A Robotic Call Center Agent over a Human

Wonder what it would be like if your call center agent is really a robot and not a human being. Well, I just wished that if that day happens, I hope human beings has find another lucrative job than being a call center agent.  Otherwise, it would be a screaming “unemployment” thingy again.

Customer: Your company is just full of crap!!! B***sh*t

Human: That’s the last thing we want you to feel, ma’am. [ Poker faced and poker feeling (?)]

Customer: I know you would say because that’s just what all of you are saying. You understand me? No you don’t.

Human: We really do understand, ma’am. [Still poker faced with poker emotions]

Customer: You’re really full of sh*t. You and your company.

Robot CCA: Let’s just focus on your issue, ma’am. [Poker faced seeing no signs of stress sill]

Customer: I need your supervisor …

Imagine having this conversation with a human being:

Customer: Your company is just full of crap!!! B***sh*t

Human: Imitating the customer with no voice and then speaks .. “That’s the last thing we want you to feel, ma’am. [Meaning -- when will this call be over?!?! Jeez!!!]

Customer: I know you would say because that’s just what all of you are saying. You understand me? No you don’t.

Robot CCA: We really do understand, ma’am. [No choice because this is a script that was told by our QA to tell you otherwise we will fail]

Customer: You’re really full of sh*t. You and your company.

Human: Let’s just focus on your issue, ma’am. [Stop swearing because I'm already fed up with you swearing at me. I need a good customer after this call please?!?!?! -- looking very angry now]

Customer: I need your supervisor …

Human: [At last!!!] Kindly hold on the line, ma’am [Where's my saviour?] Tl?”

Ramping Up?!?

Nah … I’d say making up for the loss.

There has been a lot of employees that has been forced to resign due to non-performance. In our department, this is a common knowledge since we are the one working with Human Resources whenever there is a termed agent / employee in the company.

And because of this, the number of agents in our account decreased and the client thought of hiring new agents to fill up those positions that has been vacant.

My friend, who is already a senior agent in our company, asked me if we are ramping up. He noticed this because there’s another promo for refer-a-friend-win-a-prize in our company as well as the ongoing hiring / training of new employees.

And I said ~ We’re not ramping up. We’re just making up for the loss of many agents / employees we retrenched. 

Before You Resign: Think It Over !!!

As I was visiting the Operations supervisors, I came across one supervisor who is currently contemplating if he will be applying in a different company or what. He has his own list of “Things to Consider” and here are those:

- Travel, time and effort

[On my personal experience, I once worked in a call center which always takes me 2 hours to travel before my skin feels the super cold aircon in our office. And it is really tiring. I asked myself one day, can't I just get a job that is near my place so I won't have to be like this everyday. And I got what I want. Really, you can save a lot of time, travel hours and effort to wake up less than an hour before you go to work because your job place is just a walking distance from your company]

- Reset of Tenureship

[I have been working in our company for five years. And once you apply in a new company, you will be on a probationary mode again with no vacation/sick credits yet on your attendance sheet, have to battle either 6 or 3 months before you get to be regularized and received the right amount of your salary ... Why go to a company wherein you will be a new player again vs. on your current one which you are already one of the pioneer? Think it over like I said]

- Friends, Colleagues, Warmth

[For me, this is less of a consideration if I will be applying for a new job in a different company. 'Coz true friends will always be there no matter what. If ever you will be accepted in a new company, isn't it that you will have additional friends to invite on your Twitter, Facebook, Multiply, Friendster and amongst other related things?]

- Money

[ If the salary is doubled or tripled than what you are getting now, why not? But remember, bigger salary most of the times means harder job responsibilities.A company won't be paying you that too good to be true salary if they can't maxed our your performance. Ohhh ... been there done that]

- Better company [or at least the best company]

[Research first and foremost. Asked not just the people you knew but also try to ask somebody that is working there or have been there before before saying yes to a job offer. Look for a forum on the internet that tackles not only their good side but also their bad side. This is a practice for me. And after all the research, if you think it is a better company compared to your current one, then it is worth trying your new luck there regardless of the preceeding "considerations"]

So you still want to resign? :):)

AH1N1 Fever

Before I left the office, I’ve noticed that there is an employee who just signed in and signed out immediately afterwards. Tried to reach her supervisor but I’ve got no response. Since, it is already my restday and about to leave the office, I just thought that the supervisor would inform on our next shift what will happen.

But due to some unforeseen events, I stayed in the office for few hours more and it made me wonder why there are some teams who are wearing masks and there are alcohols everywhere and even one of the supervisors are spraying disinfectant liquid on the floor.

After asking my colleagues and my friend who is with me that time, we learned that one of the employees is suspected of having AH1N1. He said that he help a friend to go to the airport and the latter found out he has H1N1.

Scary yes. To think I got close to one of those who had contacts. But two days after, thank God, and that employee turned out to be negative with the virus.

After that, I became more extra careful. And so is our company. No one is going to enter/leave the office without putting alcogel/alcohol which is being served by our security guards.

Salary Talk 1

To all the people who are just new in the call center industry!

You need to be reminded that not all job promotions would mean salary increase. Take my experience for example [well, it's just not me but a lot of us actually in our company]

The word is “lateral transfer” — related to being parallel. Same length, same width but different location of lines.

That’s us!

We got a new job in the company. Same company, same employment, different post but no salary increase. To take it bluntly, it’ just like they’ve transferred you to a different post and you should say to the management “thank you”.

But I find it hard to say “thank you”. That’s money we are talking about!

