I consider myself a citizen of the world, and I really make an effort to understand the global economy. I want to be tolerant, and I want to receive satisfactory customer service for products that I buy and use. So, I have a considerable amount of angst about outsourced call centers. I know that their existence is often made light of and joked about by comedians, pundits, popular culture. I also understand the economic reason for their existence to better the company's bottom line. I must admit that actually dealing with them on a pretty regular basis has been somewhat of a wash for me.
I have a way I prefer to communicate with phone contacts of companies. I usually start out being as polite and sweet as apple pie, but then when my issue is not resolved within, say 15 to 20 minutes of waiting, talking to a computer voice, being put on hold, I start to lose my polite voice. It is my weakness and character flaw, and I have come pretty close to blowing a gasket on several different occasions. I have even worked a phone switchboard as a temporary job, so I guess I know a little about what I'm complaining about. Problem solving skills and initiative to find a solution are two skills that most employees need, and especially customer service personnel. Obtuse denial that there even IS a problem is not a good starting point for me with a phone operator.
Anyway, my major hideous billing issue with a certain cell phone company that loves the color pink was FINALLY resolved today after nearly 2 days straight on the phone. I wish I had kept my cool through it all, but sadly, I did not, and I will have to live with that.
1 comment:
I loose it, too, I am sorry to say. Not the same subject but I had someone call awhile back doing a cell phone survey. I wanted to be nice and do it but told the lady we don't have much experience with cell phones as we use TraFones. She assured me that was fine and that the survey wouldn't take long. After doing it for for several long minutes and finding it irrelavant as I was just having to make up the answers and she was getting impatient with me when I said, "I don't know" as it wasn't one of the answer choices, I told her I was going to hang up. She called me back and begged me to finish it. I said, "No." Then she had her supervisor call me. I did loose my "nice" phone voice.
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