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Don’t take your bad day out on a call centre worker

Simon Sharwood

by Simon Sharwood

26 Mar 05:35am

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Filed under: Business, Call Centre, India, Telecommunications

57 comments

Everyone loves to hate call centres, but it’s time to give them a break because they generally provide a convenient and effective service.

Picture: Stephen Cooper.

If you’re foaming at the mouth right now thinking that the ten minutes you’ve just spent on hold being told “your call is important” was neither convenient nor effective, consider the alternative.

In many cases it’s a drive down to your local shops, a few minutes spent hunting for a parking spot and then a few more walking past shops before you get to the retail outlet where you want to conduct a transaction.

Once there, you’ll wait for a few minutes in a queue, then probably get sucked into a calorific impulse buy during the return journey.

Even if you get in and out as fast as possible you’re looking at 20 minutes to get something done at a local bank branch or Medicare office, plus the cost of petrol, parking and that snack you didn’t need.

Is that really so bad compared to a few minutes on hold?

But, I hear you saying, you are sometimes forced to drive to a retail shopfront because so many call centres these days use offshore worker and it is jolly hard to understand what they say.

Plenty of Australian companies recognise that the offshore call centre experience is not always great and they’re fighting back in two ways, one of which is bringing their call centres back to Australia because they recognise that while going offshore is cheap, they’ll make more money in the long term by providing good customer service.

Another is by working with offshore call centres to improve their workers’ accents, or moving work to countries where staff speak English that’s easier on the Australian ear.

Across the industry, meanwhile, the prevailing wisdom now suggests that if you want to save money, simple “offshoring” is great, but the way to customers’ hearts is great customer service.

This admission is typical of the call centre industry, which generally works very hard to provide good service.

I run a podcast for call centre managers and whenever I attend the conferences and seminars where they congregate, I’m amazed at how genuinely they care about doing a really good job and the big investments companies make to improve service. For example, I know of call centres that spend the winter making plans to cope with events like a deluge of calls after summer electrical storms.

Those plans use amazing technologies that can find anyone inside an organisation that has ever worked on the call centre and turn their desks in to an extra call centre extension during busy times.

I’ve also spoken to call centres that have devised new ways to improve the accuracy of predictions about when repair people will show up to repair problems that can’t be fixed over the phone. That creates better service on the phone and in the real world.

Another reason to appreciate call centres is that the industry is huge. I’m told by Dr. Catriona Wallace at analyst house Callcentres.net that more than 300,000 people work in the industry in Australia, and that growth outpaces the rest of the economy.

Plenty of those jobs are part time or work-from-home, so call centres offer a lot of flexible work for Australians.

Australia is also very good at providing call centre services, so much so that last year an Indian company acquired a local call centre company because it wanted its smarts. The Indian company now plans to more than double the workforce here in Australia – and some Aussies will probably end up taking calls from overseas as offshored call centre agents.

That’s a man-bites-dog story if ever there was one, but the mainstream media ignored it because call centres generally only get a run when the news is bad.

Not every call centre is excellent and not every interaction with the good ones ends well. But don’t let the bad apples and the occasional thorny problem make you think that the people running call centres don’t care.

It’s just not easy to take a few tens of thousands of calls a day and get everything right, every time. Most try as hard as they can to provide a service that’s more convenient – and cheaper - than the alternatives, and we should all appreciate that by being kinder to our call centres.

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57 comments

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    • Timmo says:

      06:06am | 26/03/10

      Well we probably don’t like call centres because basically someone who has my name and details that their company probably bought off the post office rings me and basically invades my privacy. Usually and Indian Accent calling from Mumbai and I can’t understand a word of what they are saying, so what’s the point. If I want to buy something I know already where to go and get it. The call centre person doesn’t give a damm about me or you, it’s just about getting a sale. Buy this, buy that. On TV all the time, blah blah blah, ads and in the letter box on the side of the road everywhere. The assault on privacy never ends.

      We all are constantly being bombarded with Phone Calls,advertisements, real estate agents wanting to know whether you will sell your house, all these things. People calling at your door wanting you to sign up to their Electric or Phone Company and signing a 2 year contract and tying you right in there web of deceit. It’s not about that they are our instant friends and really care. At the end of the day it’s about removing the money from your pocket and putting it in theirs. Well that’s the capitalist system and how it runs today. There is no honour in this sort of business behaviour. If one door closes for them then they find a new way to get into you life whether you like it or not. Don’t worry about some protection of your privacy and government regulations for same, you can go and buy information from them. There is no privacy for anyone. Best advice is just hang up.

      Reply

    • Eliza says:

      09:28am | 26/03/10

      Try the Do Not Call register. It should stop some of the sales calls at least.

    • Katie says:

      01:00pm | 26/03/10

      you are somewhat misguided here, you seem to have read the title and not much else in this article - It’s not discussing COLD-CALLING, which is what you seem to be referring to, but instead call centres that actually answer YOUR questions… y’know, like, the bank, centrelink,medicare, RACQ etc… where YOU call THEM. The market research companies and other companies who try to sell YOU stuff… yes, they annoy all of us, but get your facts right before you mouth off about totally the wrong topic in this forum.

