Vent
My job is making me crazy.
Comcast switched us to a percentage-based commission structure, that works this way:
The main statistic you have is the Installs Per Calls Taken (IPCT) ratio. This means if the goal is .600 and you get 100 calls, they expect 60 items (Basic, Digital Classic or Preffered, Comcast High-Speed Internet (CHSI, which we pronounce "Cheesy"), or Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) to have been installed. Keep in mind: not sold, but installed. They split the IPCT into four subgoals, for the four products, and they move the ratios up every month.
They pay us out of five buckets: the four above, and what they call "ancillaries," which is basically everything else we sell, we'll get to those later. Each bucket has pay scales based on the percentage of each bucket's goal made. If the CDV goal is .100 (which would never happen in real life, the goal is much higher), and I take 100 calls and sell 10 CDVs, then I get the pay out for the 100% level. Below the 100% level, the money goes exponentially down.
Follow? OK, good. In response to complaints that this number was arbitrary because installations are scheduled for days (sometimes up to 10) after the actual call, they graciously shifted the call volume window back 3 days, so your daily IPCT on, say, Thursday, is based on the calls you took on Monday. This is crap, as CDV orders require at least three weekdays of provisioning if we're using our own phone numbers, and up to 3 weeks if we're porting from other providers.
So the money you get each month, from each bucket, is based on the percentage achieved of the ratio goal set that month for each product. It has nothing to do with how many calls you take, or how much product is installed.
The ancillaries (HBO, expanded basic, the Service Protection Plan, a DVR) are ostensibly worth $1.00 each, if you make 100% of each bucket. If you don't, they are worth the lowest percentage achieved on the four buckets. If you fall below 80% on any of the buckets, you get nothing for the ancillaries (I'm pretty sure on that one, the answer I get on it varies).
If you fall below 80% on two of the four goals, there are disciplinary measures taken.
If you take less than 80% of the average calls taken by the department, your entire commission is prorated down by that percentage (1,000 becomes 799 or lower) and your ancillaries pay out at $0.00. If you take a vacation, the average is NOT prorated.
If your adherence to the schedule falls below 97% (which would earn a slap on the wrist for any other representative in the center), your commission for the month is $0.00.
If your time spent in Wrap/Idle (the state we go into so we can't take a call, which is how we get all of our note-taking and followup work done) goes above 10% (again, wrist-slap), your commission for the month is $0.00.
Now, let's talk about the calls.
If I get a call from a person who has a high balance due to Comcast from a previous address, and is trying to sneak in an install without paying that debt, and I catch them, my reward is my IPCT going down. Oh, and I keep my job.
If I get a call from a person who has a technical problem, but figured they'd spend less time on hold if they tell the system they want to buy something, and I get them to a repair person instead of selling them something, my IPCT goes down.
If a call is "dead," meaning nobody's on the line, either because they decided to hang up just before I got the call, or because they've clicked over to call waiting while on hold (I wait 90 seconds in this case before hanging up), my IPCT goes down.
If a technician calls in sick and they can't replace them, and a frustrated customer cancels their order, my IPCT goes down.
If they change their mind the next day, and have another sales rep put the EXACT SAME ORDER back into the system, that other sales rep's IPCT goes up. Mine goes down.
If a customer doesn't understand what they order, and calls back to have it explained, or if they're calling to reschedule, my IPCT goes down.
If a person from outside our service area calls in to try to get service, I refer them to the Cable Mover's Hotline so they can find the provider for their area. Oh, and my IPCT goes down.
If someone wants to think over an offer, and I give them my direct extension, and they call me back, and I pick up the phone instead of letting them go to voice mail and returning their call, my IPCT goes down.
This system is based on the assumption on Comcast's part that the calls coming into my department are generated by our Marketing Department's effort to bring in calls. Our commercials are very good at getting people who already have our service to call in and ask us why their cable costs more than $33. Did I mention that if a person calls in to ask that question, and has all four goal-oriented products, my IPCT goes down? 'Cause it does.
Comcast understands that these goals are hard to track. Because of this, they send out a daily "FLASH" report, that shows your ratios up to the day before. On any given day, half of us spike in our percentages because we had the day off three days before the day before. Those people are that day praised for their IPCT going up, while the people whose percentages valley because they haven't had their day off taken into account yet are gently warned that their numbers are slipping.
Yesterday, they announced that they'll soon be taking Average Handle Time (AHT, comprised of time spent on a call and in wrap-up following the call) into account as well.
...so I can't track anything conclusively, and hard numbers mean nothing. Every sales rep saw their commission go down by 50% from June to July. I've even heard rumors that Comcast is refusing to pay out two commissions in a month, which would mean that the check I get on the 3rd of August (for June 22 to June 21) means I will see two "small checks" (we basically make minimum wage on non-commission weeks) on the 14th and 31st, seeing a check for 7/22-8/21's commission on Sep 14. This also would mean that I wouldn't see the commission for 8/22-9/21 until October 12th. This wouldn't be to give them time to fashion the commission report -- On either Monday or Wednesday of this week I was shown the commission they won't be paying me until next Friday. I don't know how much weight I can give to this rumor, but it wouldn't be out of character.
This stick-and-carrot routine is getting old.
