Wait, that’s stupid. Why can’t I say “last week you fucked up my account and I’d like you to fix it?” I fucking HATE CSR’s who assume that every single problem began today and lack enough short-term memory to retain the series of fuckups that led us to this call that I’d rather not be having anyway.
True story: I call to report a problem with my DSL. The rep says they’ll send a dispatch by 3PM today. 3PM today comes and passes with no word from anyone. The next day I call back:
Me: “What happened to the dispatch I was promised by 3PM yesterday?”
Them: “According to this note in your case, it’ll be 3PM today!”
Me: Um. What’s the date on that note, if you don’t mind reading it to me?
Them: It’s 9AM yesterday.
Me: (silence, shaking my head)
Them: I’ll schedule you a dispatch by 3PM today.
Was this a one-off incident, where I reached a fucknut who read a case note with no awareness of the date? No. I had this exact conversation no less than 3 times with different reps.
So, Mr. Smart-ass tele-hack, I know you live in a world of Groundhog Day where it’s always the same day and every customer is the same. But if it isn’t too goddamned much inconvenience to you, I’d like the freedom to discuss in past tense the events that led to our unfortunate encounter today, in the hope of avoiding such encounters in the future.
Otto, what is so hard about constructing a system whereby each employee is given a unique identifier (excluding extension numbers for reasons already given) so that customers can refer back to them at a later time?
Nothing. There’s already such a system in place at my current job. Extensions are unique identifiers. Customers can refer back to “Otto at extension 1234” and anyone here can figure out exactly who they’re talking about. But that isn’t good enough for you. Why you think that some made up employee number that could refer to anything or nothing is superior to a dedicated extension number is a mystery.
That’s because you have failed to take note of my previous post, in which I remind you that not all call centres operate in the same way.
That post does not specifically refer to your call centre. It refers to call centres in general. Otto, or whoever, on extension 1234 gets me nowhere on any of the call centres I have used.
It occurs to me that you are wasted in your present employment. You would be more at home in Public Relations.
I have taken your previous post into account. It has led me to believe that you are a looney.
Of course all call centers don’t operate the same way. In my experience, those with direct extensions use them as identifiers. Those without use employee numbers as identifiers. I’m truly terribly sorry if your call center experience with extensions has been unsatisfying, but that doesn’t change the facts. In every call center in which I have worked, when advised on company policy regarding last names, to a one the response has been that for security purposes last names are not required. The safety of employees is more important than your refusal to be satisfied with an alternate identification method.
I think this comment satisfactorily confirms the last statement I made in post #44.
As for the rest of your post, it is clear to me that a) you have not read my comments with any great assiduity and b) you do not have much understanding of what is required to give a customer reasonable assistance in employee identification in the global call centre environment.
I think I am done with this thread. I understand that your job can be trying at times but the procedures involved in using call centres can be equally trying for the customer.
God, no wonder BT told you to fuck off. Not only are you a looney, you’re a dim looney.
Look, I don’t know how to explain this much more clearly. You’re griping about not being given last names because you have trouble identifying employees otherwise. But see, here’s the thing. If a call center has dedicated extensions, then the rep’s identifying himself as “Otto at extension 1234” is a unique identifier. There is no other Otto in all the world who works for that call center at extension 1234. If a call center doesn’t have dedicated extensions, then the rep’d identifying himself as “Otto, employee number L442” is a unique identifier. No other Ottos anywhere in the known universe will be at that call center with that employee ID number.
I get that in your disordered mind that linking a first name to a piece of unique information that is linked with no other person anywhere in the galaxy is somehow insufficient as a unique identifier. I really do get that. What you don’t seem to get is that First name+extension or First name+EID is actually a better identifier than First name+Last name because there can be two people whose first and last names are identical in the same call center, but there can’t be two people with the same first name and extension and there can’t be two people with the same first name and employee ID.
I don’t think it is too much to expect the caller to figure out that the business needs the name by which the caller is known to the company.
If there is some reason two names might be in play, just spit it out and don’t dather around with “MY name?” Move right on to “I don’t remember if my transcript is under my maiden name or my married name, let me give you both.” or “My name is Mary Smith, I’m calling on behalf of my mother, who is in a coma and for whom I have power of attorney, Jane Jones.”
If your cable service is in your name, Fred Brown, but you prefer to be addressed as “Grand Moff Tarkin,” tell them your name is Fred Brown and suck it up if addressed as Mr. Brown.