    • Liam says:

      03:57pm | 26/03/10

      Yeah think you missed the point mate, try re-reading the article.

    • T.Chong says:

      07:05am | 26/03/10

      All anyone has to do is say “no thanks” and hang up.
      The poor saps doing the calling arent running the company, and good chance they ( the tele operaters ) dont give a rats about you anyway.
      Be polite, straightforward, hang up and move on, its that simple,or leave the 1:1 to the answering machine.

      Reply

    • H of SA says:

      04:23pm | 26/03/10

      Yup, I actually worked in Sales once because its pretty much the only place they give you a job with no experience. As a caller - with a guilty conscience - I always thought that was fair enough response. Polite no thanks and hangup. Neither you or the salesperson has their time wasted. When they insist don’t argue, just hang up.

      Same goes for street sellers, just say polite no. Then keep walking - totally disengaged

    • Gerard says:

      07:41am | 26/03/10

      To the people who have posted the above posts, the author is talking about call centres that are accepting calls, not call centres that are making calls. These people are taking your calls to help you with banking, computing, car insurance, etc. These aren’t the people trying to change you home phone provider or sell you a $100 plane ticket for $150.

      Reply

    • Timmo says:

      10:14am | 26/03/10

      Yes Gerard, i get your point, maybe I made a pre-emptive strike there so I covered the wrong side, sorry, but as regards the call centres that supposedly help us when we call, why is it that we have to wait so long for service and many times have to talk to a computer. Some places you phone still have personal service where we can talk to a real person but I think it is more a way of distancing themselves, but that is obviously the modern way. It is nice to talk to someone sometimes tho. Makes you feel that your inquirey is more worthwhile I suppose.

      I always felt that a lot of this hands off approach in particular by government depts. was to do more with the unfair dismissal laws that were in place some time ago. For Instance, people apply for a Job with them and it is all done through an outsourced employment company employed by the government so they can stay away from the issue of complaint. You have a phone interview then a personal one and then a couple of others and then after all that you may or may not succeed in gaining employment with them. Good for them tho. Whatever comes out of it in the negative doesn’t flow back to them so therefore no problem. Quite often the actual job doesn’t match the discription as given by the call centre. I am obviously not an expert with all this but have had personal experience with same. just a customer wanting service and a real person on the phone, not much to ask i think. I’m sure many people will see my point in regard to the above. Maybe you can enlighten me further.

    • Billie says:

      01:53pm | 26/03/10

      So Timmo, first of all you complain about waiting a long time to talk to a real person then complain about being directed by a computer. If you were to talk to a real person straight up, they’d put you on hold and direct to another person, and then perhaps again, and so on until you get to the actual person who is trained in providing the specialist information or process you need.  What would you say to that final person after being passed along? Whereas a computer can go through those processes to find the right person while you’re on hold once, not multiple times.  Which would you prefer, really?

    • Elizabeth says:

      08:06am | 26/03/10

      My Telephone provider obviously uses a call center, I have never heard an Australian accent when I ring there yet. They sound to be me to be based in India. Whilst I am not rude, I think with all the Aussies out of work, they should employ Australian. I make my telephone calls in Australia, my phone is definatly in Australia ,  I pay with Australian $ so why can’t the person I am trying to sort out whatever problem is at the moment..be in Australia?

      Reply

    • bec says:

      08:14am | 26/03/10

      Elizabeth, you might need to reach for some smelling salts and recline yourself in advance upon your fainting couch, because I have something slightly shocking to tell you: some people in Australia have accents too. Some of them are even citizens!!!!!

      Yes, this might seem like some dastardly Illuminati conspiracy theory, but I can assure you with all honesty it is bone hard medical fact.

    • Scot says:

      12:16pm | 26/03/10

      Yes, Lufthansa moved it call centre to Melbourne from Asia many years ago. WHY, because it could get access to all the language speaking people it needed to operate its centres. BA switches it call centres form the UK to the US every day? If I am trying to speak to a Human being I go to the Bank etc. Face to Face. If I am put on hold with one of these so called Australian companies (Airline, Insurance etc.) if they do not answer in 3 minutes and it is a free call I leave the phone off the hook and walk away. Its their money. For the best service Asia is tops. Except for Telstra CSL mobile in HK, LOL, they have also learnt bad habits. China call centres are first class.

    • Laine says:

      02:27pm | 26/03/10

      Bec is right, just because the person you are speaking to doesn’t have an Australian accent, do not assume they are not in Australia.  I have worked in a small call centre, and I can tell you that a large number of people working there were born overseas. Our callers would often assume that we weren’t based in Australia. Alos, the number of times someone would say “I spoke to the Indian bloke,” when the person they had spoken to was actually African, Chinese or some other nationality. People make a lot of assumptions, many of which are incorrect.

