Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |  Call Centers Suck
This is why, even at IBM where I worked, true technical people don't last in a call center environment. It's all about the numbers, not about the quality. |
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MyDogHsFleas
Premium
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T Southwest
| This story is outstanding.
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need_clue
@charter.com
| reply to Matt
Re: Call Centers Suck
I agree. But this story does not break and real news of what it's like to work in a call center. It's been that way for years. I really can't stand when people who work in call centers b1tch and moan so much. Don't like it? Go something else. Problem is, many of these people aren't cut out to do much more. |
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TPAC_123
@telepacific.net
| reply to Matt
I agree I worked for ATT DSL support they too had stupid restrictions that really screwed up the good tech's they had their.. but damn Verizon is doing tooo much with this Outstanding crap. Oh well, that's why I have to agree that Call Centers SUCK!!! |
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jhacker
join:2001-12-11
Peoria, IL
 ·Comcast
 ·Vonage
·Comcast Digital Vo..
| reply to Matt
For about nine months, I worked at a call center that did tech support for wireless internet in hotels. We were given free rein pretty much to do whatever it took to get the customer's connection working. If the customer had to call back due to our lack of diligence, it did count against us. However, most of us did such a good job that it was seldom an issue. There were few metrics to meet which was good, since we were expected to stay on the line even if a customer had to reboot their computer. About the only time we were required to terminate the call was for failure of the customer's equipment; e.g., a NIC failure. I thoroughly enjoyed my 9 months there even though the pay was low. Unfortunately due to a bad buyout, the company has filed for bankruptcy and is looking to outsource.  |
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FormerAgent
@optonline.net
 from:
TKJunkMail 
| Call center "quality"
That is correct. If you call someplace and are annoyed with the agent repeating your name over and over again, its not because they're trying to annoy you, its because they're forced to. At any time there could be someone listening live or recording the call to review later.
The agent on the phone has to follow a script like the following:
1. Greeting (Thank you for calling...)
2. Offer assistance (How can I help you...)
3. Re-state the issue (I understand that your problem is...)
4. Assurance of help (I can certainly assist you with that.)
5. Recap (So to recap we you called for...)
6. Offer further asssitance (Is there anything else...)
7. Upsell additional products (Before you go...)
8. Closing (Thank you for calling...)
While at the same time using the caller's name at least twice on the call. Its to make the caller feel all warm and fuzzy.
You can thank a company called BPA for this. They're one of the largest firms that are pushing call centers to adopt their "quality" standards. It doesn't matter what the agent actually does with the call (ie actually fix the problem) as long as they say the magic words they get a good quality score. Satisfying the customer, resolving the issue, being efficient doesn't matter if the magic words aren't said.
Don't like that? Don't take it out on the agent. They're doing the best they can in the environment they work in. Ask to speak to a supervisor and tell them that you don't like their fake call "quality" standards. Even better write a letter to the company. |
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Luker3
@vt.edu | rediculous
It is more important to have people with communication skills working, but what they are doing is ridiculous. They need the cross between knowledge and communication, not communication and advertising. |
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chrisbmoore
join:2003-08-28
Frederick, MD
| reply to MyDogHsFleas
Re: This story is outstanding.
I used to work for Wells Fargo home mortgage and its the same story in all call centers. If you don't bring in the true numbers and you don't do what their rulebook says in terms of not forgetting to say certain things such as our old saying "this call may be recorded for quality assurance", you immediately fail the call. Regardless of how you helped the customer that was it. I ultimately was fired for having calls which were too short. They told me that I was hanging up on the customers and not solving issues appropriately, but if they really listened to the calls, which they don't, they'd have found I did indeed solve the customers issue in a smaller amount of time. The same thing happened to six others in that call center in that same week. We all considered filing suit, but for what? We didn't want our jobs back after being treated that way and the money would be little consolation in light of having a termination on your record. In the end we all pledged to simply share our stories with everyone so that the company would lose business and it worked. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
·LINGO
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·surpasshosting
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to MyDogHsFleas
Ah.... don't you mean...
Karl Bode , this story is outstanding. Thanks so much for bringing stories like this to us Karl Bode . So now that we've reviewed the call center procedures, and thanked you for your reporting, is there anything else we can do for you Karl Bode ?
