone calls in case a caller is threatening or abusive, or something they say will be of value in case of a legal dispute.
Are calls really used for training, or is that utter b.s.?
Cartooniverse
I wouldn’t be surprised if they used abusive-type calls to train employees how to deal with them. Or as a CYA.
I am only speculating, tho. Our calls are monitored to make sure we don’t reveal classified information on non-secure lines. Whoever monitors my calls must be bored - no one calls me but my spousal unit and my offspring.
Well, when I worked for the telephone company, our calls were often listened to by managers–sometimes with our knowledge and sometimes without. These calls were used for evaluation and training. I also remember one training session we attended where we listened to recorded calls from another center and talked about what the operators had done right and wrong.
For any recorded or listened-to calls, the managers were much more concerned with the conduct of the operators than the conduct of the customers.
However, IIRC, none of our calls had that “your call may be recorded” message before them.
Training purposes can be several things.
New Employee Training. I worked in one office where they played a couple of those recorded calls to demonstrate right and wrong ways to handle situations.
Ongoing Training and Evaluation. The call might be played back to the employee who took the call as a training tool to show them how to improve their performance.
I think it’s a combo of both. I wish they would listen to the ones who want stop trying to sell me stuff, after I’ve said no thank you twice. :mad:
I work in a call center, and every single call is recorded ‘‘for quality purposes’’ – namely, to determine if I’m doing my job. At any given moment any random call will be pulled and scored. The score on that random call may determine whether I get canned or not. It keeps us on our toes, and shining examples of customer service can also be played for trainees so they clearly understand employer expectations.
Though sometimes calls are reviewed if something goes wrong or if there is a complaint, so that accusations can be verified.
But overwhelmingly the calls are recorded to evaluate employees.
Just stopping in to agree with olivesmarch4th. There is an announcement on all our phone lines that the calls “may” be recorded, but actually all of them are. Our supervisors check them to make sure we are doing our jobs correctly, and the tapes can also be used in case of a dispute. Both incoming and outgoing calls are monitored.
Just piling on to say they are definitely used to monitor/train the calltakers. When I worked in a call center there were multiple people whose full-time job was to monitor calls, compare them to the script (they also watched a recording of the computer screen for standard operating procedure), and give constructive feedback to the calltakers.
There was the occasional case where something got really controversial in terms of someone claiming a caller gave out wrong information where the call was reviewed for legal purposes. They may have occasionally reviewed for threats or fraud on the caller’s part, but I was never aware of a case of that. It seems like most of those callers got escalated to management, and once management documented the abuse or dishonesty that would usually be enough documentation to handle the situation.
There are some financial fields where recording the calls is required by law, or at least the practice of recording is heavily dictated by the legal environment. The uses of the recordings might be different there.
Sadly for eleanorigby, I can almost guarantee that if those calls are monitored, it’s to make sure that you get asked to buy at least twice.
Yep. My company records both audio and video for all call centre agents, and a random sampling of 4-6 calls per month is then evaluated by a team of quality specialists who give it an overall performance grade and also make notes on several aspects of the call such as empathy, accuracy, good use of references if needed, good use of hold time (which these days means not using hold at all) and so on and so forth.
They take this stuff seriously. Managers coach their employees once or twice a month by playing back the call and identifying what the rep did right/wrong.
Quarterly bonuses, eligibility for commissions/prizes and annual pay increases are all dependent on these recorded calls (as well as a handful of other metrics), and consistently bad grades can land you in a “performance improvement plan” and eventually in the unemployment line.
(while I can’t confirm this, I do believe that they keep the non-evaluated calls on record, just in case they’re needed to address a dispute or employee errr… misbehaviour)
As a former call center trainer, we definitely used recorded calls during new hire training.
I used recorded calls for various scenarios, but one thing I liked to do, first day of a 4 week training: play a fairly long, complicated-sounding call and tell the class that at the end of the 4 week training they will be able to answer that caller’s question. Class response was generally, “whoa, no way.” I would replay the same call towards the end of the 4 week training and the class would be all smiles, realizing they DID know how to answer that question.
And I will say that if they ask a third time–they don’t get “no thank you.” They get, “I said no.” :mad:
I see no reason why I have to remain subject to their sales pitch. This is one major reason I won’t buy from certain catalogs anymore. Linen Source, I’m looking at you.
