#Call center

[probablyasocialecologist]

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Invasion: UFO | 1974

[opendirectories]

[saydesole]

Corporate or Call Center Office Outfits

[mattsmemes]

[lowkeloki]

"Ma'am I am going to need you to stop barking at me."

[unnameablethings]

ok so i work a bullshit call center job for a financial institution that started out fairly lowkey but has been descending farther and farther into the sort of madness that anyone who runs a call center inevitably seems to develop when they get so excited about the numbers they start thinking HMMMM how many things can I turn into numbers to measure? and forget what it's actually like to take a phone call.

Each incremental change/each individual metric isn't a big deal, but collectively it's like. Here. Let me show you:

When I take a phone call, I'm thinking about:

-Making sure I hit every point on the Call Model script so I get good QA scores if the call gets pulled

-Keeping an eye on the total call time so I can keep my Calls Per Hour stat high

-Also keeping my eye on the clock to make sure I'm not running up on any scheduled meeting times (because deviating from my schedule affects my Efficiency Score)

-Checking to see if there are any Additional Action Tags on the account (like "hey have you considered switching from mailed statements to E-Delivery") that I'm required to bring up regardless of if they're relevant to the convo.

-Following the Stock Trade or Money Withdrawal process to make sure things process correctly and within the (constantly changing) policy and that my end-of-call note includes a checklist of all the compliance steps I hit so I'm not showing up on the Non-Compliant list my manager is emailed daily.

-Keeping my tone warm, personable and friendly so I get good Customer Survey scores.

-Making sure to do as much wrap-up work as possible on the call itself so my After Call Wrap Time stays low.

-As well as actually solving the problem the client is calling in about, keeping an eye out for potential fraud, dealing with clients undergoing mental health crises, de-escalating angry and aggressive clients, communicating and enforcing unfair and restrictive policies, doing tech support (SO MUCH TECH SUPPORT), getting sales leads to our sales team, keeping up to date on relevant industry news, consulting with other teams, etc etc etc.

And if somehow I manage to dial in and focus and juggle all these balls successfully and simultaneously and execute an excellent call? Then I hang up, leave my note, go back into Ready, and the phone rings again. Over and over. All day long. The accumulated mental load just grinds you into paste.

[jenthebug]

Interview update:

I think it went well! I liked them, they seemed to like me, and I answered the questions well! I should hear back by next week.

I got some good information, too. They randomly drug test. So if I work there, I stop using weed. 😭 It’ll be worth it, but fucking barely. I really like weed. I’ll hit my therapist up about that. “Hi, can you make me stop craving weed? It’s been 3 months, haven’t touched the stuff, but DAMN I WANNA BE STONED ALWAYS”

Also found out that I should hear back from the Big City by tomorrow. Possibly this afternoon. w00t! This is great news, because…

I got a conditional offer from the call center that I don’t wanna take! I’ll be talking with a recruiter about that at 1430, and let them know I’ll have an answer by next Friday.

Anyway if anyone needs me I’ll be obsessively refreshing my email.

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

The Capture of Bigfoot | 1979

[schibborasso]

Joana Vasconcelos: Call Center, 2014 Analogue telephones, metallized and thermo-lacquered mild steel, sound system, oscillators driven by microcontrollers.

[thewitchoftherock]

Before I worked in retail at a lovely beauty shop, I worked at a call center.

Tech Support. For Comcast. It’s as bad as you think it was. Lemmie tell ya a story.

The year was 2011. I’m at the call centre, working away, doing my best and getting chewed out because I often helped people beyond what was required (driver issues and shit, instead of just following our LOQ. If you have someone who refuses to leave their script, they probably got written up for doing so just FYI. )

Anyway,

Buddy calls in, and right off the bat he comes in swinging. Rawr rawr rawr, my internet isn’t working, fix this now, you guys suck. like, dude, I don’t disagree with you, but I have literally no control over the company I’m a fuckin’ cog. Whatever. I go into his account to check his system/devices/account, and I see the modem is fully offline. That’s actually good, because it means it’ll be super easy to fix: either the damn thing is busted (needs a tech) or it’s out of power. So, I ask buddy to unplug the device from the outlet, wait a second, and plug it back in again. I didn’t ask this because I thought resetting it would fix it, I asked him to do this because peeps get pissy if you ask them if their stuff is plugged in.