    • Paul says:

      08:42am | 26/03/10

      Mate if a customer comes into a shop and they want to buy something or resolve an issue and they have to wait 30 minutes in the shop and/or then they get passed around various (sometimes incompetent) sales staff they get annoyed and ultimately take it out on the call staff. Dealing with many companies these days is as mind boggling and frustrating as a bureaucracy. Many boffins in Customer Service like you, I don’t think have worked this out.

      And you can’t tell me for the profits the Telco’s and big companies make they can’t afford to put more staff on or get with some basic customers service…! The big companies are just putting the blame back onto customers and the poor old meat in the sandwich -  the callstaff.

      The most striking thing for me has been dealing with Vodafone. I’ve actually had to go to an Ombudsman to get basic customer service. (Then I find out there are tens of thousands of complaints about Telco’s every year - what’s wrong with this customer service picture?) And even after ringing Vodafone with the Ombudsman’s complaint reference number they still couldn’t be bothered to call me back and I’ve been a customer of theirs for 4 years…. I’ve been in small business for 15 years and I can say Vodafone is the worst company or bureaucracy I have ever dealt with.

      Does even the term “Customer Loyalty” mean anything these days Simon? So when I’m on the phone to Vodafone these days I’m always starting from a point of being blunt/ resentful about their lack of respect and lack of customer service. Just as I would be to any other business that has been rude to me or evading paying invoices. So now I just say to staff I’m going to have to be rude to you .....But blah blah blah! After this contract I will change to pre-paid.

      And yes, I realise that most of these companies that run call centres don’t really care about my business, they will make windfall profits whatever their dodgy practices. Wish I could get my snout in the trough.

      Twist it anyway you want Simon but this new attitude of the “company is always right” is irritating and prone to bad feelings and dispute but obviously good for business. And your business.

      Reply

    • Chris L says:

      11:44am | 27/03/10

      Oh, you had to mention you’d been a customer for 4 years! I used to work in a call centre (never will again, while most people are decent there would be at least one rude bugger each day) and when the first thing a person says when you answer the phone is “I’ve been a customer for X years” you know it’s going to be a bad call!

      Still, I think I did my part to enhance the experience. If I had a customer who was polite and understanding I went to extra lengths to give them good service (sometimes bending the rules a little in their favour) and if I had a rude customer I used to take a little enjoyment in enforcing the policies they were complaining about.

    • Lee Smith says:

      12:38am | 28/03/10

      Actually I’m a Vodafone customer and last year had an issue with a bill.  They were outstanding.  I could not fault their service.

    • Gillian says:

      09:55pm | 28/03/10

      I’ve been a Vodafone customer for over ten years. Vodafone has great customer service ... when you get to speak to an actual operator. Unfortunately, they are let down by ‘Lara’, their automated voice system. I’ve spoken to so customer service reps who have told me that countless customers complain about the automated service. I just feel sorry for them.

    • Daniel says:

      08:45am | 26/03/10

      While many people getting frustrated with support or call centres. They really have no idea what us support workers go through most of the day. Pressure to answer calls in a certain time. Zero toilet breaks and most of the time zero lunch breaks. These things are now gone totally. We get asked to do things in our own time. If we dont like it we can leave basically. The treatment is appalling basically. Indian call centres i myself get frustrated with but Australan workers deserve a better go.

      Reply

    • Smooth Operator says:

      09:05am | 26/03/10

      Who cares what nationality the person is who takes your call or the person annoying you with a call, but what is up our nose is the fact that they can’t speak ENGLISH!!
      Time is lost on repeating yourself!  Time is money!! Ha Ha!!

      Reply

    • Eric says:

      09:14am | 26/03/10

      They’re not all bad.

      I once received an extra bonus for free from a call centre staffer. He told me I got it just for not being rude.

      On another occasion, I lost the power supply for my cable modem when moving house. The call centre guy was so helpful, he gave me a spare unit he owned himself, for free. I just had to drive in to pick it up.

      Reply

    • Zeta says:

      09:33am | 26/03/10

      It’s not that people hate call centres in general. It’s that they hate Telstra. I once sat on the phone to Telstra every day for 4 hours for a week to get a new mobile connected after they delivered me the wrong model. They now call me every week or so to remind me that I’m eligible for a free handset, even though my monthly statement tells me I’m already paying for one. Sometime’s I’m tempted to tell them I’ll take it just to see how many of these free handsets I could accrue.

      BigPond is even worse. A couple of times my service has dropped out on a weekend when I need it for work, and when I call tech support, their answer is always the same ‘oh, you’re whole area is out, don’t worry it will come back eventually’ only to find that no, my neighbours bigpond service, my flatmate’s bigpond service, even the cafe across the road that shares a bigpond node are all working fine. They actually lie to you when they can’t be arsed figuring out what the problem is.

      Compare that to my Bank of Queensland service. I rang them on Monday to order a new Visa debit card. Phone rang twice, was picked up by a human, who took down my name and account details. Card arrived in 48 hours.

      luv u boq. h8 u telstra.

