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Help please, about working on a call center
vynsvyns
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I will be working on a call center company starting tom and my account is AT&T Mobility. any tips? by the way this my first time working on a call center. advice please. and anyone know what we're going to do on our first day of training. Thanks! appreciate your help.
vynsvyns on
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First 6 weeks (or however long your training is), you'll be in a classroom learning the specific systems and way they want you to talk on the phone. Your getting paid to learn. Try to absorb as much as you can. When I did it, there was a class of about 30. You''ll joke around as you'll take turns being a customer / being a rep, but the biggest thing I can suggest is, LEARN THE PROGRAMS. You'll start to think it's really easy until you hit Day 1 on the floor.
Day 1, when you hit the real incoming calls, is that they never stop. The volume is much higher, the customers are angrier, wanting to be off the phone and about 25-30% of your training class will quit. Day 1. End of week 1 on the real calls, another 25-30% will be gone (or about half the class). My class though was some university students (including me), some retail people wanting to get out of retail (30's) and even older people who were looking for just some supplemental income (55+).
Don't be scared with this fact, lots of people can't handle the volume, stress, speed, etc that is needed to keep going through it. If you CAN, it can be very rewarding though. Your helping people with problems, with some boring admin work (taking bill payments,etc). You'll be good at it, if you can manage multiple open programs, multiple open tabs and remembering how to navigate screens.
Training is easy, just listen to your teacher. For on the floor, the biggest thing I could say is DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Customers need a place to vent @ AT&T, and that's going to be you. Work should stay at work. Listen to them, empathize and try to get them to understand.
Most places have places for advancement, so if you are good at it, you could be doing level 2, team lead, etc fairly quickly because that turnover is so high.
Don't take anything that's said to you personally. The customer is not mad at you, they're mad at the circumstances. You are just the available target to vent at.
I'm not sure where your call center is, but here's what I remember from training at the call center I worked at. Your experience may be very different.
On your first day of training, chances are you'll get a brief tour of the call center (here's the restroom, here's where you can eat, here's the station where you'll feel your soul dying for 8-10 hours a day, over there is where the important people are. Never go over there...). After that you'll get an overview of the software that you'll use to do your job, how to use it, what to do if when it breaks, what the escalation procedure is if you can't help a customer, etc. After that, I imagine they'll run you through some fake calls where the trainer will pretend to be an irate customer to see how well you handle customer interaction. That'll probably take most of the first day. Depending on how long your training period lasts, your second day will probably consist of a brief refresher on the software. Then, after the trainer is feeling confident that you can type notes into the system, they'll probably have you shadow with some experienced agents who are taking live calls. You'll be able to listen in on calls, see what the agent does when using the software and the like. After some time, you'll switch places with the agent and you'll get the calls while the agent listens in and provides advice to you. Remember, ask questions if there's anything you don't understand or need clarification on, chances are if you're confused then you're not the only one.
Find out what the policy on food/drink at your workstation is. If it's acceptable, keeping a bottle of water nearby can really help after spending a few hours talking to people. I know some call centers don't allow this due to the risk of someone dumping water on their computer so ask first.
Did this type of work for Alltel for about 4 years. This advice is good.
On top of the calm and cool, be good at what you do. Fix peoples issues quickly and during your call. A big thing at the Alltel (before it was bought by verizon and than outsourced) call center was getting off the phone fast. To many of the incompetent level one techs, that meant telling a customer to reboot their PC than hang up and call back if it didn't work type shit. On top of adding to extremely high call volume, you ended up creating an even more angry customer thats pissed they have to keep waiting 30 minute intervals just to resolve a problem.
Don't be that guy.
Basically...Don't create a new problem.
I can't say I envy you just starting out in a call center. If you can handle the stress and fast pace than you should be fine though.
@Kato worked with me there and for even longer. I would love to see his opinions here.
This will depend on your management team, but in most cases, the easiest thing in the world is for both your supervisor and the customer to blame the entry level CSR. Cover yourself.
I don't know what it's like in other companies, but the nice thing about mine was that it didn't take much to rise to the top/be noticed. Call center work doesn't exactly draw in the most umm..hardworking and smartest people around, so if you do your job remotely well, there might be chances of upward mobility.
Like others have said, the most important thing is not to take things personally. You'll get yelled at a lot, be called names, and the like, but remember that at the end of the day, when you hang up the phone, you won't have to ever talk to this people again.
Be careful with your breaks and time away from the phone- in my work, that tends to be the number one reason why people are let go. Some either just hate the job so much, or can't handle the freedom of just being able to step away whenever they like, and end up screwing their availability up.
