Do customers really understand what it's like working in a call center?

Question

It seems some people are oblivious to what a call center rep.has to endure throughout the course of one day. Is it really constructive for people to endlessly repeat themselves like they are fixated on the crisis, or to whine like spoiled rotten little children who don't get their way? This does not help them get their problems resolved. Who would expect to get help when they are throwing a fit? Do most customers really understand what it's like working in a call center?

Answer 1

I worked at a help desk for 5 years.

I would say that 75% of the callers are rude. I find it hilarious when people have such an opinion on what a call center job is like when they never worked at a call center!

My beef was never with the callers, it was more with the management. They had unrealistic goals for us- we needed to keep our talk times low, and we had to be logged into our phones 95% of the time (which sounds reasonable, unless you have to call back a user to help them reinstall Windows.)

No. The public by and large never realizes the stress and what it means to work in a call center. Its more than just taking calls, you have to also live up to the expectations and scrutiny of management. And working while you have a sore throat? That's the worst.

Answer 2

No, most customers do not realize or understand that they are calling an imbound call center when placing orders, contacting doctors after hours, responding to infomercials, placing maintenance calls when something fails in their residential buildings etc... They think that they are speaking directly to the company that they are calling and when the rep trys explaining that they are just a rep for the company, the customer either doesn't care, gets further enraged or more confused than they were before they originally called. They do not understand that you are reading from a computerized screen and that you only have a certain amount of key information from the company.

Working for a call center can be an intense job, because you are constantly dealing with people in conflict or that want something right away. It's not about you and it's all about them. They often do not consider how they are coming across to the person on the other end of the telephone. It's not always easy, but as a call center rep, you have to learn to let things roll off of your back and not take things personally. I know it's not easy when someone has been vulgar and yelling at you for the last 15-20 minutes over something stupid. It is difficult to access the problem when someone is screaming, but you have to try to calm them down. This type of job isn't for everyone.

Good luck to you!

Answer 3

I am sorry, I have to be the devil's advocate. But do the call center employees realize that all of them R getting a bad rap because of some VERY RUDE REPS. It goes both ways, if U R already going to have a negative attitude even before U answer the phone, , then I'm afraid the conversation is not going to go well. As U know , your clients R only calling because they have a problem, nobody is calling U because they like to hear your voice, and remember the customer is always right. It is frustrating trying to tell your problem to someone who U know lives a gazillion miles away, in a different time zone and environment, and most of the time cant understand your colloquial language and accent. And now to make matters worse, they R also trying to sell U something, when all U want is your problem solved. By the way,Oprah Winfrey had a whole show dedicated to the tough lives of the call center Reps two weeks ago on national TV. So people R aware, but its not their business to be worried about the problems of the Reps. It should be the the other way around, remember easy come, easy go. Don't be surprised if the call center business one day altogether disappears from the country, its like tourism, and everyone wants the great foreign exchange.

Answer 4

To be honest, I find it funny that people complain about customers just as much as customers complain about companies and their employees.

I deal with customers and they deal with me. There are ******* everywhere, including sitting beside you in the call centers. CS reps deal with a jerk, then the next caller has to deal with their attitude because that rep is underpaid, under-trained, overwhelmed and stressed. That isn't the callers fault yet they have to endure the attitude when they are more than likely paying for a service.

Then you have the callers that are complete jerks because they have no one else to take their miserable lives out on but some poor rep trying to do their job that they don't even like.

Look at it this way, you have probably been both. The rep that goes in circles with explanations because they have no other explanation except what they are reading from a screen and really not caring about the customer and then the rep that has to hear everything that happened to a customer that day to gain sympathy. This is really almost a metaphor for life, in a sense. Take the good with the bad, because you won't just get one of them. Everyone is a customer, and I can bet everyone here has been a bad one at one time or another. Yes, some are even over the top.

You really have to ask yourself if it is your company that makes the bad customer (with crappy policies and false advertising) or if it is just the expected number of crappy customers. In CS, you will always have them. It is as sure as death. If one can not get past that factor, you will be miserable in that job.

Answer 5

I think the answer is no, customers do not understand (or care) what it is like working at a call center.

The sad truth is, people do not call the customer service hotline when things are going great. They call when there is a problem. As with any customer service job, the best thing for you to do is 1.) keep in mind that the customer may be mad, but they are not mad at you 2.) do everything in your power to resolve their situation and 3.) maintain a scrupulously polite demeanor at all times.