      Reply

    • Scott Glennon says:

      10:20am | 26/03/10

      Telstra should hire phone sex operators to speak with you while your on hold. Would be better then “Your call has progressed in the queue”

      While you wait please enjoy one of the following opinons, please note that all calls are recorded.
      Press 1 if you’d like to listen to Lindsay Lohan bark topless
      press 2 if you’d like Jacob Black to give you an oil massage
      And press 3 if you’d like Lindsay and Jacob to take their true form and get it on.

    • Zeta says:

      11:10am | 26/03/10

      I like to imagine Lindsay Lohan’s true form is a 7 foot tall gelatinous column of madness inducing plasma, shot through with iron spikes and black, pulsating veins with a stalk that ends in a ovoid, fang lined mouth. She’s speak in non-Euclidean geometry and anyone subjected to her for more than a few seconds would start to bleed from the eyes and ears.

    • Bobbybee says:

      04:21pm | 26/03/10

      My Bigpond experience was exactly the same as yours, Zeta. I was lied to and totally stuffed around over a period of 7 days. I have never been so angry in all my life. h8 u Telstra x 2

    • Ben81 says:

      11:23pm | 26/03/10

      I just cannot understand why anyone would go with Telstra (or almost any major phone company) for their internet connection anyway when there’s so many vastly better and cheaper options out there.  The only reason they’re still in the broadband market at all is that they still have enough customers who think they’re an easier option for some reason, and don’t bother spending 5 seconds looking at the alternatives and finding out that bigpond is a blatant ripoff.

    • Greg says:

      12:49pm | 27/03/10

      I agree telstra is appalling. 5 times i rang their call centre to get something simple fixed on my bill, 5 times they got it wrong, each time assuring me that it would be fixed straight away. I lodged a complaint with the telecommunications ombudsman, cancelled my service with them and swore to have nothing to do with telstra for the rest of my life.
      Also having worked in a call centre let me tell you its like the battery hen farm of occupations. Constantly monitored, having to account for every minute of your day, arbitary perfectionist goal setting, its more robotic than human. My hats off to anyone who can put up with that treatment. Personally I don’t like to be questioned if I spend an extra minute in the toilet.

    • D says:

      09:57am | 26/03/10

      I try not to get cross at the frontline staff becasue usually they aren’t the one thast created my problem in the first place.  I ask for the number of a person paid to deal with irate customers and get cross at them instead.

      I find telcos to be the worst.  most places are fairly helpful, but I’ve had trouble with several telcos, I’ve been trying to resovle a problem and get stonewalled.  I tried calling telstra and each time the IVR would send me to the wrong area to start with, the person would “transfer me” and my call would be disconnected.  By my fourth attempt I was in no mood to be polite and told the person I got that they were not going to transfer me, they were going to deal with my issue becasue I was done with being hung up on by their system.

      I think call centre workers have a horrible job by and large, it’s not one I would like to be doing.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      09:59am | 26/03/10

      When ever I get the call from Bombay, I always stop the caller and tell him what his approximate rate of pay is in Australia.  You cannot cheat an Indian, and the owners of the centre can have their industrial relations problems in India.  Many jobs have been transferred from Australian country towns to India because the pay is lower there.  However if a job is worth X dollars in Australia, it is worth the same in India!

      Reply

    • julain thomas says:

      10:48am | 26/03/10

      Your comment:i would prefer a online fixit solution to most problems , ala faqs and also the company involved usually has employees that know a problem exists, go public and be transparent in solving problems in house rather than frustating customers

      Reply

    • Jason says:

      10:53am | 26/03/10

      Even when overseas call centres do everything they can including trying to speak with a clearer accent. There are cultural things that also get in the way, for example, they would pronounce suburbs incorrectly and would not understand idioms among other things. If I am aware of a company that uses foreign call centres, I will not use them even if it costs a bit more.

      Reply

    • dancan says:

      11:45am | 26/03/10

      I can tell you from working within a call centre it’s a thankless job. 

      The company rides you hard, you’re penalised if you come to work even a couple of minutes late, your lunches are timed to the second, your toilet breaks are timed, you have a set amount of time per call, if you go over that call time without good reason you’re penalised.  You are told what you can and can’t say, you’re given reading cards, you’re secretly listened to by superiors to ensure you’re not deviating from the script, if you help to much you’re penalised.  And that’s just from the company. 

      From the other side you’d get people calling who are abusive, perverted, unhelpful and generally have a real grudge against you for no reason. 

      I remember one client who used to call the help line almost daily for no other reason than to ask questions that couldn’t be answered by staff on the phones and then open with a wall of abuse and yelling directly into the phone.  This guy called so many times that in a call centre that was open from 6am till 10pm staffed by over 300 people I got him on three separate occasions. 

      This is not a job people take by choice,  people who take the job are stuck between company pressure and client demands.  They have no power over decisions they can only do what they’re instructed.

      Reply

    • Chris L says:

      11:52am | 27/03/10

      LOL! We used to get regular callers too. There was Prince Gulay who ruled a tiny province somewhere in Europe and wanted to sue us for not financing his purchase of chanel 9 which would have made him rich. There was Captain Doig who had never served in the military (probably owned a dinghy) and would always whinge about hating our service but being too lazy to change company (several managers had pre completed cancellation forms that just needed his signature, but he was too lazy even for that!).