Foreshadowing.

Anyway, he grumbles and complains, and does the thing. Nothing. OK. There’s one more thing I can check. I ask him if the modem is plugged into the wall, or a power bar.

“It’s plugged into a power bar.”

“Ah.” I say, “Ok. Can I get you to plug it directly into the wall?”

“Why the Fuck do I have to do that?”

Now, the answer we give is “well, that’s because sometimes the modem and the power bar don’t work well together, and it’s just easier to check it if it’s plugged into the wall.”

This is bullshit. The truth is that we don’t know where you got this power bar. We don’t know how old it is. We don’t know if you got this shit rigged up like the dad in “A Christmas Story” with three dozen things plugged into a set power bars all plugged in and twisted like some chthonic electro beast. I mean, sure, that SOUNDS hot, but it’s not useful when trying to do troubleshooting and figure out if your power bar sucks and is broken.

This guy *loses his shit* at me. Rawr rawr rawr, every time I call you got me running around doing all this shit, blah blah blah, No, I can’t unplug it, there’s no other outlets in the room.

Now I pause, the gears in my brain quickly clicking together. “There’s… no outlets in that room?”

“No, there’s not! Not any!”

Ok, well, ASIDE from that being absolutely not to electrical codes for modern houses, it also raises a new question.

“Sir… what’s your powerbar plugged into?”

“It’s plugged into a powerbar!”

“…. The same powerbar?”

There’s a moment of stunned silence, followed by a *Click*. I pause my line for a minute so I don’t get any more incoming calls while I take my notes, but really I’m watching this account. I refresh a few times, and after a minute or so, the modem is MAGICALLY ONLINE

This dude. This chaotic dumbass had his modem plugged into a powerbar, which was plugged into ITSELF. Like, I know there’s that meme flying around that shows that, and it’s supposed to be a joke on how stupid people can be, an exaggeration of sorts… But I swear, this is NOT an exaggeration. This shit actually happened.

So, the moral of the story: If you’re on the line with Tech Support, and they ask you to just “Check the wires” or “Make sure the device is plugged in firmly.” Just do the thing. We’ve dealt with a lot of dumbasses in our time.

Before it’s asked: No, this was not an elder gentleman. It was a Prime-Of-His-Life dude.

[banafanax]

Just got put on hold to "In the Hall of the Mountain King." Between fits of incredulous laughter I wondered what message the company was trying to send. My guess is they thought "A rotating playlist of recognizable classical music sends a classy and professional tone," but all I heard was "You're about to be sent on a wild phone call goose chase you stupid asshat, so you better buckle up your five-point harness and brace for the most frustration you've ever felt in your life."

[justhellacesome]

its so funny working in customer service especially technical repair because with how long troubleshooting can take it gives me opportunity to gossip with my customers like example,

1. (Wife calls because after husband clicks virus link in the computer, they got it cleaned up and back home, however they cant connect it to the internet anymore no matter how many times we try) during the call she plans to strangle her husband, we commiserated of the long day and how we both need a good wine to drink, we talked about God and his plan for people, (how she wasnt joking about strangling her husband) , how I should find a husband for myself to strangle, and how i say that as long as her husband is into that why not. Our call lasted over an hour and I did overtime because of it.

(“Maam please dont strangle your husband” “Wait I just remembered what he did, never mind, go on” - Actual words I said, You ever wonder what my trainer thought or coworkers thought when i said that?)

2. Japanese man at 86 years old needs to change password and often times old customers need to write down their password so they wont forget, this man claims he has never forgotten a thing in his life, I am Rightfully jealous and asks his secrets, He never tells me.

