Top 10 Ways to Get What You Want when speaking to a Call Center Agent

Have you ever called your cable, phone, internet, hydro company, or your bank even? Maybe you didn’t realize this, but you placed that call it didn’t reach some normal everyday office where a guy in a suit answered the telephone. No… your call went to an ‘inbound call center. “Inbound” meaning just what it sounds like; the calls come ‘in’. Not to be confused with ‘outbound’ call centers. Those are filled with the extremely annoying people who call you at dinner, (when you are on the toilet), or any other horribly inopportune time, to try and sell you something without you even realizing it. ‘Those ’ people are telemarketers, and PS: they are all sixteen .

Tip #1 - Navigating the VRU/IVR;

^{All Call centers have a system that runs their massive incoming phone lines called a Voice Response Unit, or VRU, IE: interaction between a human and a computer that is programmed to respond to the human's requests. Also referred to as interactive voice response, (IVR), a computer phone application that accepts phone keypad selection from the caller and provides appropriate information in the form of voice answers or a connection to a "live" operator.}

Just press Zero and/or Yell "Other" to get a human being.

1. The Average Age; of your Inbound call center employee is anywhere from 18 – 30 years old. Usually by the time most people figure out they are ‘lifers’ in the industry they are too ‘tenured’ and comfortable with their job to find anything new to do with their lives. It’s easier to sit and get screamed at all day by angry customers than it is to learn a new skill.
2. Quality Control; (Quality Assurance); Yes they do train their employees, but nobody follows up later to see if the employees are actually following the rules so this never works.
3. Rolling Calls; Something an employee does to up their ‘average calls handled’ (AHT) per hour, so their stats are better, and they are more likely to get a ‘bonus’ or commission. You see your agent gets paid better the faster they get you off the phone.

Rolling calls requires not only hanging up on a customer when they finally get through to ‘said agent’ but often times to stay under the radar the agent will mute the customer so they are on the line but hear nothing so the customer will stick around awhile, (much less obvious than the agent hanging up after a few seconds or minutes).

So that time you heard blank air then dial tone, yes,;

• somebody was laughing at you
• listening to you say hello like a moron over and over
• maybe they ate something
• chatted with a neighbor...
• read a few chapters in their novel...
• sent some texts...
• checked their email...
• then they hung up on you (after you waited an hour to get through ).

4. Scripting; Remember that time you called and the agent sounded so stupid and lost when you told them your problem? That is because this agent has something called scripting. They literally are told what to say to you word for word based on your issue, and when the script runs out they don’t know what the hell to do with you and your problems;

^{Thank you for calling _______ today how may I help you?}

^{And whom am I am speaking to today please?}

^{Thank you Mr/Mrs ­­­­_________. Now just for security, may I please ask you ________.}

^{Great, now I understand your calling today because “repeat back their issue’, is that correct?}

^{EMPATHIZE; ‘so sorry to hear that,}

^{ACKNOWLEDGE: I understand that would be frustrating}

^{ASSURE ‘I can definitely assist you with that Mr._____, let me just take a look at your account’.}

A. Now What? The problem now is, despite taping these little scripts on their computer monitors most agents hear a live customer and get completely lost, (or bored over time);

• They can’t help you, hey have no idea what to do!
• or, they don't want to help you, they have better things to do...

B. The Slow Decline; Who wants to repeat themselves all day, or empathize, or be nice to a ‘mean’ customer who screams at them on the phone? So what ends up happening is slow erosion to something more like;

^{'Name Of Company'' who am I speaking to?}

^{I don’t know, uhh… ok, umm… just a sec… be right back (dial tone ).}

5. Training The Staff; the most important thing for any business! Customers have real issues and complaints, thousands, millions of different kinds of them. In a call center it’s impossible to teach agents how to handle all of these types of calls in a classroom. Call centers don’t have a million years to train people, so they give the most general kind of ‘call’ training and let their agents learn slowly over time, asking supervisors or other more experienced staff when they don’t know what to do, (which is, sadly, 99% of the time ). So once that little script is done, and your agent has to actually deal with your problem, they don't know what to do about you, so they;

• ask around
• guess
• lie to you (assuring you it will be fixed within some timeframe, 24 hours, up to __weeks, next billing cycle etc), just to get you off the phone

6. Smart Customers; after you call a bunch of times and get smarter, (learn to ask for a supervisor, ) you will finally get somebody who has had several years and hundreds of calls per day under their belt. Your Supervisor knows your problem, how to fix it AND has the magical authority to throw money at you to make you happy, (for your inconvenience)! Score! So skip the plebs and just insist on speaking to a supervisor.

