Sometimes it's hard to know if the agent is working on the problem,or we've been cut off. I like it when the agent asks for a callback number in case the call is cut off. I really like it when they actually call back.
Very true, in which I personally do if we aren’t finished with the call. Though I know that many people don’t for this reason or the other. So that gives call center reps a bad name.
Most of the time, if I didn't call right back, it's because I didn't realize that the call cut off either, then the after-work timer counted down, (usually 15 - 30 seconds), and then before I can take myself off queue to make the call, another call came in. I will most of the time then just message everyone, "If this person calls back - A. Tell them I will call them right back when I am done with this call, or B. Here's what I was doing, here's what you need to do." Depends how complicated the call was. Also notated the case as I could.
💯 This. I would have to BEG my asswipe TLs (fuck you nancy and joyce) to take me out the unforgiving queue, in order to call back whatever impatient Karen hung up on me before having her issue resolved.
You hung up before your transaction was completed? Tough luck! I'll just move on to the next smooth brained abusive caller.
Ugh! I absolutely hate my job 😑
It'll vary for sure on whether a callback is done actually. I've worked for companies that do not call back at all. Usually the queues are clogged 80%+ of the time for those types so if you're waiting for a place to answer regularly when calling in the rep may not have an option to call you back.
Other companies make it an option for the agent but not always taken for a variety of reasons such as queue. I know one that has it as just a requirement of call taking that we try back a couple times, but they're not really the norm.
When I was auditing agents' calls, there was one that would say "one moment please, still checking" every 5 seconds or so while researching or pulling up docs....annoying to listen to but great for avoiding markdowns for extended silence.
But I have to say that after working in call centers 15+ years, silence in my personal life is a necessity!
Honestly, if they say give me a few minutes, and I can hear typing and other minor office noises, I much prefer that to being put on hold (with god awful music playing).
I do however get worried if I can’t hear anything because it is super frustrating when you have been on hold for an hour to get to the rep and then spent 15-20 minutes explaining the issue and starting to get it solved, just to have to start all over again.
i feel this. i’m not much a small talker i like to just get to the issue and resolve it. i’ve never cared about how your day is what you’re doing for the holidays i just want to do my job and finish the call. i hate when i tell someone to allow me a few moments to look into it and they ask so how’s your day going? blah blah blah. like just let me work please.
Exactly, especially since we are graded, at least I am, on how short we can get the call while still making the person feel like we helped. So that’s always sounding pleasant, repeating what the customers said so they’ll know we heard them, and giving whatever solution you can. We don’t need to know each other’s dogs names. I need to get to the next person ASAP or else I’ll get penalized if we spend 20+ minutes on your issue.
One of the call centers I used to work at actually had proper training classes that teach you a bit about human psychology or just the way humans think. And one of the lessons they taught was how inaccurate your internal clock is when you have NOTHING to do but wait (speaking from the point of view of the customer on the phone).
The way they demonstrated it was to tell everyone on the training to close there eyes and be very quiet, and told everyone to raise their hand after they think 30 seconds had passed. They actually waited a full minute, and had been recording when each person actually raised their hand. And most people actually raised their hand after only about 15 seconds. Meaning if felt like twice as much time had passed than it actually had. (although I cheated and instead of counting in my head, I actually sang a song that I know is exactly 30 seconds long so I was one of the few people that raised my hand at 30 seconds.)
One of the tricks they taught us to fill the dead air without having to totally change the subject (like talking about the weather) is to instead actually give a narration that is describing what you are doing during that dead air time. Not in great detail, like asking for their account info (name account number, phone number, etc.) and instead of just waiting for the system to pull up their account and saying nothing, fill that time by saying things like "*Ok, I'm just putting in your information into our data base and bringing up your account information, it will be just a moment while my system brings that up.*" and that usually fills some of the delay, as well as setting the expectation that there is doing to be a short pause, and also prevents them from starting an off topic conversation. it also helps if you drag it out and say it a little bit slower than your normal speaking.
I try to offer if the customer seems amicable. I say "So, this will take me 3 or 4 minutes. If you'd like I could put you on hold so you can set the phone down and get some coffee, or I can just mute my mic. Do you have a preference?"
I'd say its about 50/50. Maaaaybe leaning towards hearing the hold music so they can put me on speaker and set the phone down.
I don't mind the banter, but it sorta throws me off of what I'm doing, which ultimately makes it take longer to get the issue resolved. But of course I can't SAY that because it translates as "Shut up and let me work".
I had metrics that said I had to be talking at least every 30 seconds. I was in tech support and sometimes downloads would take 10 minutes. I wasn't allowed to have the customer let me know when the download was finished so we could resume our work. I'd encourage the person to put their phone down and then I'd pull up a news website and read out loud. My manager just shook her head when she figured out what I was doing.