Sure, this is easier said than done. But I have had customers start out ranting and raving, and then apologize for about 5 minutes after I remained polite and solved all of their problems. Does this happen every time? Of course not. But you are getting paid to put up with it.

Take heart in knowing that the customer service skills you are developing will transfer into just about any field you choose to pursue in the future.

Answer 6

No they have no clue, Also most customers are already pissed off for a variety of reasons before they even get you on the line. You are to be their savings grace, Sometime they need help that has nothing to do with what you have been trained to do. Also more to their aggrivation most call centers have a million and one press 1 for this line and press 2 for that line. I cannot even tell you how many times I have called for help of services or products that I just got more aggrivated as the call went on because they don't have the options I want so I land up picking anything hoping to get a human and then when I get a human the first thing they want is to ask me questions like product #, phone#, name, ext... Usually the same questions the automated phone service asked and that didn't work either. And these things may have nothing to do with my call, let me tell you what the problem is and then you should ask me if you need any of this. Also you have to keep an open mind and let them vent. Some of us are really pissed by the time we get to you. I'm not trying to bust your bubble, but you really need to have a certain kind of personality to do your kind of a job. I have done similar work and I was very good at it, but I got some nuts on the line. It is hard and you might want to re think if you really want to do this kind of a job. If it is a dream carrier for you, then take some customer service training coarses. I have and it helped me under stand and help people alot more. You have to be a good people person. Also you don't have the ability too see the people over the phone, which means they cannot see you either, you have to be able to convey by just the sound of your voice, I'm here, I want to help, and I'm friendly. It takes practice and once you get the hang of it, you can even turn some of the nuts into a positive phone call. As for the other crap, when you hang up with them just laugh to your self about it, and let it roll off your back. It is nothing personal, you just happened to be the one they ended up talking with. And when you leave your job at night, leave all the days headaches at the office. You don't get paid to let the garbage, ruin your private life. So turn it off.

Answer 7

Call centers are like another planet to some of these people. They are positive when they dial the number that they are going to wait years, get disconnected, and end up with the moron who got the short straw when everyone broke for lunch. They're sure the rep who answers doesn't have a clue about the product (just happened to answer the phone while he was delivering pizzas) and is just trying to spite them. So the minute you pick up, you're fighting an uphill battle while trying to keep your computer screen on, make yourself heard over the loud woman in the next cubicle, and extract the info with the finesse of an FBI interrogator. I don't envy you your job.

Answer 8

Write out what you do on an afternoon-to-day foundation. there is various issues which circulate in the time of: - interest to ingredient (required in a retail / hospitality environment) - customer concentration - skill to handle multiple conflicting priorities below time stress (like the guy yelling at you for giving him the incorrect exchange on an analogous time as there is 9 individuals on the bar) - skill to income and carry on with set technique - stable interpersonal communique - telephone way, bearing and self belief properly suited. next element. seem for extra strategies appropriate to the enterprise - you will provoke them lots extra in the event that they be attentive to which you be attentive to each little thing approximately their enterprise. commence with their internet site, then circulate to Wikipedia. they are going to possibly use a fashion called behavioural interviewing the place you would be asked questions appropriate to the way you're able to do issues. 'Describe a difficulty once you became a customer's undesirable adventure right into a stable adventure'. they don't seem to be attempting to place you off by way of those questions, they are searching for a fashion which you attitude subject concerns which will spring up on your profession on the call centre. Be undemanding and open with your reaction, and maximum critically - be organic.

Answer 9

The most simple answer to your question no unless they work in a call center like me. If only the could hear them selves on the phone then they would understand what you and I felt. Having to deal with rude, arrogant people, and people not understanding why you can help them the way they like. Then having to deal with them in a polite manner when ever fiber in you wants to do the same to them. And then throwing a fit if they can't get their way and ask for a manager. To only have the manager tell them the same things I said to them over again. It funny just because you have title like manager the almost automatically accept you answer. I know what it like first hand but the average joe doesn't.

Answer 10

Look, I've never worked in a call center, but I do understand why people do it. You are easy to vent to, that's all. You're a stranger on the other end of the telephone and they are calling you with a problem, and that problem may just be the straw that broke the camels back that day. It's not right, but people do it. I'm a server in the evenings and people often take their anger out on me, however, def not to the extent that they do it to you..... (only because I can spit in their food). I would suggest finding another job. People are always going to treat you like sh!t simply because it's easy and it's your job to be nice!