NOTE: Supervisors, obviously, are in very high demand so you may need to wait a little longer or even accept a ‘callback’. Your agent fills out a form and sends it to a supervisor; the supervisor gets back to you (usually within 24 hours ).

7. Cancelling; If you aren’t getting what you want from an agent just threaten to cancel, they have to send you to an experienced ‘retention specialist’ IE: Somebody ‘else’ authorized to throw money at you to keep you from cancelling AND also knows what they are doing!

Note: Most call centers have a rule where the client has to threaten to cancel a certain amount of times, (and the agent has to try and placate them), before they offer a transfer to the ‘cancellations department’ or ‘loyalty and retention’ (L&R), Supervisors. After ten years in the industry, the average is about 2-3 “I want to cancel’s” before agents are allowed to transfer to their ‘betters’.

8. Account Notations; Agents are required to leave extensive notes on every account/call they take. Notes in accounts are often either not there at all (agent rolls your call, agent can’t be bothered, agent doesn’t know what to do for you so lies to you and doesn’t want to leave evidence they spoke to you at all ), or, notes can be extremely detailed and defamatory towards the customer.

Examples:

^{A. This guy is a screamer look out!}

^{B. Customer very rude and angry don’t take their crap,}

^{C. Customer screaming and yelling not making sense ‘claims’ ____ , found no evidence of it!}

^{D. This person just wants free stuff, don’t give them anything!}

^{E. Husband is a total jerk… etc}

OR: You could get really lucky and get somebody like me with over ten years experience who;

^{· leaves perfect, long, detailed notes in your account with all pertinent information}

^{· actually knows how to help you}

^{· treats you with respect}

^{· gives you free stuff anyway (because I know you shouldn’t have had to call us in the first place and waste your day and time on hold )!}

Getting an agent who actually cares about you, knows what they are doing, and takes pride in their job can be like winning the lottery.

Sometimes people would be in tears they were so happy that ;

^{A: I could speak English}

^{B: I knew what I was doing and could resolve their concerns/issues}

^{C. I would treat them like a human being, with empathy, understanding and respect}

^{D. I knew when to compensate them, (like they deserved )}

9. Make a List; the most important things to remember when calling are;

• The person answering the phone has to follow the rules, so get someone who doesn’t have those rules and won’t say no to you, IE: A Supervisor.
• Make sure the first thing you ask for is your agents name and employee number, (that way they can’t lie to you, or hang up on you, and have to notate your account now, or you could call back and get them in trouble).
• If you aren’t getting the answers or confidence you deserve from your agent, go above them to a supervisor.
• You are the customer, they have a job because of you.
• You deserve to be treated with respect and consideration
• you are always right, no matter what
• You are entitled to compensation for their company causing you inconvenience
• if you don’t get the compensation you deserve just threaten to cancel, (chances are you will end up with your problems solved as well as a few free months of service for your trouble).

10. Most Importantly

Remember Friends, you as a customer are still a human being, so please have pity on the poor underpaid overworked Pleb who answers your call, be nice to them, because its not their fault that;

• they are just a spoke in a very large wheel
• they are improperly trained
• they don’t speak, ‘gooda eenglish’ (many companies outsource their ‘after hours’ client care to India or the Philippines, its cheaper, so call during regular business hours if you want an English speaking agent).
• agents aren’t given the power to give you the compensation you deserve

TIP: Yes you can have the free item that is only for ‘new customers’. Just threaten to cancel.