SC calls looking for some hospital.
Me: Good afternoon, would you just like the main number?
SC: I called a few minutes ago and the girl didn't understand me and the name she said was nothing close to what I'd asked for and she still gave me the number.
Me: OK sir, if you can just read the number back to me I'll be happy to send a credit request.
SC: No, I don't need a credit, I'm 75, so I could call you guys at 411, 20 times a day, and I never pay anything.
Me: Oh, I see.
SC: It's just that I don't like it how the girl didn't pay any attention to what I was saying.
Me: Well sir, by "the girl" do you perhaps mean our automated system? The voice you hear before you can get to an operator is actually just a machine, and quite frankly it's really not as good as a human being.
SC: Yeah, whatever, it's a machine... That's just an excuse you're making up, and only the weak make up excuses.
Me: It is not an excuse sir, it's just the truth, plain and simple.
SC: Blah, blah, blah (actually saying it, in that "yeah, whatever, I'm not paying attention or believing a word you say" tone)... Gimme my number.
Me (doing my best to not sound half as angry as I was) Please hold.
I've ranted before about how it gets to me when people complain and then just don't appear to give a flying f*ck about my response to their complaint. Right up there with those who interrupt me in the middle of an explanation with some stream of abuse and immediately hang up.
Bonus (which, after looking at how long it's getting, I should maybe start a new thread for):
I get a help request call from another agent (which I will in the future refer to as JM), only to find that he's already disconnected the second I came online. So I have a caller on hold who my CW was talking to, and his search results are on my screen, but I have no idea if that's any close to what the caller was looking for so I have to ask them all the questions all over again. Which would, I assume, make me look very unprofessional.
On top of that, my CW's time for that call stopped ticking when he disconnected - normal procedure is that when you call for help because you can't find a number or don't know the answer to a caller's question, you stay on the line with the helper CW and listen to how they solve the situation.
He doesn't do that, so that his average call time is much less than it should be for someone with his experience, so his supervisor probably thinks he's just damn good. He isn't good at searching, he almost directly lies to customers on many occasions, and he's also not the most polite person ever.
Also, since he doesn't stay on the line, he doesn't learn the answers to the trickier questions, or better search techniques, or the few tricky numbers that only come up with one specific combination of keywords, or any of the other useful stuff you learn from watching a more experienced agent working.
The icing on the cake? He very often does that whole put-caller-on-hold-call-help-disconnect thing. Maybe he doesn't know that his agent ID shows up on my screen. Maybe he does but doesn't care. I don't mind the guy on a personal level, but professionally he doesn't have his place here. I've reported him to the supervisor on the floor the two times he's pulled the trick on me (and what helps is that the supervisor was the same on both occasions, and I know one coworker (which I'll call from now on N) has reported him two times or more as well. I'm not sure how many of the 100 new agents the company is looking for will join my department, but I'm willing to bet my next paycheck that one of them will take JM's place. He won't be missed.
Me: Good afternoon, would you just like the main number?
SC: I called a few minutes ago and the girl didn't understand me and the name she said was nothing close to what I'd asked for and she still gave me the number.
Me: OK sir, if you can just read the number back to me I'll be happy to send a credit request.
SC: No, I don't need a credit, I'm 75, so I could call you guys at 411, 20 times a day, and I never pay anything.
Me: Oh, I see.
SC: It's just that I don't like it how the girl didn't pay any attention to what I was saying.
Me: Well sir, by "the girl" do you perhaps mean our automated system? The voice you hear before you can get to an operator is actually just a machine, and quite frankly it's really not as good as a human being.
SC: Yeah, whatever, it's a machine... That's just an excuse you're making up, and only the weak make up excuses.
Me: It is not an excuse sir, it's just the truth, plain and simple.
SC: Blah, blah, blah (actually saying it, in that "yeah, whatever, I'm not paying attention or believing a word you say" tone)... Gimme my number.
Me (doing my best to not sound half as angry as I was) Please hold.
I've ranted before about how it gets to me when people complain and then just don't appear to give a flying f*ck about my response to their complaint. Right up there with those who interrupt me in the middle of an explanation with some stream of abuse and immediately hang up.
Bonus (which, after looking at how long it's getting, I should maybe start a new thread for):
I get a help request call from another agent (which I will in the future refer to as JM), only to find that he's already disconnected the second I came online. So I have a caller on hold who my CW was talking to, and his search results are on my screen, but I have no idea if that's any close to what the caller was looking for so I have to ask them all the questions all over again. Which would, I assume, make me look very unprofessional.
On top of that, my CW's time for that call stopped ticking when he disconnected - normal procedure is that when you call for help because you can't find a number or don't know the answer to a caller's question, you stay on the line with the helper CW and listen to how they solve the situation.
He doesn't do that, so that his average call time is much less than it should be for someone with his experience, so his supervisor probably thinks he's just damn good. He isn't good at searching, he almost directly lies to customers on many occasions, and he's also not the most polite person ever.
Also, since he doesn't stay on the line, he doesn't learn the answers to the trickier questions, or better search techniques, or the few tricky numbers that only come up with one specific combination of keywords, or any of the other useful stuff you learn from watching a more experienced agent working.
The icing on the cake? He very often does that whole put-caller-on-hold-call-help-disconnect thing. Maybe he doesn't know that his agent ID shows up on my screen. Maybe he does but doesn't care. I don't mind the guy on a personal level, but professionally he doesn't have his place here. I've reported him to the supervisor on the floor the two times he's pulled the trick on me (and what helps is that the supervisor was the same on both occasions, and I know one coworker (which I'll call from now on N) has reported him two times or more as well. I'm not sure how many of the 100 new agents the company is looking for will join my department, but I'm willing to bet my next paycheck that one of them will take JM's place. He won't be missed.
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