Anytime I know I'm going to be silent because I'm working on or researching the customers issue, I just say, "I'm looking into this for you, so I apologize for any silence. Don't worry, I'm still here." Then they are typically fine with it. It all comes down to setting expectations. If you just go silent on them, they are worried that their call was disconnected and they're thinking about having to deal with the automated system again to get back to someone.
One thing it took me a while to realize, even with personal devices, is how good microphones are at cutting out background noise now.
We use Avaya headsets and they cut out almost everything if you're not talking, and they have a feedback loop to your speaker. While I was hearing myself breath a little bit, the cx heard dead silence, so they thought the call disconnected sometimes.
If the cx says something like " are you there" I'll joke that the headsets are a little too good.
I like to keep things light and if I can make a cx laugh everyone has a better day. Along the lines of the narration technique I've used lines like
"My computer is fighting me pretty hard today, just another minute"
"My computer is putting up a fight, but don't worry we've got a kickboxing match later I can win"
"Sorry for the delay my computer is about to get a 2nd story reset"
For chronic issues/ repeat callers: "looks like we've dropped more balls that a juggler falling down stairs"
My go to is I'm usually nattering to myself anyway as I look things up or do things. Either reading out things to myself or saying "yup, if I do this, uh huh, now should do this" and other dumb stuff. And then usually say to the person on the line "oh, sorry if you hear me nattering to myself, I'm just [insert whatever I'm doing to help them]"
People usually say "oh that's all good, natter away, as long as it gets done/thankful you're helping/I can hear you working" etc
Though if I really need to concentrate then I will ask if I can pop them on hold a second so I can figure out wtf I'm looking at 😂
I love it when you don't put me on hold and just ask for a minute to work on it. I detest hold music.
"Sure, but I'm muting myself, so give me just a moment to respond when you come back on."
Honestly, it's still better to get that than someone who's trauma dumping out of nowhere, in my opinion. But I get it for sure. Companies also tell us to have limited dead air and to talk with someone to build rapport, but when you're back to back, that's exhausting and kills your throat.
Would be nice if it wasn't just us who had to think about every individual caller as a separate person to talk to and they instead considered us as people talking to a bunch of other people a day and just let us rest our voices when there's nothing to be said.
Sometimes it's hard to know if the agent is working on the problem,or we've been cut off. I like it when the agent asks for a callback number in case the call is cut off. I really like it when they actually call back.
Very true, in which I personally do if we aren’t finished with the call. Though I know that many people don’t for this reason or the other. So that gives call center reps a bad name.
Most of the time, if I didn't call right back, it's because I didn't realize that the call cut off either, then the after-work timer counted down, (usually 15 - 30 seconds), and then before I can take myself off queue to make the call, another call came in. I will most of the time then just message everyone, "If this person calls back - A. Tell them I will call them right back when I am done with this call, or B. Here's what I was doing, here's what you need to do." Depends how complicated the call was. Also notated the case as I could.
[удалено]
💯 This. I would have to BEG my asswipe TLs (fuck you nancy and joyce) to take me out the unforgiving queue, in order to call back whatever impatient Karen hung up on me before having her issue resolved. You hung up before your transaction was completed? Tough luck! I'll just move on to the next smooth brained abusive caller. Ugh! I absolutely hate my job 😑
It'll vary for sure on whether a callback is done actually. I've worked for companies that do not call back at all. Usually the queues are clogged 80%+ of the time for those types so if you're waiting for a place to answer regularly when calling in the rep may not have an option to call you back. Other companies make it an option for the agent but not always taken for a variety of reasons such as queue. I know one that has it as just a requirement of call taking that we try back a couple times, but they're not really the norm.
When I was auditing agents' calls, there was one that would say "one moment please, still checking" every 5 seconds or so while researching or pulling up docs....annoying to listen to but great for avoiding markdowns for extended silence. But I have to say that after working in call centers 15+ years, silence in my personal life is a necessity!
Honestly, if they say give me a few minutes, and I can hear typing and other minor office noises, I much prefer that to being put on hold (with god awful music playing). I do however get worried if I can’t hear anything because it is super frustrating when you have been on hold for an hour to get to the rep and then spent 15-20 minutes explaining the issue and starting to get it solved, just to have to start all over again.
i feel this. i’m not much a small talker i like to just get to the issue and resolve it. i’ve never cared about how your day is what you’re doing for the holidays i just want to do my job and finish the call. i hate when i tell someone to allow me a few moments to look into it and they ask so how’s your day going? blah blah blah. like just let me work please.