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Smith6612
Premium
join:2008-02-01
united state
 ·Dish Network
·Verizon Online DSL
·FrontierNet Intern..
| That's stupid...
What company would care about those small phrases if you have great techs who can keep customers happy and fix problems? Company policies I feel should be revised to not need those small things to replace great tech support. Overall, I haven't had many problems with Verizon tech support, even managed to get some sites off of a Verizon blacklist one time. |
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chrisbmoore
join:2003-08-28
Frederick, MD | ridiculous
Now the real problem for this tech is probably him losing his job for revealing "internal company policies". |
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NOCMan
Verizon Fios User
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Flower Mound, TX
| VZW CEO Moves to VZ Nothing Changes with CS.
It's sad to see that Mr Strigl who championed customer service and reliability at Verizon Wireless has become a quiet caretaker for Verizon Corporate. Instead of demanding better of the massive company it seems that the status quo is all he's ever going to accomplish there.
I guess it's his time to earn a golden parachute before VZ takes over VZW and destroys what's good at that company.
Plus you have to love all the self denial of a company that rejected the iPhone. The voyager was their pathetic answer to a phone that is clearly going to be eating their numbers for some time to come.
--
Mac Chatter
»www.macchatter.net |
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OceanaJones
join:2004-10-18
Suffolk, VA
| Big companies go Bankrupt
This is why large businesses go broke. They don't have a clue what the customer wants or needs. They are aloof to the things that leave a lasting negative impression of the company on the customer, like long hold times. support people you can't understand. Support people that are NOT subject matter experts and cannot fix your problem. Instead they grade their people on piddly ass crap that don't mean beans to anybody but a supervisor or CEO nothing. |
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Post Verizon
@bellsouth.com
| Tales from the Inside
I was a manager at one of the Verizon call centers, well it was an outsource company called PRC. It was all about the numbers, 15min AHT, 85% QA, 80% FCR, all of these were almost impossible since the Verizon client would keep demanding more about outstanding verbiage, blah blah blah.
I personally had to fire 6 employees in a month because they missed their QA goal 5 times in a 90 day period when we were constantly getting changes to the quality process, in some cases daily.
Its a crap client, crap service, and really crappy to their customers...and I was on the business DSL. |
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TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ
·Sprint Broadband D..
| reply to need_clue
Re: Call Centers Suck
Perhaps they complain because they know that these are bullshit metrics to create bullshit reasons for very real employment terminations.
Nobody likes being forced to be a drone.
So share with us: are your "insights" based upon personal experience working in a call center, supervising in a call center, managing a call center or centers, or did you just read something about call centers on teh intertubes and thus, can opine at length? |
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same thing
@verizon.net
| cable will compete, eventually..
once docsis 3.0 starts ramping up some real speed.. there won't be much difference.. verizon won't be able to have smug complacency as they do now in cherry picked fios footprint. all the customer service nonsense they're pulling now will come back to haunt them as they lose FIOS customers to cable all over again just as they do with POTS customers now. |
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TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ | reply to Post Verizon
Re: Tales from the Inside
Were there feather merchants from some management consultancy that tracked this sort of stuff in the call center a lot? If so, they would have a vested interest in making sure that their metrics were enforced with an iron fist. |
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Done_Posting
Shoot to kill
Premium
join:2003-08-22
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| What do you expect?
These outsourced call centers most likely follow mandates given to them by executives with a background in *sales* rather than actual technical minded folks.
Put salesmen at the helm and this is what you get.
- Tate
--
Happiness is an OC-768 in your basement... |
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lcjawhit
join:2006-09-16
Keller, TX
| I worked in the "Business" support center in Southern California before they outsourced it. I did that for 2 years. Then I moved to the NOC. I needed to do that at the time to get to where I am now. Tier I is a stepping stone to Tier II. If you have the tools and talent. Everyone has to start somewhere... |
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charterlol
@telus.net | Yep nothing new here
Work for charter HSI support and in attitude in our call centre is sales before technical support... I'm sure everyone can see how that turns out. Charter in last place in all forms of customer service. BUT WE SURE CAN SELL YOU THINGS lol... |
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