I worked in a bank for 8 years and was privy to one recorded call; a colleague alluding to the benefits a customer would receive by taking on an extra policy. I dismissed it immediately as bad service and the boss who presented it, and the colleague on the call, weren’t with the company much longer. Nothing to do with me; they were forced out by some of the other managers.
The best advice I was given to dealing with irate callers was to let them let off steam, really let them completely blow themselves out because they’re only angry at the company - not at me. As long as they weren’t being personal or swearing, I’d give them their time to angrily explain how our company had frustrated them, until they’d run out of whatever it was they were mad about. Then I’d give them a couple of seconds to compose themselves and figure out what they’re going to reply when I try to defend our company’s shortcomings and say
“Thank you for that explanation, Mr/Mrs _____. How can I help?”
We’d start a dialogue, then, and I’d own that mother fucker until it was sorted out. Most of the time it was getting them speaking with another colleague who I knew would enable them to move forward in their transaction. I worked in personal finance and so the transaction could range from a savings query to a pension, to stock market investments, to critical illness cover, life insurance, a credit card or a mortgage.
If I couldn’t pass them over to a more suitable advisor I’d spend several weeks dealing with their issues, in between all of the other clients I was dealing with. The good parts were when their problems were sorted out and I’d get gifts or letters of appreciation sent to my workplace. The only complaint I had was when a guy called, ‘Acting on behalf of his client’, and tried to muscle me into divulging information that he wasn’t allowed to know. I read him the Data Protection Act but he continued to insist he was allowed to talk about someone else’s finances, so I said “Oh, fuck off” and terminated the call. He complained and I said I had no knowledge of the call, at which point my manager - who had taken his complaint very seriously and ushered me into the conference room to soberly explain her concerns - said “Good, that’s what I thought.” and no mention of it was made again.
I work in disability insurance and we’ve just recently started doing this. Even when we call somebody we tell them that the call is being recorded and then try to confirm some piece of information like SSN, DOB, etc. Which seems asinine to me.
And overall, calls are reviewed by managers multiple times throughout the month and staff are coached on how they handle calls, whether or not they’re gathering all the necessary information, documenting everything, etc. The clients we work with have access to those calls as well and on very rare occasions they will pull recordings of particular phone calls and ask questions about them.
I do however like to turn the tables; on incoming calls, the first human I get after that message (if it is given by a computer) I inform them “I need to inform you that I am recording this call as well and need to ask your permission before we go any further”. Rarely has a call gone any further.
I too work in a (virtual) call centre, and have to preface each and every outbound call with a statement “Call recorded for coaching yada yada”. The main reason is to ensure that we (operators) are not misrepresenting the (charity) we call on behalf of, not lying about the product we’re selling, and doing our darndest to ensure a sale is processed.
It also helps if a punter receives a product then claims that they didn’t order it in the first place…the call can be logged and listened to again to find out if the operator or the punter was fibbing.
I always thought it’s their way of telling you to mind your p’s and q’s. “Hey, we’re recording you so don’t freak out on our staff. Piss us off, we might put you on youtube.”
I work for a company that takes its ethics very seriously, and the reason for the recording of the calls is to make sure that people like me represent the company and the charities honestly, and that we don’t lie to the customers. That’s it. They don’t give a fucking shit whether the people we ring abuse us…that’s all part of our charter, so to speak.
So…would you care to elaborate Monty…because you’re full of shit mate.
Years ago, when I was working at Eastern Airlines reservations, all of our calls were recorded. Every couple of months we had a review with a supervisor, and listened to selected phone calls. We were complimented on the good calls, and given advise on how to correct the ones that needed improvement.
When it’s your job to be on the phone all day, how else would they determine how competent you are?
It’s usually not business ethics but State Law that determines who gets told what with regard to recording. Some states have two party consent where both agree (and the fact that you don’t hang up after the announcement you are being recorded is agreement) and some have one party consent. And even though this is a Zombie thread, I can say from experience that yes they do sometimes use these recordings for training. The most common reasons calls get recorded are (not in order per se):
The Law mandates it
To protect themselves from law suits and/or customers who lie or are mistaken
Training: in the sense that they will give particularly good calls or bad calls to new hires to get an idea of what to do or what not to do or allow new hires to monitor call or managers to monitor calls of employees.
Lemme see: Yes, they are used in training, judgement of the agent, and legal backup? Check. “Two noes and a go” to make sure I didn’t mishear you the first time? Check. All calls are recorded so my masters can steal the customer’s soul? Implied.
My work here seems to have been done by others years ago. However, if you press a bunch of keys on your phone to deafen the call center person, or to blow his mind, it doesn’t work–it’s much louder on your end and makes you sound like a dork who doesn’t know how to transfer a call. We are not impressed. Just ask to be put on our DNC list and hang up. I’ll still have to read that part of the script for the “tape,” but the rules do not require you to listen.
Yep. I set this up and manage the tech end for the company I work for. I am an infrastructure admin and that includes phones.
We are using a vendor to host our pbx. Interestingly, when I asked about storage limits I was basically told there weren’t any. Yay for infinite SAN.
Anyway, it isn’t hard to setup and the cost isn’t all that high. Our contracts specifically require all calls be recorded and since we have federal contracts, any attempt to disappear unflattering calls would not end well for us.
That’s the best bit of humor I’ve read in quite a while. It has been my experience that adding my number to the DNC list has ensured that I will be pestered day and night by assholes trying to sell me stuff over the phone.
I worked for a company that had both customer lines and direct private lines. In other words, the department employees logged in to the customer service line, but also had a direct phone line not used by clients. Management could tell when we were logged in to the client support line and when we weren’t (we had a schedule).
One of my managers decided not only to listen in on the phone lines we used for interactions with customers, but also our direct phone lines. She got a bit of a surprise when she listened in to a call made by a friend of mine to that line while he was on vacation. He proceeded to explain how he was drunk, naked, and outside at 10:30 am on a weekday, after which he propositioned me.
The call center I used to work for is a federal contractor. As sleestak noted, all calls are to be recorded and retained. And if my former employer is calling you, it is in your best interests to listen.
