Please let me preface this by stating I have worked in customer service in call center environments for over 12 years. I have been recognized numerous times (and by the highest levels of senior management) at each of the 4 companies where I have been employed for outstanding productivity and customer service and have been promoted 'up the food chain' several times. I have been lucky to work for corporations with names like Travelers, The Hartford, Service Merchandise and United Healthcare. My postions (except for Service Merchandise) have been considered 'professional' and have required advanced degrees and/or licensure from the state I live in. Be that as it may, I still work serving the public over the phone. Ergo, it's a call center.
Call centers can be the sweatshops of our age or they can be a dynamic and fast paced environment that offers alot of experience and growth to its' employees. Doesnt matter what product you are servicing - depends on a mix of the quality of phone reps and the quality of management which side of that fence your place of employment falls under. For someone working in a large inbound call center a day might look like this.
You arrive at work and clock in. You work in a large room that contains rows and rows and rows of cubicles. No one has an office here, except for the most senior managers so there is a constant level of noise, not unlike a beehive. You may or may not have your own desk. If you dont have your own desk you have to find an open cubicle and log in to your phone with a series of codes that identifies you to the automatic call distribution system. You have to do this so you are counted as being at work on time in most cases. If your company does not use a time clock they will use you phone log in as your 'clock-in' to show you are at work as scheduled. You then log into your computer with another series of passwords. Login into your system can take from 5 - 10 minutes. This is not a reflection of the skill of the rep, it's due to the number of systems that have to run simultaneously on your desktop as you work. While this all happens you are 'on the clock'. The automatic call distribution system is watching to see how long it takes to get you on the phone taking live calls. Most call centers have restrictions on how long you can put a customer on hold, how long you can finish up work after the caller has hung up and even how long you can spend talking to a customer. Your performance is reviewed every day and you are advised of your performance every day. Slip below productivity levels and you may go on warning. Additionally, you are expected to take a certain number of calls each day. In a complex environment like mine that's at least 40 calls a day. These are in depth insurance and clinical calls. At a call center like Disney where reps are expected to turn around calls quickly that could be at least 15 an hour in my estimation. Easy, right? Possibly, provided all of the programs you use to do your job are running correctly. Provided your company was able to train you adequately to do the job you were hired for. Provided the computer you are provided with has enough memory to run the numerous programs that you use to do your job. Provided you have been able to take a break in the past 2 hours to stop talking to people for just a second and go to the bathroom, just so you can stop hearing the sound of your own voice. On your phone there is a light that flashes constantly if the center has calls in que. There may also be flashing lights on the walls or columns that hold up the ceilings in these vast call-center rooms that only heighten the anxiety you feel around you knowing that you have more people holding to talk to you. You also know that the longer those people hold, you will take to brunt of their frustration. People can be a total joy to assist but they can also be complete ogres. Customers tend to personalize everything about your company and place that personalization squarely on your shoulders. 'You' have raised their premium, 'you' havent authorized their treatment, 'you' havent sent them a postcard or have a pin for them, 'you' are keeping their precious angel from attending breakfast at a desired eatery. It happens more often than not and that kind of interraction is like drops of water on even the hardest granite. No matter how experienced you are, how much of a customer service guru you are....that wears you down. You have to toggle between several different computer programs that rarely interface with each other (that would require too much 'tech innovation' and is outside of the company's budget). You have to be taught 'work arounds' in order to make these systems work for you. You are in an environment where you are pushed harder and harder to do your job with a brave face and your co-workers keep reminding you of how bad it is. Everywhere you go at work your co-workers share 'war-stories' of how bad it's getting, how the call volume is just out of control. People are actively looking for other work and discuss it openly, they may call in sick for 'mental health days' more often which drops staffing levels and means even more calls waiting for you. You took this job because it seemed better than waiting tables or cleaning hotel rooms or flipping burgers or any of those other service -industry jobs no one wants to do but we all expect to still be done at the most premium level of service. Maybe you are working your way through school, maybe you never finished school because you got married and had kids right away, maybe you are retired and need a little extra income, maybe you are working part time during the day so you can be at home with your children by the time they get home from school, maybe this is your first job ever. Most people want to do a good job. Sure, there are also people who also just show up and collect their paycheck (that attitude is not exclusive to 'low-level' or 'entry-level' workers. I see physicians with that attitude every day).
Imagine being a manager who still has a sense of what the reality of a customer service rep's job is like. You recieve mandates regularly from someone, possibly in another location and with no insight into what happens in your call center. You must increase productivity. You must find a way, without raising salaries and while cutting benefits (if you offer any benefts), to retain more staff because your operating costs skyrocket when you bring in new hires. No, sorry, your call center wont be upgrading your computers this year because our tech initiatives have been cut and what's available is going to other areas of the company that have more visibility to the public. No, sorry, no more team leaders to directly supervise the customer service reps - you will have to get more done with less.
Maybe you are a senior manager who realizes you should have more of a web presence to shift some of these call center calls to a website. Of course there is no money to develop or expand your web presence because that takes money and there is no budget for that. The company has to keep it's earnings up so the stockholders are happy. That is the CEO's primary focus. He wants to make sure he is earning his impressive compansation package the board of directors votes on every year.
My intent is not to lecture or scold and please dont infer as such: I am attempting to illustrate. I agree that there is never an excuse for rudeness and have no problem politely asking for a manager when that occurs. However, if the CSR is having problems with their system, appears to not be entirely sure of how to do something for you or doesnt sound like they are about to implode with excitement over your trip to Donald's Breakfastasaurus, lighten up. Offer your own patience if they are struggling with a computer problem. Consider what I have just written about what it is like to do this job and then put yourself in their shoes.
Just a quick word on
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As someone who still works 14+ hour days after 20 years with a company who's management can get multi-million dollar bonus's with our pay cuts I disagree that unions are no longer needed. Believe me if it wasn't for our union and contract I would be working for much less and working even more. They don't seem to care about morale at all and apparently this is a growing trend in today's business world. Well our concession contract is up very soon and we will have our say and believe me we can't wait!!! I don't forsee them getting the "picture" anytime soon until maybe we are walking the picket line. By the way I will probably be working Christmas and won't even be paid any extra for doing so. Not all unions are bad but the way today's business world is going I believe they will be more needed than ever. I hate to hear that CM's are going thru the same stuff but I can relate.