    • Toby says:

      11:55am | 26/03/10

      Call centres represent everything that is wrong with society!  I have never experienced the contempt shown by call centre workers when in a face to face situation.  If you pick up the phone knowing that they are the enemy and are prepared (i.e. record everything, names (first and surname), times, dates etc.) then you should get satisfactory results.  If you still have problems then threaten to call the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).

      Reply

    • Emily says:

      04:06pm | 26/03/10

      What rubbish! Do some research and learn about the concept of recipocity - it’s a key concept of negotiation. In a nutshell, you are treated as you treat others. I use to argue with call centres and they’d drag their heels. Instead I now treat all call centres and shop assistants politely and with respect. Since then, I’ve had my every request agree to include getting credit interest charges reversed, goods exchanged etc. The person who answered your call is highly unlikely to have caused your problem so don’t treat them with contempt - very likely they can solve the problem so treat them like you’d like to be treated.

    • Toby says:

      06:51pm | 26/03/10

      I didn’t say argue I said record everything and is still not satisfied then threaten to take it further.  Fear of consequences is the greatest motivator. wink

    • Chris L says:

      11:51am | 27/03/10

      I can’t tell you how many times callers would threaten to call John Laws about me. Don’t get me wrong, I always tried to be polite and helpful, even friendly if the caller was polite with me, but when the John Laws threat surfaced I would just laugh into the headset and encourage them to make their idiocy public.

    • Borat says:

      11:59am | 26/03/10

      To pay my way through university, I spent many years working in insurance, banking and government call centres and it is the type of job that I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy! They don’t call call centre workers “phone monkeys” for nothing.

      Here’s an example of a typical day:

      Manager (M): Why did it take you more than 140 seconds to deal with that customer’s complaint?
      Phone Monkey (PM): Well, it was a complex…
      M: And you didn’t even cross-sell them anything in that time!
      PM: Yes, it was because I was trying to resolve…
      M: And look at these stats! You took a 30 second toilet break at 11:12am, then another at 3:43pm. Plus, you were 17 seconds late from your lunch break. You are really letting the team down, PM!
      PM: I’m sorry, I was helping a…
      M: I don’t care about your excuses. Your behaviour is unacceptable. You are now being performanced managed. Now, get back on the phone immediately!

      2.36 seconds later… (and PM’s feeling pretty down right about now)

      “Riiing, Riiiiing”
      PM: Welcome to ****** Customer Service, this is PM #2967, how may I help you?
      Irate Customer (IC): I was on hold for 10 minutes! What are you bunch of bludgers doing in there to make us wait so long?!?
      PM: I do apologise, sir, we are experiencing…
      IC: I don’t care what you’re experiencing! I’m sick of your company and your poor service! I also have an official complaint to make! I want to speak to your manager!
      PM: Certainly, sir, I will just place you on hold briefly, while I transfer the call.

      ***Call Transfer to M (who is busy planning a Managers’ Trivia Party)***

      M: Yes? What is it? I’m really busy…
      PM: I have a customer who would like to speak with you, to make an official complaint.
      M: Hang on a sec…

      5.78 minutes later…

      M: Look, I don’t have time for that. You are trained to deal with it, so deal with it.
      PM: Okay…

      ***Back to IC***

      PM: Thank you for your patience, sir, my manager is currently in a meeting, so…
      IC: What?!? You left me on hold for all that time just to tell me that?! What, did you have a quick coffee break too?! I’m so disgusted with your service that I could just <<removed due to profanities>>

      And, ad nauseum…

      So, please, next time you are speaking with a phone monkey, please keep in mind that a majority of them have to deal with oppressive work conditions, incompetent managers and a constant stream of irate customers. They really do want to help you and your kindness and understanding would be greatly appreciated.

      Reply

    • Steph says:

      12:07pm | 26/03/10

      Hi, I am a government call centre agent providing a free service to the public. Here are a few tips for dealing with call centres in a less stressful and strenuous manner (some of these only apply to government!)
      1. Calmly, politely and PROMPTLY please get to the point of why you are calling. This will save you so much time. This will allow us to determine straight away whether or not we are equipped to help you and either a) resolve your query or b) recruit a more experienced colleague to resolve your query.

      2. Will you please LISTEN when we answer your query. So many callers don’t, and just continue to talk at us. If you listened you’d realised we’ve answered you in the first 30 seconds, however if you keep talking you’re wasting your time and also the time of all those people on hold, and I know you all HATE being on hold.

      3. Don’t be an asshole. You know we personally aren’t responsible for any grudges you have with the government or company you are calling. If you personally berate us, you’ll just upset us which cognitively impairs us and we probably won’t be able to offer you as good service as you’d have got if you were polity.

      4. Just because you are a taxpayer does not mean you own me or the service you are calling. Please remember this when asking (note ASKING) me to do some task for you.

      5. Finally, don’t ask us dumb questions that you know we aren’t qualified to answer about public policy. You know why you called the call centre, so keep it on topic.