I couldn’t agree more. While I can’t speak for all people that answer a phone, if you actually listen to my questions I am telling you EXACTLY what info I need from you. For example, when I ask your age (I sell health insurance, it’s not just an idle question ) what I want to know is your age, not your medical history, not where you were born and not anything about your spouse and kids.
I think I posted this a while back, but one of the funniest examples I have about the name thing…
Me -What is your name please?
DumbAssCaller - You mean my name?
Me - Yes, your name.
DAC - Do you mean the business owners name?
Me - No. Your name please, the person with whom I am speaking.
DAC - The owners name is Mr FancyPants
Me - Ok, but what is your name?
DAC - You want my name?
Me - Yes.
DAC - Oh, I’m DumbAss Caller.
Based on Post #6 of this thread, it seems pretty obvious that Chez isn’t upset with your company’s system, or you in particular. He is griping about call centers that have a system in place which prevents him from obtaining the identification of the support rep whith whom he is speaking. He is not, it would appear, bitching about any practice that you engage in. I’m not sure why you think he is.
Okay, I think I have a handle on this, and my previous post should probably be ignored. The crux of the argument is that Otto’s company has a system in place that enables callers to identify a support rep, but Chez is a bit worried that a caller’s existing bias may lead him/her to distrust such a system.
And why did the caller do that? The previous call probably went a lot like this:
Agent: I’m sorry, I can’t find an account for DumbAss Caller. Could you spell that again?
DAC: D-u-m-b-A-s-s C-a-l-l-er. That’s 2 L’s.
Agent: Hold please [ 20 minutes later ]
Agent: I’m sorry, we still can’t find any record of an account by that name. Are you sure you have an account with us?
DAC: Well yes. I mean, no, not exactly. The account is in our company owner’s name, Mr. FancyPants. He pays for it but I’m the one who uses it.
Agent: I see. Yes, here’s his record right here. In the future, you could speed up this process by letting us know the account holder’s name at the beginning of the call.
DAC: Absolutely, whatever I can do to help.
And then the smart-ass agent goes off posting on an internet board about how the stupid caller made him hunt down an account that he knew belonged to someone else. *Why didn’t he just give him the name of the account holder and save everybody the headache? * Dumbass.
Because sometimes when you call a call center, they just want a name to call you by during the call and sometimes they need your full name to pull up a file or account information and sometimes they need to confirm that you have authority to be speaking with them. And there’s no reason why a caller should have to guess which of those situations they might be in.
And if I’d given all of that information to someone who just wanted to know whether he should call me Jacquilynne, Jacqui or Ms. Schlesier, he’d be here posting, ‘God, why can’t people just tell me if they want to be Katie or Kate or Katherine? If I wanted half their life story I’d have asked.’
Well, seeing as I already knew which business it was and the question was quite specific, What is YOUR name?, your example really doesn’t apply. In the highly regulated insurance industry we are required to obtain the name of the person we are speaking with. It doesn’t matter who the account belongs to, if the actual person calling is not authorized we are not allowed, by federal law, to tell them anything.
So I will repeat, I ask the questions I do when someone calls for a reason. There is no need to try and interpret what I mean. If you simply answer the question I ask and not the question your tiny little brain twists my question to mean things will go much more smoothly.
Sorry Otto, I seem to have hijacked your thread from stupid people that can’t understand a simple phone prompt into stupid people that can’t answer a direct question.
OK, let me spell this out for your tiny little call center brain, did it ever occur to you that this person may have previously had a completely different experience with a completely different agent where they answered the questions literally and ended up wasting a lot of time because they didn’t take a minute to check if everyone was on the same page? Perhaps at a gasp different call center in a gasp different industry?
No, of course you wouldn’t think that… you think inside a box, everyone else should think inside that box, and if they don’t, they’re just dumbasses, right?
Oooh, you used strong language! I’m soooooo intimidated. Fool.
Anyway, I didn’t say your job wasn’t worthy of me, I said it wasn’t worthy of a bonobo. Not that I think this is going to get through to you. You’ll be too busy finding some other gnat-bite to whine about as if it were an amputation. Take a few deep breaths and realize how childish your continual complaints over tiny things make you look.
This is great! I’m gonna’ forward this to the guys at the call center where I used to work. We supported everything from software and operating systems to bank accounts. I think I worked two cubes away from Otto – in spirit, if not in person.
) what I want to know is your age, not your medical history, not where you were born and not anything about your spouse and kids.