Do you have quotas you have to meet or things that give you bonuses? For quotas and the like, try to have a plan of attack every day. When I worked the complaint line, the first thing I did every morning was try to work on all emails that I got from upset guests, then worked my opened files, etc. When I worked on the reservation line and could earn bonuses based on the amount of rooms I booked, I found that unless I completely blocked out that part(physically even, as it used to show me the amount of calls/rooms book on the corner of the computer) I would go crazy and get annoyed every time I got a call that didn't end up in a reservation.
Oh, and try to be good at your job. It sounds silly, but there's sooooo many people that don't try to do that-they don't bother with a phone voice, they don't really care about helping the guests, etc. I find that those people are the ones that have the most complaints at the end of the day.
This also leads to the next important thing, be confident, you do this by really knowing your job. When people call in for help they may be upset, but the first thing most people feel is helpless and this leads to feeling a little stupid. Like the fact they have to call to unlock their voice mail password etc, feeling dumb will make them extra defensive, this will explode all over you if you lack confidence in showing you know how to correct their problem ASAP. It also helps to always brush off their mistakes no matter how much it might have been their fault, i..e. don't point out they made the mistake, just breeze by that, fix the issue and then maybe give them a short in the future you might try ABC type thing but keep it light and fluffy like these things happen all the time.
Having to constantly be taking incoming calls can suck, as unless you are not at your desk that phone will just keep on ringing. The good side of it is that being constantly busy does make the day go faster, if you can get in that mind set.
Good luck!
Develop a "deep and soothing" voice for when you answer the phone. You'll have to work on it and figure out your sweet spot, but it helps start you off as "being in charge" without being rude.
Don't point the finger (as Drago said), talk about how a mistake or problem is understandable instead. Occasionally you may get a beyond rude person who's raging at you about how they didn't know their service would be shut off after 2+ months of not paying their bill, or how it's your fault stuff doesn't work when they changed settings/deleted things/whatever, but even then, don't get confrontational.
If you have problems that you can't solve right away, it's always "researching something" when you put them on hold, or "Checking with a supervisor" or whatever, don't just say, "let me put you on hold."
Good luck, it's sort-of stressful, but it's fun and fast-paced too (Imo).
TylerJ on League of Legends (it's free and fun!)
There's a fine line between being sympathetic and conceding responsibility or fault on behalf of your employers. Make very, very sure that you always stay on the correct, non-conceding side of that line. There's an art to this, and if you learn it your life will be much easier. Until you learn it, stay well on the right side, because that line is a job-fucker.
When you get That Angry Guy (or Lady) calling you, the best possible tactic is to shut your noisehole and listen. It's shocking how often you'll get people calling who know that you can't really give them what they'd like, they just want a damb human being to listen to them while they explain why it's such a crappy situation. Let them vent, do a minimum of active listening (this is when you make small non-verbal noises to let them know that they have your attention), make a note of salient facts. Tune out the abuse part and use that time to start thinking up some possible solutions.
Learn how to do framing on the fly. This will fucking save your ass. Framing is where you set the terms of the conversation. It's the difference between "what would you like me to do about $PROBLEM" and "I can do $SOLUTION_1 or $SOLUTION_2, which would you prefer?" Directing the customer down paths that lead to solutions that you are actually able to offer will not only make your life easier, they'll make the customer happier. Naturally you don't want to be as direct and blunt as the quotes above; the idea is to set the dialogue up so that the customer chooses the best option that you are able to offer.
Every time you talk to a customer, you Do Something for them. Every time. When they hang up they should be thinking "vynsvyns did this nice thing for me", even if it's something as minor and trivial as advising them of how many free minutes they've got left or whatever. Even if you basically are telling them "We don't want you as a customer any more you god-damb deadbeat; die in a fire" you still leave them thinking you did something for them. Find a way. In fact you do this especially if you have to give them bad news/deny their request/cut off their account.
If a call goes disasterously wrong, and you're plainly not going to achieve any kind of satisfactory resolution, it's remarkable how often the old "OK we've reached the limit of how far I can help you; would you permit me to transfer you to a senior colleague of mine?" gambit can work if you have a relationship with a workmate whereby you field each others' crash-and-burns. It's kind of a cheap psychological trick, but the idea that they're getting special treatment can have a remarkably positive effect on those customers who simply won't let you help them.
If you stick with the job for more than a few months, and actually pay attention to what you're doing and how to do it better, you will very likely get extremely good at managing and manipulating conversations. Speaking as someone who is single in large part because of this, remember to turn it off when you leave work.
If you've come to the end of your first year on the phones and you're evidently not on course for any kind of promotion track then you have two viable choices: start looking for a new job (both internally and externally), or accept that you're going to need a heavy duty coping mechanism for your work stress.
Just to echo a few salient points....