Where I work, when we have a new class the instructor downstairs in the training room will frequently ‘tap in’ to a nurse doing calls as a live demo for the class. The class can also watch the nurse navigate the computerized charting system as she talks. It’s a great training tool.
I work at a call center curently. first it is 2 no and a go but that is after the first no to the script. secondly I do understand the word no however its my job to try to get you to accept what i’m calling about and part of that is geting atleast 3 no’s and if I think you may be the littlest bit intrested keep going until you say yes,hang up or say no and I have nothing left to ofer you. If you want the calls to stop listen closely add your name to the national do not call list. Stop having anything to do with whatever company is calling you. Or contact said company’s and tell them that you dont want to be contacted by phone for “products that may be of benifet to you”
Lastly listen to the person on the other line if you say put me on your do not call list most will read you a pre disposed script that says if you happen to recive another offer befor placement of your number is placed please disregard it and axcept our apolligy in advance. So if you are contacted again jist be nice and say i have had my name placed on the do not call list ant they will up date there files. Espacally since it may take up to 31 bisness days to place you name on the do not call list
Thank you and have a nice day
Thank you, teleman2007, that’s… informative. :dubious:
Paging Cervaise . . .
It’s true.
Where I worked, we had a disclaimer that calls “may be recorded.” In fact, all* were. This served several purposes:
New Hire Training – In our initial training (3 weeks worth), we listened to dozens and dozens of calls.
Ongoing Training – All calls were recorded, and IIRC, 10 (maybe 12, can’t remember exactly) were randomly selected to be examined by our QA team. We then received little paper printouts on what we did well, what we did poorly, etc. for these calls. We would sit down with our managers and discuss the results.
Customer consistency – Anytime a customer called in, an automatic note was created on the account with the ability to access the recording itself. If a customer claimed “well, so and so told me this,” we could place them on hold, go back, and listen to the call.
*If a customer explicity stated that they did not consent to the recording, we had the option to disable the recording feature. In that instance, our notes were expected to be quite thorough. If we made outgoing personal calls, we were to disable recording, as well.
We also had an “EMER” button on the phone for things like bomb threats. When we pushed it, it was supposed to conference corporate security in on mute. I have no idea what it really did, though, as I never used it.
I agree with the OP…I am REALLY getting sick of that on every @$#&*%# call to a business! :mad: The best is that the businesses without ANY quality are gonna REALLY here it from me! But, they’re probably not listening anyhow. So, boo-hoo on me. 
In the two call centers in which I have worked where calls were recorded, yes they were used for training. My supervisor often sends me calls that she has monitored with little notes like “great upselling on this order!” or “the customer mentioned x, but you sold them y, maybe you should call them back and make sure that’s what they wanted?”
While we do also use the calls to deal with stupid customers – I had one woman call just before Christmas that was a new customer. She had never ordered from us before, but she was belligerant as all hell with me. I no more than said “How may I assist you?” and she was screaming at me and telling me to “shut the fuck up” When she tried to order later, our CEO called her back, played the recorded call to her and told her we neither want nor need her business and she is not to call our company again. It’s one of the reasons I like this company – we have been known to fire abusive customers. I mean, FFS, it’s gift wrap – how can you get that bent out of shape over it?
I firmly believe that they tape them for entertainment value. Once a month all of the employees get together break out the beer and wine coolers and listen to how they made this or that caller totally lose it.
“Hey, listen to this one. You can hear how I made him spit with anger. I mean he becomes completely unable to speak English.”
“You think that’s good? I’ve got one here I made so frustrated that she was speaking in so high a register that her dog is howling, and the kicker is, I made her get hiccups. Isn’t that great?”
“I’ve got you both beat. I’ve got one that I spoke in an Indian accent so thick that the guy kept shouting he couldn’t understand a word I was saying and I am not sure but I think he had a heart attack. He stopped right in the middle of, ‘I can’t understand…’ he gulped and sqeaked and I am pretty sure I can hear a thud in the background.”
I hope you’re kidding. In all my time in call centers, I never came across anyone who enjoyed or got a kick out of irate or upset customers. In fact, I’d say there’s usually a direct correlation between the customer’s happiness level and the call center employee’s.