(Ill find out one day, just you see)

3. Woman calls of how she has her new tv because her old one was acting up and she needed assistance with connecting with the internet, technician was on the scene to set it up and connect it himself without any help, I have 45 minutes time to kill so I ask what her accent was, I thought she was spanish, she was actually greek and as one does I ask her to teach me a word in her language, Bad Word ofcourse no question about that, She says to tell men “Malaka!” and theyll know. I receive a survey after and it makes my day because she says I was calm and patient and polite and guided her step by step.. All we did was learn how to swear.

(Im teaching that word to everyone i know at work, and making it a challenge to ask one bad word from everyone I can)

4. Had a customer who has the gruffest man voice and his name is Chip. I tell him his name is cute. He laughs and says nobody ever told him that. I ask if he looks intimidating, He Laughs and laughs and says goodbye.

(Its so silly how he was just asking when the internet will come back and it actually just did while we were on call, I hope he remembers that his name is really cute)

5. ( I take down notes throughout the call to help me remember details important like what the issue was, how it was resolved and contact details and so on and see if they were good calls or bad ones) An old woman calls and she needs help with her bill, during the call she tells me of how she lives in a large victorian house with 14 rooms, she keeps all her papers and receipts, she married twice and how she lost her first husband to cancer and she loved him from highschool till the end, she remarries with a man who has lost his wife to cancer just the same and they found love and a second chance with each other with their sweet honeymoon and vacations, she lost him too and has his Beautiful Grand Piano in her living room to reminisce him by even when she doesnt know how to play, she only has a sweet sassy cat and her silly sweet dog to keep her company. (Notes are mostly serious things, but often times, when one has adhd and there is no structure, silly notes are noted down.) I took note of before we said goodbye I asked her what her baby pets names are, The Dog is called Dory like finding dory, and the cat who she wanted to name lucky but never answered to it, was then named Kitty Meow Meow.

(I didnt take note of all the details but remembered it at the top of my head, but reviewing my notes and seeing a random dory and kitty meow meow withing notes of numbers and issues still made me laugh, I hope she finds love still for the third time)

6. I had a woman give me a positive survey because she laughed so hard on the call when I tried to Tempt her to the dark side (Company name) and to think about it in a silly voice.

(My coworkers always find me ridiculous with how often I end up laughing with my customers on call)

7. A man calls because he just started gaming and planning on streaming and the wifi plan was too slow for what he wanted, during the call i find an artist who did mosaics with glass and he started because of a chance he had when he was given discarded glass in highschool, found he did burning art and other mediums too, his family are artist, his uncle makes awesome taxidermy from their hunts, and he uses skulls to make mosaics too, he said he dont post online but he plans on starting soon, so i hope he really does.

(now i know how people feel when they said as an artist we should share what we make cuz i actually wanna see Art! His Art! ltd be so cool.)

8. One lady tells me she walks her husband every afternoon and we had to end the call early because we didnt want her to miss their daily walks.

9. My first ever customer (when i still had to ask my trainer to give me five minutes to get myself together and my hand still felt so clumsy and frozen and nervous) was that of a man who is calling for his moms services because i found out that his mom was incapacitated and when i told him that i hope his mom gets better, he says that it was already too far gone…

(I hope she slept peacefully and hope he does too)

10. A customer my age calls, (a welcome surprise! its often old customers) a black woman, who tell me she just moved in with her boyfriend, but just last valentines (a week before her call) on her way there, she gets tboned in an intersection during a yellow light and crashes her car, I tell her to go to the hospital fr.

(She says she fine,we hoped she just didnt jinx herself cuz id be so mad, I wished i could talk with her more but thats really not allowed and would be weird, “Hey this is (phone name) from ( company) Did you go to the hospital like you promised?)

