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customer service
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Work & Study
any custojmer service people? At my current job (which i'm temping at) they've asked if i would be interested in becoming a permenant employee, but in the customer service dept. (right now I just file, type and play computer ) Now I'm not a big people person so I'm skeptical, but on the other hand, we're just a publishing company, so its not like angry people with phone contracts or car insuance or something. I couldn't imagine it *that* bad. So, experiences? Is it as bad as I'm probably imagining? I would gladly take it as it would be more moola and benefits, but I'm still scared
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Best of luck
I hate it, I'm just far too lazy to get a proper job. I'm quite a good talker on the phone and I'm good at my job but I just get absolutely no satisfaction from it. Every day another little piece of my soul wastes away when I hear people getting so angry at the smallest thing. I'm so frustrated when I ask customers multiple times seemingly simple questions like "are you the account holder?" and they proceed to give me their address or start rabitting on about nothing and it takes 10 minutes just to pass the security check with them.
Then I get my head bitten off because it's taking too long. Oh you don't see the point in having data protection questions, but you'd be the first on the phone to Watchdog if we let anybody into your account willy nilly. And I'm trying my absolute best to understand them and for them to understand me, but then get asked if I can "put them through to somebody who speaks English".
This is the reason I get grey hair, I need a proper job.
Customers are idiots. Yes I know we're all a customer to somebody at some point but you do get some interesting characters. The worst bit is when it's one of those days when you just want to crawl into a corner and not see anyone, and you've got some prat faffing over the 2p he's meant to have been given off with some voucher thats not even valid and asking to see your manager....
Then again, sometimes you get customers that are grateful and they're the ones that make you think "Ah I can't be too bad at this."
Just be prepared to deal with snotty people. Ever taken your bad mood out on some telesales person, or the checkout people when your shopping? Yeah, everyone does it, and they do it well
Ya know what I mean
But we get so many vacation days and personal days and they support education so I'd get some perks on that if i need to take time off for an interem and the most important part, insurance So I think I have to take it!
But thanks, at least I know what to expect!
Nah no need to be scared. You just have to be ready to be a robot It's an easy life really once you've got used to the insults.
:yes: basically... if you enjoy listening to people pissing and moaning all day then a CS job is the right job for you... though you tune it out after a bit
Woah, do we work at the same place Bri?! :eek2:
Some people love it, and are great at it, but those people are general happy-smily people-people with a calming manner and skin like a rhino.
:yes: I fucking hate the general public. You wonder how they actually get by in everyday life being so stupid. Grr customer service
That's why they're called "The Great Unwashed".
Yeah, it certainly helps to have a thick skin. You have to be able to switch off to the callers, but still help them if you can.
Like somebody said, you need to be a robot. If you can forget your 'identity' and just think how you're fronting a company, that it's not you but the company that is making the people angry, then I reckon you will be fine. I personally am a machine that goes 'good day' and 'just a moment'. That's my function, anything else I get yelled at for has nothing to do with me. I often just let them get on with it while playing online games at the same time going 'aha, yes, that's unfortunate'.
I don't regret taking this job, you have all those horror stories and grit your teeth over idiots, but as a temporary thing it's not really so bad. This is nothing I'd want to do for a living, but for a summer job I'm content. I go home and that's my work day completely over. It's fairly easy!
And just as I write this I get some in-house bitch going at me because I don't offer her some premium service. I really hate it when co-workers get snide.
Customers ALWAYS say "I know it's not your fault....BUT....*rant*"
Im' sure the excitement will wear off soon enough, but still.
It already has for me and its only day one.:D Customers are knobs! I really hate having to listen to them bang on about their energy bills.
i'm a customer service advisor in a call centre and you'd be surprised how many people seem to think that because they have a problem it give them a right to treat the person on the end of the phone like shit
I've had people threatening to track me down after work and shoot me (which was fun) and then customers that decided to literally scream down the phone at me
just remember, never leaugh or start swearing until *after* you have either put the customer on hold or ended the call
doing it before hand may cause problems
:yes:
If customers get arsey i put them through to a supervisor which takes longer and costs them more, and if theyre nasty to me then i accidentally on purpose spend ages putting them through, oops wrong line - again?!
Otherwise if a customner is insulting me even when I have what theyre asking for on the screen if they're calling me a bitch or whatever I just keep asking them to spell the name/town etc until they lose the plot and their head explodes or hang up. Tis rather amusing. The nice customers generally get what they want quickly
Thats why Im always nice when I call up. I know what its like to be on the recieving end of rude and patronising customers.
The more annoying and rude you are, generally the longer it will take to get your query sorted. :thumb:
That sounds more antagonizing than anything else - if you've got an upset customer shouldn't you try to calm them down? I've had my fair share and if they're fuming I just leave them to it (go quiet on the phone). But where I'm working at the minute I get fed up of the guys / girls who answer the phone and then have an attitude with the customer. 'No, we do not deal with that, call the 0845 number.' and hang up. Nice.
I would disagree with the rest of the people here and say the general public aren't stupid - we're all part of it after all - but they can get upset (like any one of us) when things go wrong. Like my phone contract increasing my call charges - Bri who works for O2 is taking calls from loads of customers moaning to him - obviously it wasn't his decision - but the customers are losing out money that they weren't previously.
I'd say it's like any other job - its got its perks and its pitfalls. But compared to a lot of jobs its quite nice, sitting down all day with a drink and all you need to do is talk!
No because I work at directory enquiries and the abuse I get is completly unjustified. I appriciate that customers may get irate when there's been a fuck up or a problem with a service etc but when someones on a train or in a nightclub (it happens) and you ask them to repeat the name of the town because you didn't quite hear them and they scream down the phone 'you fucking thick bitch'. Or when its x-directory and they shout 'what the hell are you talking about its x-directory, what kind of service do you think you're providing?' *rant rant*. If I get an upset customer they can talk with me and try and sort it out or they can fuck off. Customer is always right - what bollocks. If the customers a cunt then so will I be.
(Needless to say I won't be staying at this job long, estimated time left at job = 4 days)
I think there should be compulsorary euthanasia on all people deemed (by me) to be too stupid to co-exist on the same planet as me. Some of the moronic things I had to answer in Tesco didn't so much make me laugh as kinda moved me to tears by their stupidity.
A large proportion of the general public are morons and idiots, and it tends to be them that ring up more often than not.
See that's what I'm paid to do, take crap off customers and I'll always, always stay professional and do my job the way I'm paid to do it. I'm paid to be the face of the company I work for, I do thankfully get a bit of flexibility to help customers out when things go wrong - personally I love it when I can help a bit and they go off with a better impression of the company.
It's fine when they can see your point of view even if they are complaning, but when they start "fucking" this and stuff then that's when it really starts getting beyond a joke. I'm the least confrontational person you'll meet, but I don't take shit down the phone and I'm not afraid to bar customers accounts if they become extra abusive (and yes we are allowed to do that)