Comcast switched us to a percentage-based commission structure, that works this way:
The main statistic you have is the Installs Per Calls Taken (IPCT) ratio. This means if the goal is .600 and you get 100 calls, they expect 60 items (Basic, Digital Classic or Preffered, Comcast High-Speed Internet (CHSI, which we pronounce "Cheesy"), or Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) to have been installed. Keep in mind: not sold, but installed. They split the IPCT into four subgoals, for the four products, and they move the ratios up every month.
They pay us out of five buckets: the four above, and what they call "ancillaries," which is basically everything else we sell, we'll get to those later. Each bucket has pay scales based on the percentage of each bucket's goal made. If the CDV goal is .100 (which would never happen in real life, the goal is much higher), and I take 100 calls and sell 10 CDVs, then I get the pay out for the 100% level. Below the 100% level, the money goes exponentially down.
Follow? OK, good. In response to complaints that this number was arbitrary because installations are scheduled for days (sometimes up to 10) after the actual call, they graciously shifted the call volume window back 3 days, so your daily IPCT on, say, Thursday, is based on the calls you took on Monday. This is crap, as CDV orders require at least three weekdays of provisioning if we're using our own phone numbers, and up to 3 weeks if we're porting from other providers.
So the money you get each month, from each bucket, is based on the percentage achieved of the ratio goal set that month for each product. It has nothing to do with how many calls you take, or how much product is installed.
The ancillaries (HBO, expanded basic, the Service Protection Plan, a DVR) are ostensibly worth $1.00 each, if you make 100% of each bucket. If you don't, they are worth the lowest percentage achieved on the four buckets. If you fall below 80% on any of the buckets, you get nothing for the ancillaries (I'm pretty sure on that one, the answer I get on it varies).
If you fall below 80% on two of the four goals, there are disciplinary measures taken.
If you take less than 80% of the average calls taken by the department, your entire commission is prorated down by that percentage (1,000 becomes 799 or lower) and your ancillaries pay out at $0.00. If you take a vacation, the average is NOT prorated.
If your adherence to the schedule falls below 97% (which would earn a slap on the wrist for any other representative in the center), your commission for the month is $0.00.
If your time spent in Wrap/Idle (the state we go into so we can't take a call, which is how we get all of our note-taking and followup work done) goes above 10% (again, wrist-slap), your commission for the month is $0.00.
Now, let's talk about the calls.
If I get a call from a person who has a high balance due to Comcast from a previous address, and is trying to sneak in an install without paying that debt, and I catch them, my reward is my IPCT going down. Oh, and I keep my job.
If I get a call from a person who has a technical problem, but figured they'd spend less time on hold if they tell the system they want to buy something, and I get them to a repair person instead of selling them something, my IPCT goes down.
If a call is "dead," meaning nobody's on the line, either because they decided to hang up just before I got the call, or because they've clicked over to call waiting while on hold (I wait 90 seconds in this case before hanging up), my IPCT goes down.
If a technician calls in sick and they can't replace them, and a frustrated customer cancels their order, my IPCT goes down.
If they change their mind the next day, and have another sales rep put the EXACT SAME ORDER back into the system, that other sales rep's IPCT goes up. Mine goes down.
If a customer doesn't understand what they order, and calls back to have it explained, or if they're calling to reschedule, my IPCT goes down.
If a person from outside our service area calls in to try to get service, I refer them to the Cable Mover's Hotline so they can find the provider for their area. Oh, and my IPCT goes down.
If someone wants to think over an offer, and I give them my direct extension, and they call me back, and I pick up the phone instead of letting them go to voice mail and returning their call, my IPCT goes down.
This system is based on the assumption on Comcast's part that the calls coming into my department are generated by our Marketing Department's effort to bring in calls. Our commercials are very good at getting people who already have our service to call in and ask us why their cable costs more than $33. Did I mention that if a person calls in to ask that question, and has all four goal-oriented products, my IPCT goes down? 'Cause it does.
Comcast understands that these goals are hard to track. Because of this, they send out a daily "FLASH" report, that shows your ratios up to the day before. On any given day, half of us spike in our percentages because we had the day off three days before the day before. Those people are that day praised for their IPCT going up, while the people whose percentages valley because they haven't had their day off taken into account yet are gently warned that their numbers are slipping.
Yesterday, they announced that they'll soon be taking Average Handle Time (AHT, comprised of time spent on a call and in wrap-up following the call) into account as well.
...so I can't track anything conclusively, and hard numbers mean nothing. Every sales rep saw their commission go down by 50% from June to July. I've even heard rumors that Comcast is refusing to pay out two commissions in a month, which would mean that the check I get on the 3rd of August (for June 22 to June 21) means I will see two "small checks" (we basically make minimum wage on non-commission weeks) on the 14th and 31st, seeing a check for 7/22-8/21's commission on Sep 14. This also would mean that I wouldn't see the commission for 8/22-9/21 until October 12th. This wouldn't be to give them time to fashion the commission report -- On either Monday or Wednesday of this week I was shown the commission they won't be paying me until next Friday. I don't know how much weight I can give to this rumor, but it wouldn't be out of character.
This stick-and-carrot routine is getting old.