(Coworker was listening and chokes when i tell customer in our goodbye to always watch out if the boyfriend does anything bad)

(Can never know what comes out of my calls, often its just laughing)

11. Customer who gave me a positive survey and made my day, was a civil engineer who was so pleasant to talk to and so patient, he tells me to continue how Im going with my calls and for sure no customer will get mad or irate.

(He made my day, I hope he has great projects to come)

Moving on, people are so darn interesting and it helps that I only have to work with their voice and im always left curious of how they actually looked like. This job just tickles my adhd brain just right with the spontaneous people and interactions and never the same thing everyday while the autism finds how nice it is to have structure in the schedule, how it feed my nightowliness due to timezone, and rules and expectations are clear.

Call center customer service is tiring but gods am i getting paid to do what I already do and considered as unhealthy habits before.

(Also guys just to note that every interaction with customer service, they have a survey sent to your message to rate it 0 to 10, tale that opportunity to rate them, especially if the issue is resolved but i want you guys to be aware of the metrics, 0-6 is HORRIBle score and we are either shouted at, nagged or questioned why this happened. 7-8 is passive and Would bring our scores down which just sad. 9-10 is BETS YES! We clebrate each one because its our pay on the line and our job. So please in this capitalistic empire please remember that surveys does not affect the company but it does the agents job. So if the issue is resolved or you just feel petty against the company and atleast want someone to actually get paid what the capitalist company owes them for customer service. Use the survey and put 10. Just a few minutes is all it take. Dont do 0 -6 cuz that just makes the company happy. Less agent to pay and hire if need be. If you want tot alk shit of the company, rate the agent 10 and put it in the verbatim how you hate the company but not the agent and the agent doesnt need to be brought down to being abused by both the company and the customer)

( Im glad I havent gotten a zero yet but gurl i fear it everyday, coworkers cried because they only ever get surveys when its bad and never when its good, A Simple thankyou would do so much in this cuthroat world, cuz theres no one else who’ll help you but each other.)

[theknightlywolfe]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/01/biggest-call-centre-operator-uses-ai-remove-indian-accent/

Look, I am all for people being verbally abused less, but I don't want to burn the planet to appease possible racists.

Also, my problem with "customer service centers" isn't the accent of the person answering the phone, it's giving the same information seven times and getting no closer to an actual answer/solution. It's being "let me just transfer you"ed six times despite choosing the exact, supposedly correct, options on the telephone tree. It's spending half an hour on a telephone tree just to be hung up on, which by the way makes me mad sounding to the first human who finally answers regardless of their accent or location of work. It's getting a tech support associate who tells me I am wrong and there is no problem while I am literally video taping my screen showing them changing things manually from the back end in real time while they lie to me and call me an idiot.

Maybe if companies spent money to fix their phone systems and train their staff to actually handle common problems callers wouldn't be mad from the word go. And changing the person's accent also isn't going to fix the fact that far too often they don't speak the language they are supposed to provide support in(so often, so, so often I encounter this - I'm looking at you especially DISH) so maybe spend the money on teaching them or hiring native speakers of the language of the region.

Maybe if the Indian men didn't say crude, sexist shit to me I wouldn't respond rudely (this happened three separate times).

[pier-carlo-universe]

Federconsumatori Piemonte. IL MERCOLEDÌ DEL CONSUMATORE: COME DIFENDERSI DAL TELESELLING INOPPORTUNO. Asti e Alessandria

Il primo appuntamento del “Mercoledì del Consumatore” sarà dedicato al tema Teleselling: come difendersi ed evitare le telefonate commerciali indesiderate.

Il primo appuntamento del “Mercoledì del Consumatore” sarà dedicato al tema Teleselling: come difendersi ed evitare le telefonate commerciali indesiderate. L’evento, organizzato da Federconsumatori Piemonte, si terrà mercoledì 19 febbraio 2025 in due diversi momenti, ad Asti e Alessandria, e offrirà ai cittadini strumenti pratici per proteggersi da questo fenomeno sempre più diffuso. Esperti…