      I, and no doubt all my fellow call centre colleagues out there who actually give a crap, really just want to provide you with considerate, efficient and RELEVANT service, so if you could have a think about these points before you call us again I guarantee you more success than your previous attempts.

      Reply

    • Me says:

      07:17pm | 27/03/10

      Yes I’m in the same boat. Everything you say is so absolutely true and it would really assist all of us. If people would do those 5 points you’ve suggested. I’m a bit sick of been the punching bag for people who’ve had bad experiences with other Government departments. Also, Why don’t people realise that we don’t make the policy!??! If they have a problem they should contact their member of parliament.

    • Tired of the abuse says:

      06:54pm | 28/03/10

      The ignorance of the masses re government is staggering.
      I too work for a government call centre (also worked in hell, I mean worked for several financial services’ call centre’s) and I once had a customer ask me to change a certain LAW by bringing it up in the ‘weekly meeting’ she thouoght we had (we didn’t). I don’t work for a government minister, or anything remotely close.
      Don’t people know how laws get made anymore? Do they really think unelected call centre grunt staff vote on new laws in weekly meetings?
      Pretty funny though.

    • Tim Hendrix says:

      12:21pm | 26/03/10

      I work in a call centre. Let me say that if you have to wait to get through to someone, it is because the company doesn’t have enough people manning the lines to cope with the number of calls coming in at that point. It is not as simple as employing more people to cover the calls: the number of calls that come in will fluctuate wildly over the course of a day, and the company can only try to anticipate how busy it will be based on yearly trends and any scheduled activity that might provoke an influx of calls. They are not able to just cram the call centre with staff on the offchance that loads of people call up, because staff cost money, and companies try to cut back on as many costs as they can, with the exception of management’s salaries, of course.
      They can, of course, have loads of staff and then you would experience very short wait times, but I will guarantee that the reason you are calling is to complain about how large your bill is. In case I have to spell it out: the wait times you experience are related to keeping the costs as low as possible, which directly relates to how much they have to charge for whatever the service is that they provide.

      Another way they have attempted to keep the costs low is to get call centre staff to specialise in the various areas of their business. For this to work, they need to direct your call to the right person based on what it is you are calling about - this is where the automated voice recording system comes in. It allows YOU to specify what your call is about via a series of questions and answers, which then allows your call to be put STRAIGHT THROUGH to the agent that specialises in this area. Again, it cuts down on costs such as training, because training an agent in every aspect of business takes time and therefore money. So again, this system is in place to save YOU, the customer, money (though whether the savings are in fact passed on to you, the customer, is another matter, and one that is NOT in the hands of the call centre staff!).

      The agents themselves are also people with lives like yours, who also have bills to pay or complaints to make, and also have to use all the same systems that you use. They also go to work on the bus and train, and own cars and pay phone bills… they are just like you. They are doing a job. Some are good at it, some are bad. I think I am good at it. I am friendly and tolerant and don’t hang up on people when they are screaming angry and swearing, which I am allowed to do, both as an employee of a company, and more importantly as a human being who shouldn’t have to put up with bad attitude and rudeness.

      As for the Indian call centre thing, as the user of the company, YOU are directly responsible for the fact that the call centre is in India. They have moved it there to keep costs down, so that they can stay competitive and continue to make money, which is the name of the game (It’s capitalism, folks - I hate it but you all keep voting for it). So if you complain about it, remember that it is directly because of you. If you want some of this money that these companies are making off you, then buy shares in the company - that’s how this system works.

      So be happy when you are on hold, or using the recorded message system, or talking to an Indian. It is saving you money. (and please, spare a thought for those Australians born in India, who still have their accent - how hard is it for them when their callers assume they are in India and give them heaps for it!)

      Reply

    • Scot says:

      12:35pm | 26/03/10

      The burn out rate in Indian call centres is horrific. The staff need to work graveyard hours so they do not have a real life. Many of the staff are graduates and are there for a few Rupees to pay the school fees. This is why the service is shocking. It may be cheap but the damage it is causing to the company that is using this service is significant, as these Front Line staff are destroying the business. Yes the centres have very sophisticated information on everything except the quality of the human being dealing with your problem. Some of the worst are the technology companies themselves, who do not practice what they preach..

      Reply

    • wary says:

      12:53pm | 26/03/10

      You clearly haven’t spent ANY time at all trying to get a satisfactory result for an issue through a call centre, either here in Australia or abroad.
      The fact that more and more companies are sending their service centres overseas is purely financial, but doesn’t, in any way, benefit us as the customer. I know that I can walk into a retail centre and have enough ability to have my issue resolved right there. If the front line staff can’t fix my problem, then find someone who can please.

      Essentially, there is no excuse for rudeness to anyone, call centre worker or not. However, the Australian public cannot be expected to simply put up with incompetence and inactivity by companies in the hope we are getting so frustrated that we will just forget about our issue and let them get away with whatever they have done wrong. Spend more cash, traing your staff better and dont even try to tell me that you will jack up my bill to cover that cost.

