2015.12.4: My Call Center Experience II
12:10am – 1:14am
I have much to write, but I don’t have a lot of time nor
probably the energy to write. So, to
make this count, I want to first write about my call center experience so far.
I have been working at Cox Communications through Xerox
about three months now. I learned a lot
and I have many stores to share.
But the one story I want to share is a customer I talk to
today. The very last call.
Today was a busy day at the call center. For some reason, probably because of winter
storms and outages, I was getting almost none stop calls. I have to use my 20 minutes of break time
spaced out in 5.5 hours wisely. I also
get a 30-minute lunch.
I was finishing helping a customer with cable issues when my
supervisor told me if I can take one more call.
Overtime is a common occurrence at my job, so does leaving early when no
customers call. So I agreed. I really wanted to just go home and relax and
spend time with God but I decided to make the sacrifice to make one more call.
And what a call that was.
Before I go into it, let me share with you some difficulties
that I face when making calls, and my strengths as well. I think my chief weakness talking to
customers is my speaking skill. Despite
speaking for all my life, I still stutter horribly when talking on the
phone. My stuttering is less when
talking to people face-to-face and still less when talking to people I know and
trust. But every time I hear a beep on the
phone, for some reason, my tongue just can’t say the word. My brain knows what to say, but I just can’t
say it. Then sometimes my mind gets
distracted and it makes the delay and stuttering worse. “T-t-th-[slient th]-T-Thank you for calling
Cox Communications.” “My name is
S-s-s-teven.” “H-[slient ow]-How can I
help you?” Each one of those stuttering
roadblocks is a barrier and for each call, I sometimes are able to bypass on those
roadblocks, but almost never am I able to overcome all of them.
I think to myself that “Love comes from God” and “Power
comes from God.” Part of the reason why
I stutter is due to fear, due to insecurity, due to a fear of rejection. I have very little power in my introduction
because I was afraid; I was afraid of the unknown. Right now, at my workspace, I have both an
American flag on one side and an Israeli flag on the other. Looking that these flags gives me strength
and hope. I plan to further decorate my
workspace by putting WordArt “Love comes from God” on my left side and “Power
comes from God” on the other. Other
agents put pictures of their family, or Cox Communications resources, but I
will instead focus on inspiration.
When talking to people on the phone, I feel like that is how
Jesus felt during his life of ministry.
He gets persecuted, rejected, attacked, verbally abused, and so forth
and that is what many customers do to us, and to me. I practice humility and I have a genuine
desire to help them. But, back to Jesus,
I would rather get attacked and abused for the sake of the gospel than for the
sake of cable. Nevertheless, working at
a call center is a very good experience.
I am able to improve my speaking skills, to develop my small talk
skills, my selling skills. It has helped
me in my life. And I plan to use it for
His Kingdom in the near future.
Football is not my passion.
Oh no, I think I just said a bad word.
On Saturdays and Sundays, I got many football calls. TV isn’t working so they can’t watch
football. How can I build rapport with
them? For all my customers, I follow my
call flow which includes asking the customer how they are doing and showing
empathy. Like in the Army, I feel it is
necessary to at least study a bit on what is going on in the football world so
I won’t be seen as an outcast.
About five customers so far, during my three months, asked
me if I was a robot after I finished my introductory phase mentioned earlier in
the stuttering section. I replied “No, I’m
not a robot. I’m a real person. My name is Steven.”
I’ve got a customer asking me if I can be their personal
agent, since I resolved and helped them so well. I told him no, that the structure of the call
center doesn’t allow it.
I only have one customer, I think, that tried to use my stuttering
to discriminate me. That customer told
me “I already want to talk to someone else.”
But I empathized with her and was able to resolve and program her remote
as well. During the whole time, she was
demanding, demeaning, and mean to me. I
don’t know if I even got a “thank you” or maybe it was a hollow one. Many times, customers not only use me, but just use me, without showing any gratitude,
respect, or appreciation. Many times, it
is a thankless job.
To work at a call center, I have to be at my best. I try to give every customer my best and it
is very demanding of me. It is very
mentally demanding and for the salary that I earn, I know I can get a
better-paying job without spending so much of my energy, brainpower, and
willpower. It is a very stressful
job. Back in nesting, we took two
15-minute breaks. But for me, I couldn’t
do that. I take mini-breaks between
every call.