1. Learn the systems. Knowing where to get the info you need instead of hunting for it will save you a lot of time. Time that will KILL you if the customer is already upset. They will use that time to abuse you. Part of your training usually involves you sitting with a rep on the floor and listenting to calls. You will learn a LOT while you do this. Pay attention to what the rep says. A simple thing such as phrasing something correctly will save you a lot of grief. Also watch what they do as far as system navigation. Ask them questions so you know why and how they did what they did, but don't ever, ever tell them they did it wrong because your trainer told you to do something different.
2. NEVER, never tell the caller No. Always phrase it as "What I CAN do for you is....."
3. You will apologize a lot. Get used to it. You are not taking the blame, you are apologizing that the customer is having an issue, even if it's their fault. Also, it usually helps to let them know you can, and will help them. I use this following phrase a LOT. Tweak it however but this basic format is like magic. "I apologize you are having (Blank) issue/problem/whatever. I would be happy to assist you with that today. What I CAN do is...."
With that you empathize with them or their situation, you comminicate a willingness and ability to help them, and thenyou tell them exactly what it is that you will do for them. Nearly every person calling is looking for 2 out of 3 of these. Doing all 3 every time will catch just about everybody.
4. Leave work at work. Don't take anything personally, and leave it there.
One thing I can promise you is you will have days where you get done and think "Why am I doing this job again?" Echoing what a lot of other people have said - you need to let the abuse roll off of you and not take it personally. Some days it's easier to do this than others.
One thing I always keep in mind is that if you do your job badly, there's no way to move on to doing something else within the company. Do your job, actually fix peoples issues and don't create new ones - you'll likely be able to move to something else that you actually want to do within a decent time frame.
For the first few weeks of training, expect to be bored. There will be a lot of hyping up the company, talking about how their company motto, and not much actual learning. If they're doing the training program I went through, it will be 5 weeks of classroom training, a week on the phones, and then 3 more weeks of class room. Us any and all time you can in the classroom using mycsp to read through everything you can about the plans, policies, and procedures. You should only have access to things you can do as a customer care representative, and having that info in the back of your mind will save your ass. A lot of the problems other people from my class had were from not knowing what they could and couldn't do. The training won't cover everything, and they stress over and over again to always have mycsp open.
A lot of your job is going to be fixing issues that never should have been issues in the first place. A lot of people getting bad info in stores, or phones being set on obviously wrong plans. A lot of accidental data usage by the elderly who got a phone that is just not right for them. Get to the bottom of the issue every time. If there's one thing wrong with the account, more than likely there's other things. If someone's calling because of a text charge when they don't text, look on the bill to see if there's a data charge as well. Be patient and willing to go through their account. Trust me, more than likely they'll appreciate it. And even if they don't, anything you might catch will reduce the likelyhood that they'll call back again, reducing your repeats and making your bosses happy.
The basic flow of your calls will go as follows: Customer beeps in your ear. You say "Thank you for calling AT&T. This is vynsvyns, and I'll be happy to help you today. Could I please get your first and last name?" The phrasing here is important. The very first thing you're doing is controlling the flow of the call. You need their info, and you don't want to ask them what their problem is before you have their account open in front of you. Once you have their info, you'll ask them what you can do for them. They'll tell you, and while they're talking you'll start looking over the account, getting things open so you can see where the issue actually is. If it's a simple and common problem, you might be able to locate it while they're still talking. Fix whatever it is, and then "transition into sales".
The easiest way to do this is by saying something like "I'm glad we were able to solve that issue for you. Now I'd like to take a minute to look over your account to make sure you're getting the best value for your money." Don't ask them if this is ok, just say it. Once you get use to telegence, you'll be able to check their usage and their package and everything else while saying this. Look for anything that's out of the ordinary. A phone on a family plan that would benefit from having unlimited texting, a low data plan that has a tendency of going over, or even a phone that's due for an upgrade. Ask them about these things, see if they sound interested in it. If not, don't be pushy, but try to phrase it in another way. If they push back again, the call is pretty much over. Recap everything you did for them, finish up your notes, and close the call.
That's a typical call. But there's other types. One I constantly got was the "new customer who really doesn't understand their plan calling about something simple" these calls can be fun. It's a chance to go over every feature of their plan and explain it to them. By doing so, you can also point out any pitfalls in their plan, and offer a solution to it. You can make a lot of sales off of these calls, and not feel like a monster in doing so. A lot of the time your "sales" actually end up costing the customer the same if not less money.
For instance, when I worked there, they had a 700 minute family plan, and a 1400 minute family plan. The 1400 minute plan was $20 more than the 700. However, the mobile to any mobile addon costs $20, and includes an "any mobile to mobile" feature. If the customer doesn't use over 700 minutes a month on toll free or landline calls, you can drop them to the 700 minute plan, add the messaging package, and make a sale off of the messaging package. No one gets commission off of the minute package, and texts are cheap for the company. The customer gets more value off of their package, and everyone wins (pretty much).