      Reply

    • eye4aneye says:

      01:25pm | 26/03/10

      If I only had to wait 10 minutes in a que I probably wouldn’t be annoyed but I find the average time far greater than that. I also find alot of the time the staff stick to a script and are unable to help very much since they have no expertise in the field just a manual of stock standard solutions and answers any variance on that and they flounder.

      All in all Simon you are either extremely fortunate in your call centre experiances or full of crap - and either way this article is relatively pointless.

      Reply

    • Dogbolter says:

      01:31pm | 26/03/10

      Indian call centres are the worst simply because they are not allowed to think for themselves. All they are are organic robots, reading endlessly from a script, never deviating. That’s what pisses me off the most, next to not being able to understand them. You can’t say “I have done x, y and z, can you skip ahead.” They will keep droning on and on and not even stop to hear what you say. I suspect they can’t really understand what we say, but listen to speech patterns.

      Simon, can you seriously say that Indian call centres are better? You can’t. We all know why a company offshores. Not because they like the customer, not for efficiency, but because they want to give their shareholders higher returns. NEVER has a company offshored to seriously improve customer service, unless their target audience is India. People in Australia say that it’s to keep costs down, and that Indian workers are cheaper. Well yes, but when rent in India is as little as $5 a week and over here it’s $300… even the most idiotic of people can see why Australian workers need to be paid a minimum wage to simply survive. And there is also the matter of security - I would never trust my details with a person who would sell them for a bag of rice. And this could happen - when you pay your workers a pittance, barely above what they need to survive, of course the temptation would be there. To say it would never happen is foolish at the extreme, and to say that the chance is just as great with Australian workers is also foolish.

      Reply

    • Dogbolter says:

      01:37pm | 26/03/10

      Indian call centres are the worst simply because they are not allowed to think for themselves. All they are are organic robots, reading endlessly from a script, never deviating. That’s what pisses me off the most, next to not being able to understand them. You can’t say “I have done x, y and z, can you skip ahead.” They will keep droning on and on and not even stop to hear what you say. I suspect they can’t really understand what we say, but listen to speech patterns.

      Simon, can you seriously say that Indian call centres are better? You can’t. We all know why a company offshores. Not because they like the customer, not for efficiency, but because they want to give their shareholders higher returns. NEVER has a company offshored to seriously improve customer service, unless their target audience is India. People in Australia say that it’s to keep costs down, and that Indian workers are cheaper. Well yes, but when rent in India is as little as $5 a week and over here it’s $300… even the most idiotic of people can see why Australian workers need to be paid a minimum wage to simply survive. And there is also the matter of security - I would never trust my details with a person who would sell them for a bag of rice. And this could happen - when you pay your workers a pittance, barely above what they need to survive, of course the temptation would be there. To say it would never happen is foolish at the extreme, and to say that the chance is just as great with Australian workers is also foolish.

      Reply

    • Lee Smith says:

      12:42am | 28/03/10

      Not just Indian call centres.  All call centres have scripts - standard industry practice.  The staff can only provide information from the script - regardless of what they personally know about the product.  Most staff don’t like it but - as some have alluded to here - the staff are generally treated pretty poorly at these centres and they just do what the bouncing ball tells them to.  Initiative in most call centres is not encouraged or even tolerated.  Initiative causes inconsistent service delivery. Stick to the script.  Personally I think it’s a bad system but most industry centres still do business this way.

    • Scott Glennon says:

      02:01pm | 26/03/10

      If you don’t like being on hold while your being paid for it at work, or the comfort of your own home then get off your super sized toosh and see someone face to face.
      Your likely to wait longer to speak to someone in a shop front outlet or head office then you would on the phone.
      Personally I use organisations who have the internet form option of having someone contact you at a time thats convenient for them. That why I’m waiting, but without a phone to my ear for 10-120 minutes.

      Reply

    • DG says:

      04:11pm | 26/03/10

      Back in the good ol’ days I words in a call centre.

      My happiest moment was a young lady who called, I still remember her name, shecwas so excited to be using “our” service. She was going on and on about how she was excited and she was the first out of all of her friends to use this service, and all of her family were so proud.

      Anyway, she talked for nearly an hour, I gave all of the help and information I could and the call ended with her being happy with the service and getting what she needed. Meanwhile, I was attacked by my supervisor for spending too much time on the phone with one customer.

      That shift I told them to stick their job, if I couldn’t take some joy out of helping the one happy customer they had what’s the point? I often wonder if the young lady ended up using their service. I hope she did because she wanted to, on the other hand I hope no one ever uses their service again and they go broke.

      The only problem I have calling call centres is that the electronic answering machines never get it right. I used a service for purchasing tickets and I spent ages trying to get the stupid computer to know what I wanted and there was no way around using the computer - it was futile. Eventually I just agreed with whatever tickets it was trying to sell me, and when it got to a human operator I corrected everything from the event to the number of tickets.

      Reply

    • Phone Monkey says:

      04:09pm | 26/03/10

      Hi Everybody! I’m a phone monkey with a couple of points to make and an axe to grind.

