All Day

Ok so my schedule has changed from 8:30 to 5:30 however due to the call volume I have mandatory overtime and must work from 7am to 6pm on Monday and 7:30 to 6pm on Tuesday through the rest of the week. Dark both to and from work blah......

Some People

The other day I took a call from woman who wanted to confirm on order for an additional phone line to be installed in her basement. I checked her account but did not see any order pending in the system. I advised the customer of this and then proceeded to start her order; asking questions so that it would be done correctly. Then all of a sudden she blurted out "You ding-a-lings should take care of what I want before trying to sell me stuff." Immediately I told her that her statement was offensive and I that I would take care of her issue. She then corrected her statement and stated that she did not mean me. I was able to fix the issue and get her line installed the next day. Turns out that she needed the line for her son who was on house arrest for a DUI, so that he would not have to go to jail. Surprising how crass and insensitive folks can be.; when they need something so vital; not thinking of anyone but themselves.

WTF?

OK I have to always check my emotions at the door when I get to work; because my job has evolved into 90% sales and 10% customer service. So you know what when a customer came on my line this week and told me that he because we billed him for two months and debited his account he had not eaten in two weeks I had no idea how to proceed because after apologizing several times he kept saying it over and over again. This world has gone haywire and it is too much to handle.

Ahh The Weekend.......

2 days of no work what heaven and bliss, until Sunday night approaches then dread and doom looms.

Try our new product please....

We have a great new product to offer our customers and it really is great. However our tech's that install it can ruin everything. Well maybe not all of our tech but a lot of them come to the customer's home unprepared. And most customers call angry upset and this whole service order turns to crap and sometimes it really impacts their service negatively. The worst part is when customers call back and cannot believe what happened to them. Today's story takes the cake; one of our tech's shows up a half hour late at a customers house, and asked the customer where our junction box was in the neighborhood. The customer had no clue so the tech went out to find in while out there his truck battery dies and he calls the customer to give him a jump. The customer comes out to jump the tech's battery and the tech then gets back to the customer's house and then tell the customer he has ran out of time to finish the job and he will need the customer to call back into the call center to reschedule. This is by far the worst story I have heard but this kind of thing happens everyday.......

Wow so like what is going to happen next.....

We learned last week that one of the Midwest call centers is closing at the end of 2008; and my manager was really, really devastated. Don't get me wrong it is very upsetting that this center is closing and people are going to be without work. But I always thought that when these type of messages are delivered they are done in a way were management would tell you but offer the bright side. But my manager was put off her square with this news. I think this is because the company wants to close 2 more centers. Because attendance is down in my center the rumors are that we will be one of those centers.

The only thing that keeps us afloat is our sales; as long as we stay in the top 10 out of 22 centers we should be ok. This part sucks because it makes people make bad decisions like adding products to customers account without their permission or management saying things that are not nice. Their way of creating urgency for sales; and then also talking negatively about reps who are out on a disability or regular sick leave. Even to the point of telling us to call those reps we know and tell them to come to work. In the meantime we have been working overtime non-stop since Easter 2008 an avg. of 4-6 hrs. a week. What is going to happen next is? Hurricanes, banks closing and also our us economy is very weak. The only thing I can do is trust in God and pray, and not take this stuff to seriously or else I will surely crack.....

What is one to do?

OK so my company is integrating a new call flow and I have recently gone through the training. So now I am on a call the other day and I get this irate customer on the phone who is upset because someone has ordered a product for her without her permission. Now based on the new Call Flow we now have to apologize every time a customer utters something they feel we have done wrong to them or anything that resembles a frustration even if it is not related to us or our service. They could say that life for them has not been the same since their parakeet died and I have to apologize. Anyway a rep in my own office was the offender and the customer was railing on and on and on. She wanted to know what was going to happen to the "kid who did this to her" I advise per the new call flow that I would get a manager for her; but mine was on a call already so I offered her a call back to which she replied nothing would happen anyway. Then I transferred her to a cancellation rep and emailed my manager to call this customer back. She did not want to escalate it to her manager but instead she email the manager of the rep in question. And at the end of the day I get cc'd on an email from this rep defending his actions. I so over it at this point because I have had altercations with him in the past with his unprofessionalism. And to make matters worse his wife works at our office also and all I can think is great now I got 2 angry folks to deal with cause of his stupidity. Now onto my manager I wish she would have escalated to her manager because this whole thing stinks and all I did was come to work and this crap lands in my lap.