But yeah, that's pretty much all I got. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.
I agree with everything that has been written in this thread. I wanted to add that some call centers have a toxic culture of contempt for customers that can suck you in. Avoid that at all costs. I'm not saying you have to be a humorless anti-social person: Some calls really are awful, some customers really are weird and difficult and crazy. I once had a guy call me from an Apple store and threaten to start busting the place up if I didn't magically beam fix-it rays into his iPhone. But if you start believing that all or most customers are like that it will change the way you take calls and make them go much worse for you.
If you assume that every customer is a crazy idiot more of them will be. Never forget that the customers are just regular people, and they will, for the most part, treat you in accordance with how you treat them. And no matter how subtle you think you're being, if in your heart you hold someone in contempt they will totally notice and be upset by it. Basically, I've seen a lot of good agents ruin their careers by hating customers and starting every call with their fists up, ready to fight. If you start that way, if you have it in your mind that the customer is your enemy, customers are going to fight with you.
I have some basic advice if you want to stay a long time or advance in the business also. From the first day in training: dress like how your managers and trainers dress. If they wear button down dress shirts and slacks, wear the same. If they wear ties, put one on occasionally. That can be annoying, but because call centers often have lax dress codes a lot of agents, even good ones, dress like slobs. If you demonstrate that you're serious about the job with your appearance, I guarantee it'll be noticed in a positive way. Even if you're not looking for a promotion, you'll be thankful you did this when the managers get together to decide who deserves the premium schedules.
Haha...I loved guys like you because there was a shorthand and ease of communication. Apparently the one you were talking to didn't know his shit.
I have had to call ATT support...Same things as you and they had me repeat all the same shit. I just asked for level 2 support instead of say "I used to do your exact job and did it better you moron".
I guess the only thing I will add is that even if you're shocked or bothered at first by how often people use you as a punching back for their frustration with your company (or sometimes just their frustration with life in general), if you stick with it you'll grow a really thick skin. Which is not a bad thing to have.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Learn the system! Its not just "you vs the customer", it is also "you vs. your employer".
-Know your metrics, always be on time, if you have a limited ammount of time for each call you WILL need to learn some tricks, like the reboot thing someone else mentioned... it sucks, but dont let anything damage YOUR numbers. (I had 120sec. max per call. 90 sec. when I was moved to a larger account)
-Know how often your calls are recorded, make friends or at least keep a good relationw ith your inmediate superior and with people on your same job, that have been there longer. Ask for criticism, learn how the company REALLY wants you to answer the calls, this goes beyond what you are told in training. (I was told I was being TOO polite for example, superiors didnt enjoy that for some reason)
-And last but not least, keep your head cool all the time, this has been said before, but YOUR mental health is the most important thing to look after, Ive seen girls break down and cry after being treated awfully by customers. If you do your job right and you know it, no one can bust your balls, customers OR superiors, and that is the rewarding part of any job you take.
If they don't actually "know" what they are doing in tech support, which is nearly all Level 1 tech support staff, they are just reading off a script, and they don't really understand what they are telling you to do, just reading off a list that they have to go through before they can pass you up to level 2.
Everything everybody has told you is true.
The key thing, don't take it personally. seriously. They are going to be mad and wants somebody to yell at.
oh, also. keep moving. If your office allows it, get a desk that you can stand at. Just keep moving. Even if for only a short period of the day. it is so easy to just sit there, answer calls, and not move. This is the key to disaster. or weight gain. Move around, keep the blood flowing.
Also, for your first week or two on the phones, make sure you have some throat lozenges or something along those lines. You are going to be talking in those first few days more than you have ever considered possible. You will get a sore throat. Soothe it as best you can and keep going. Drink water and suck on some Halls. And life will be better.
best of luck!
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Just curious, how'd your first week go?
Mr. Rats is a smart dude, listen to him. If you follow the above advice you'll be good at your job and probably even like it, if you enjoy turning angry people into happy people. It's within your power, you just have to have the right attitude and be savvy enough with AT&T's systems to solve problems.
AT&T isn't so bad, I've worked with them on and off for the better part of 8 years. They love their classroom trainings and they won't throw you to the wolves until they think you're ready.
Negativity leads directly to poor performance, bad service, and missing work or being late. Period. If you act like you hate the customers, you will start to resent them, and thus, your job. The vast majority of people who don't succeed in call center work are usually let go for attendance, not for performance. If you show up on time with a good attitude and make an effort to learn the job and help out your classmates, you're already ahead of 60-70% of other new hires.
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