Tales from the Book, Part CLXXXVI
*drags self back over the edge of the world* Hey. Sorry 'bout that.
I met a former *ISP* coworker on the bus the other day. While she, too, has been freed from the yoke of call centres, it turns out she spent some time working for *courier* as well.
She quit in the middle of a call because she couldn't handle it, flat-out telling the customer she wasn't doing 'this' (whatever that might have been, though I can guess) any more. This, and assorted other, less dramatic, feedback, tells me something.
Scheduling pickups for people is more stressful than technical support.
Agent: Do you have either preprinted shipping labels, or computer-generated waybills?
Caller: I put a label on the box.
Agent: *'Great, you've conquered stickers.'*
I should have said it. Ohhh, I should have said it!
Almost everyone:
Agent: I'll need your street address and your postal code.
Caller: *gives street address, then promptly falls silent*
Variant:
Caller: *gives street address, then promptly falls silent until you attempt to ask them for the postal code again, when they blurt it out at volume*
Do not let the office Barbie call for pickups. Having every question answered with "Umm...I don't know! *giggle*" is just annoying.
It took half an hour of trying to convince one idiot that her tracking number meant there was an item waiting to be delivered to her in addition to the one she was going to have picked up. She wavered back and forth on her story (she had a label, she didn't; she had scheduled a pickup, she hadn't, etc., and it's really hard to trip me up in that sort of thing, since I can quote you back the lie you told about the lie you told earlier verbatim), and could not understand the difference between a pickup and a delivery. She kept wailing that nothing could be delivered to her because she hadn't called for a delivery. I finally figured out that a return label was to be delivered to her, so she could ship something back, but she couldn't get it when I tried to explain.
I met a former *ISP* coworker on the bus the other day. While she, too, has been freed from the yoke of call centres, it turns out she spent some time working for *courier* as well.
She quit in the middle of a call because she couldn't handle it, flat-out telling the customer she wasn't doing 'this' (whatever that might have been, though I can guess) any more. This, and assorted other, less dramatic, feedback, tells me something.
Scheduling pickups for people is more stressful than technical support.
Agent: Do you have either preprinted shipping labels, or computer-generated waybills?
Caller: I put a label on the box.
Agent: *'Great, you've conquered stickers.'*
I should have said it. Ohhh, I should have said it!
Almost everyone:
Agent: I'll need your street address and your postal code.
Caller: *gives street address, then promptly falls silent*
Variant:
Caller: *gives street address, then promptly falls silent until you attempt to ask them for the postal code again, when they blurt it out at volume*
Do not let the office Barbie call for pickups. Having every question answered with "Umm...I don't know! *giggle*" is just annoying.
It took half an hour of trying to convince one idiot that her tracking number meant there was an item waiting to be delivered to her in addition to the one she was going to have picked up. She wavered back and forth on her story (she had a label, she didn't; she had scheduled a pickup, she hadn't, etc., and it's really hard to trip me up in that sort of thing, since I can quote you back the lie you told about the lie you told earlier verbatim), and could not understand the difference between a pickup and a delivery. She kept wailing that nothing could be delivered to her because she hadn't called for a delivery. I finally figured out that a return label was to be delivered to her, so she could ship something back, but she couldn't get it when I tried to explain.