Before The Restday

Before the rest day is the day that we are so alive. Why not?!? When I was still an agent, that is the last day for me to be taking irate calls, minding other’s problem which does not really concerns me, and most of all a good day of sleep afterwards.

In call center, no matter what your plans to spend your rest day, sleeping will still be your number one choice. I think we all love it because that is the time we are not getting irate ourselves, the time our ears will be rested for shouting customers and the day that our mind will stop thinking on how we can solve all of our customer’s issue.

It’s all about just being with yourself. Or with your friends not talking about your work, just sharing a good laugh or indulging in a good / hearty conversation over Starbucks frappucino with cheesecake on the side.

Here is what usually goes in my mind before my rest days [which is by the way is a 3- day rest days]. This is not in a chronological order:

- sleep

- watch a movie in a mall

- eat out with my friends

- blast up my portable dvd’s by watching some reruns

- watching my favorite shows [like AI, House, etc ...]

- update my blog

- join my friends online in our favorite forum site

- a date with my bf

- update my friendster and facebook account

- spending my time with my biological family including my nieces

- listening to some nice tunes over the radio

- downloading songs and movies

- SLEEP again !!!

Complaining — The Right Way

One thing I love about our company is that we have a website wherein you can complain anything and anyone in the company. It does not need any login names, your full name, your department, your team, your supervisor’s name — they just need what / who are you complaing to and they will be investigating it. Most of all, since we are in the philippines, the ones that are handling the investigation is someone outside the country. This is a good since you will know that there will be any “bias” thing that will ruin the investigation.

The employees preferred it this way than just escalating it to your supervisor or to your managers since most of the time, the person that you are escalating to is their friend or their relative, or worse, someone intimately close to them but in a secret way! LOL

Gone are the days where in you will seek the assistance of your Human Resources department to complain on something or someone and they will take the lead in investigation.

I hope that every company, not just in call centers, should have this so that there is another way for employees to share their rants or complains [the really true ones only] so that they will know which employees to keep and the ones that should be kicked out!

Inbound vs. Outbound

When you are in the call center, there are just two types of call, you’ll gonna have to take: inbound our outbound.

In my entire life in the call center industry, I always chose to be in the inbound part. Inbound calls is the part wherein you are going to receive a call from a customer and there is where the service will start. The customer will have a lot to say, many inquiries and you’ll have to listen for most of the part to have all the inquiries / questions responded to.  If you’re in the industry, this does not need any much effort to say a lot. You can even get away of not speaking for sometime. Most of all, when you are in the technical support field. ‘Coz most of the time, you will be troubleshooting and the customer will do what you mostly dictates to them or will just look at the screen while you are troubleshooting for them using a remote access application to resolve their technical issues.

Now, the other one is the outbound part. Almost, 80% of the outbound calls i knew would require persistance. Selling, telemarketing, surveying. For me, it requires a lot of effort for you to speak most of the time and the customer will need to listen. For them to convince to buy what you’re saying or took a lil of their time to answer a survey or to remember what you’ve done during a troubleshooting moment with a specialist an hour ago so that they can get a percentage of their customer satisfaction rate, is already a big fuzz / deal to the customer. It’s like taking away some of their quality time unless you’re really good at the convincing part and they won’t feel that.

For you who doesn’t have much of an experience yet in call center industry, which one do you prefer the better?

Harry Potter and Vampire

There was a time when almost of the agents are quiet after their call. Unusual for them not to talk, to gossip, to whine, to complain — actually I’ve been on this kind of scenario for sometime.

Yes — i’ve been hooked on the Vampire and Harry Potter e-books. We used to read books but since, aside from having English-only-policy [EOP] on the floor, the management also ruled the policy clean desk — urgh!!!

There’s always a way when you have that overwhelming will — so here comes the e-books. For wherever this e-book came from, cause it is not allowed for us to download anything from the website, it just appeared on our C: drive.

However, there’s just two only things that topbills the e-books that we have: books about Vampires and Harry Potter. I just told myself, instead of buying the hardbound books which costs a lot, I’d rather have this instead.  Just like the mindset of almost everyone.

The only thing is — we are already thinking — and even one of my co-agent that time that’s so hooked with this — is already thinking that vampires is just everywhere. Could be one of the agents working in our call center.

Why not — if he is as handsome as Edward Cullen? Hahahahaha !!!

The New Call Center n Town

Everybody will say i’m bored, i’m feeling drained, i’m tired of the same old stuff, i’m fed up with this office — the usual comments you hear once you had a get together of your own co-agents in the call center. Plus, of course, the usual salary talks, the workoads, the metrics that keeps on changing and increasing every month, the information overload … stressful really!!

But there’s one thing that can always change the topic — the new call center in town.

You won’t be late in the news when there’s a new one. The usual topic or question — how much?!? Next questions are — where? are they new? is somebody from our company is already there? What’s the feedback? Is it a technical support or customer service account?  Are they strict in the training? Are they related to this call center company? What are the accounts? And the questions can go on forever …

Just like the other day, somebody asked me ‘hey do you know the call center near —- ?’ And i said yes. Then the conversation starts from there.

But after a month or so, you will still see the same faces,  your friend’s still there, sticking to their very tiring, draining, stressing job.  After all the comparison with the new call center in town, if you think you will feel more safe and secure in your present job than play it risky with the new job, they would always find it easy to just stay in their present job. Why go to the higher paying call center, wherein you can just stay for a few months and get fired, than stay in your present work that has been your bread and butter for years?

But then, this doesn’t mean that when you get to sit down with them, you won’t be hearing the usual comments that I’m already drained, tired, fed up, etc. etc ….