In a way, I feel customers will treat me nicer and better if
everyone had the same genuine spirit of helpfulness like me. But no, I am wrong. I’m not here to brag. I have many weaknesses although few are of my
choosing (add: I also need to continue to renew my mind, to avoid thinking evil
thoughts and to focus on what’s important, in this case, the issue, when
talking to customers). I am good at
troubleshooting, at working with the computer system, with typing. Those technical aspects are my strengths. And showing love to customers and to be
genuine and to help them. However, it
leaves me exhausted.
There are many more experiences and stories that I can write
but I either don’t have time or don’t remember as of now. Maybe by reading my call center experiences,
one can already have some experience working as a customer service representative. :)
My last call, the call I volunteered, was crazy and
intense. To make the long story short,
the customer demanded me to fix her cable TV instantly. I checked the diagnostics and found that her
area has an outage. I told her what I
can do. I told her the technician’s name
and estimated repair time. I empathized with
her. I listened to her. She was cussing and maybe even fussing. She blamed the company and me (since I’m a
part of it), about other representatives telling her that she needed miniboxes
to get service, which was completely untrue as she already have cable
boxes. She added that Cox did the
minibox trick to get more of her and other customer’s money. I educated her on the reason why a customer
would want a minibox. I educated her on
both analog and digital signals, on what kind of channels she would get. And throughout all this time, she went back
to the present issue of her TV not working and demanded me to fix the issue
now. I kept repeating to her, with love
and kindness, the truth. I told her
honestly is the best policy and I don’t want to lie to her. I repeated the technician’s name and the
estimated repair time. Then she would
talk about other bad Cox experience issues like her bill or having to
constantly call us. I empathized on all
her concerns. I told her I also care
about saving money and shared with her my experience. This call was hurting my handle time and I
was pressured by others. I asked “permission
to hang up” but my supervisor said no. I
mean if I do have permission, I will gently do so, like when Joseph was
planning to divorce Mary before he knew the truth. So I stayed with her and informed her again
the estimated repair time. She told me
she will stay on the phone with me until the issue is fixed, which will be in
another hour, at this point of the call.
But, throughout this entire call, I was at peace. I was actually a little happy. I felt her pain. Towards the middle and the end of the call,
she started to say “sorry” but then went back to attacking. Then she told me that she is, actually, a
nice person. I believed her. Listening to her, I felt she was wronged, deceived,
and that she was made to be mean to us, but I felt in her heart, like me, that
she was a nice person. My supervisor’s
desk was next to mine today, due to computer issues and seating
rearrangements. Other agents and
supervisors were around, and perhaps trying to listen to my share of the
conversation. I told her at one point
that I can’t do the impossible, that only God can do the impossible. I thought about evangelizing but I knew that
I would be in trouble if I do. I thought
about reading that Inner and Healing Deliverance book to her while we
waited. I tried to ask what she enjoyed
doing and her hobbies and interests and she told me that her interest is for me
to “get her cable working.” I followed
the organizations call flow. In calls
like these, it is imperative that I follow the call flow with building rapport,
empathizing, educating, and so forth so if I get a bad survey from her, I can
challenge it (if I reach 80% or higher from quality control). In the end, she calmed down enough when I
reassured her that our technical support is open 24/7 and that she can call us
back in half an hour. She finally agreed
and the call was over. My supervisor complimented
me on my patience and gentleness.
So, working at a call center is very intense and stressful,
at least for me. If every day working on
the phones is like this (and many days it is), I would, honestly, rather quit
or leave. I already informed my
supervisor about my intentions but he wanted me to stay, telling me that the
team needs me. But, my mentor told me
that I deserve a better job, a job with less stress and with higher pay. I already have a bachelor’s degree, so why am
I working at a call center? It was
because I gave up too easily, my fear of rejection, and my perceived desperation
for a job, that I chose it. But God will
give me grace and I am going to look for a better job. Today was a victory but I really hope God won’t
grant me such a victory again. He will,
and I have to persevere.