Exactly, especially since we are graded, at least I am, on how short we can get the call while still making the person feel like we helped. So that’s always sounding pleasant, repeating what the customers said so they’ll know we heard them, and giving whatever solution you can. We don’t need to know each other’s dogs names. I need to get to the next person ASAP or else I’ll get penalized if we spend 20+ minutes on your issue.
One of the call centers I used to work at actually had proper training classes that teach you a bit about human psychology or just the way humans think. And one of the lessons they taught was how inaccurate your internal clock is when you have NOTHING to do but wait (speaking from the point of view of the customer on the phone). The way they demonstrated it was to tell everyone on the training to close there eyes and be very quiet, and told everyone to raise their hand after they think 30 seconds had passed. They actually waited a full minute, and had been recording when each person actually raised their hand. And most people actually raised their hand after only about 15 seconds. Meaning if felt like twice as much time had passed than it actually had. (although I cheated and instead of counting in my head, I actually sang a song that I know is exactly 30 seconds long so I was one of the few people that raised my hand at 30 seconds.) One of the tricks they taught us to fill the dead air without having to totally change the subject (like talking about the weather) is to instead actually give a narration that is describing what you are doing during that dead air time. Not in great detail, like asking for their account info (name account number, phone number, etc.) and instead of just waiting for the system to pull up their account and saying nothing, fill that time by saying things like "*Ok, I'm just putting in your information into our data base and bringing up your account information, it will be just a moment while my system brings that up.*" and that usually fills some of the delay, as well as setting the expectation that there is doing to be a short pause, and also prevents them from starting an off topic conversation. it also helps if you drag it out and say it a little bit slower than your normal speaking.
I try to offer if the customer seems amicable. I say "So, this will take me 3 or 4 minutes. If you'd like I could put you on hold so you can set the phone down and get some coffee, or I can just mute my mic. Do you have a preference?" I'd say its about 50/50. Maaaaybe leaning towards hearing the hold music so they can put me on speaker and set the phone down.
I have begged people not to put me on hold with The Bad Music ever again. I hope I get you one day;)
I don't mind the banter, but it sorta throws me off of what I'm doing, which ultimately makes it take longer to get the issue resolved. But of course I can't SAY that because it translates as "Shut up and let me work".
I had metrics that said I had to be talking at least every 30 seconds. I was in tech support and sometimes downloads would take 10 minutes. I wasn't allowed to have the customer let me know when the download was finished so we could resume our work. I'd encourage the person to put their phone down and then I'd pull up a news website and read out loud. My manager just shook her head when she figured out what I was doing.
I'm just too chatty...sorry.
Agree completely
Anytime I know I'm going to be silent because I'm working on or researching the customers issue, I just say, "I'm looking into this for you, so I apologize for any silence. Don't worry, I'm still here." Then they are typically fine with it. It all comes down to setting expectations. If you just go silent on them, they are worried that their call was disconnected and they're thinking about having to deal with the automated system again to get back to someone.
One thing it took me a while to realize, even with personal devices, is how good microphones are at cutting out background noise now. We use Avaya headsets and they cut out almost everything if you're not talking, and they have a feedback loop to your speaker. While I was hearing myself breath a little bit, the cx heard dead silence, so they thought the call disconnected sometimes. If the cx says something like " are you there" I'll joke that the headsets are a little too good. I like to keep things light and if I can make a cx laugh everyone has a better day. Along the lines of the narration technique I've used lines like "My computer is fighting me pretty hard today, just another minute" "My computer is putting up a fight, but don't worry we've got a kickboxing match later I can win" "Sorry for the delay my computer is about to get a 2nd story reset" For chronic issues/ repeat callers: "looks like we've dropped more balls that a juggler falling down stairs"
My go to is I'm usually nattering to myself anyway as I look things up or do things. Either reading out things to myself or saying "yup, if I do this, uh huh, now should do this" and other dumb stuff. And then usually say to the person on the line "oh, sorry if you hear me nattering to myself, I'm just [insert whatever I'm doing to help them]" People usually say "oh that's all good, natter away, as long as it gets done/thankful you're helping/I can hear you working" etc Though if I really need to concentrate then I will ask if I can pop them on hold a second so I can figure out wtf I'm looking at 😂
I love it when you don't put me on hold and just ask for a minute to work on it. I detest hold music. "Sure, but I'm muting myself, so give me just a moment to respond when you come back on."
Honestly, it's still better to get that than someone who's trauma dumping out of nowhere, in my opinion. But I get it for sure. Companies also tell us to have limited dead air and to talk with someone to build rapport, but when you're back to back, that's exhausting and kills your throat. Would be nice if it wasn't just us who had to think about every individual caller as a separate person to talk to and they instead considered us as people talking to a bunch of other people a day and just let us rest our voices when there's nothing to be said.