      1. Different industries are going to naturally provide a different experience of what is good and what is bad. If you’re ringing for tech support to fix something right this second then I’m guessing you’re going to run into some poor service whenever they can’t help you fix something immediately. If you’re calling an insurance company or a bank about a process, you’re going to run into a lot of bad service - why? Because the people you talk to by-and-large cannot change the process. More bad news the person you want to speak to about getting the process changed or speeded up doesn’t exist as most of these things are set by committee and I’m telling right up front the company is NOT going to arrange a sitting of the committee just because you want (or even need) something in a hurry.

      2. Anger is understandable in many situations and even better its so easy, you dont’ have to think just shout and make snarky comments, why not accuse us of deliberately trying to rip you off or of some other shady practice which, if it were true, would have caused us to be found out and heavily penalised long ago. You see the interesting thing about shouting at somebody is that the body interprets that as a form of or prelude to an attack and naturally starts production of adrenalin in the body to bring you up to fighting pitch - medical fact. So please of the love of a merciful god stop for one moment and think: If you shout at me how much do you think I want to help?

      3. I know its so hard, this thinking business is dirty, nasty stuff but just try it. consider the company’s point of view, what do we need? What information do we need from you? Doing this will help you prepare for your call and will help make your experience better - help us to help you. A few years ago I worked for a major insurer in their claims call centre (we were the people you called to tell us about your accident) I can’t express how sick I became of people calling up to lodge a claim on their motor vehicle policy and they couldn’t even be bothered to look at the actual policy (or the rego in many cases). I’m sorry that’s just dumb. And here comes the Axe, more than working in sales face-to-face, the call centre brought me into contact with the alarmingly large number of morons in the general public. Truth is I could have taken the daily abuse (and yes with over a million and half policy the number of calls which comes through is prodigious and abusive customers a daily occurence) if only I could have dealt with fewer morons.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      03:25am | 27/03/10

      Everyone up top has written 500 words or more.
      Must be an article about call-centres.

      Reply

    • GInger says:

      12:03pm | 27/03/10

      I take the article’s point that not all call centre staff are bad- I have no idea that many centre managers are motivated, outgoing, determined types. And yes, engaging in face to face can take just as long as being kept on hold on the phone. BUT bad service is bad service and should NOT be tolerated by people who are usually paying money. Service is a built in cost of goods and services and in this capitalistic world the buyer should expect good service. Frankly, I dont care if I speak to someone for whom english is a second language I just want to be able to understand them, have them be polite and respectful and I want to end the conversation having felt like they actually cared about what I wanted, needed, enquired about because if that frontline member cares then the company must care and I’ll stay with them.
      What really gets up my goat is how defensive people get when you ring to make a complaint- gosh darn it- it’s nothing personal it’s about the a business or the quality of a product or the way I was treated disrepectfully….

      Reply

    • Sha says:

      07:58pm | 27/03/10

      When your workplace has a call centre help desk which is staffed by people you can’t understand it becomes a financial liability

      Reply

    • V says:

      07:17pm | 28/03/10

      I got bored reading the comments here.  As an ex call center employee I believe that the report is based around the general insurance companies call centers, because what this report describe is what Sun/GIO does every year.

      Reply

    • Chris says:

      08:49am | 29/03/10

      My wife had a call from a very nice lady from the tax office last week…

      On the other hand, the unrequested marketing calls out of Hyderabad used to be really annoying. I found the best way to deal with unwanted phone attention was to discuss “the colour purple as a concept for life improvement”, ask them where the office is located and which floor they were on,  then request them to go up to the roof and either 1. Jump off -if its over 3 stories, or 2. wave to my cousin guptar (I dont have one…).
      Pretend to be a 5 year old and tell them “mummy cant come to the phone because the milkman is jumping on the bed with her”.
      Or “daddy cant come to the phone right now he’s in Ecuador, flying a 747 load of hash to jamaica…But I’ll take a message ...
      In the event of a free mobile phone (or anything electronic) being sent to you, go into a rage about the UFO/illuminati/government surveillance tracking “chips” in them and how the saucer people/ unknown men in black etc will come and probe you again…and again…“Oh my god thier coming through the door!!!” you get the picture….Enjoy it, run with it…its fun.

      Reply

    • Fred says:

      12:13pm | 31/12/11

      Call Centres need to be kept in Australia. Jobs need to be kept in Australia for Australian citizens.
      My sister works for a large Australian airline in their IT support centre, she was told before christmas that her job was been outsourced to India in July. Even though she has been doing the job for about 10 years, she has no formal qualifications. So in July she will have no job and no job prospects in the industry. She will probably loose her house and because my home loan was linked to hers as a package, I’ll probably loose my home as well.
      Do these big companies care about Australians. NO. They only care about profits for their shareholders. Do the big CEO’s give a damn. NO. They’ve got their million dollar plus wages, the financial hardship their cause doesn’t effect them.
      Meanwhile Australians are loosing their jobs and more.
      Thats my rant, see ya.

      Reply
 
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