Archive for August, 2007
Working for a imperfect company
Yesterday I told you about a time when every call was a call to cancel, every bill was wrong, and the next two bills would also be wrong. What do you do when the system is against you?
Under the circumstances, I tried to reassure customers that getting another bill was a good sign. In fact, I told them, "Sir, I promise you will get another bill. I'm sorry about that, but unfortunately our billing system doesn't work as fast as we would like. And I promise you that this credit that I'm issuing you today will not be reflected on that bill. The next bill will look like I did absolutely nothing. But the good news is that I am having your account canceled right now, and two bills from now, you can tell that I've canceled the account because there won't be any new charges on it. The month after that, the charges will have been credited, your balance will be zero, and and you won't get another bill after that."
Lying to get the customer off the phone
One of our most senior agents, perhaps our most senior (her career with the company dated back two decades and about five mergers), sat next to me during one of our darkest times, when almost every caller was calling to cancel their, something they had usually tried several months in a row. (The entire sales department had been fired for mispresenting the product).
The problem was that the billing system was so automated that the next bill was already being processed by the time the customer received the last bill, the next one was already being printed. In fact, the accounting system was so slow that if we applied a credit to the account today, there was no way it would appear on the next bill. A customer complaining about charges on their bill could be guaranteed that the same charges would show up on the next bill.
I overheard this senior agent telling every customer, "I apologize for the trouble, Your account has been canceled and credited in full. No, you won't receive any more bills."
HA! I thought.
Can you tell if an agent is lying to you?
There's a fine line between telling the customer that you don't know the answer to their question and telling them that your company is stupid. It's a line that gets crossed frequently, and only one way. Some reps may as well say, "I decline to answer that question on the grounds that I might tend to incriminate me." Call center agents are not paid to make their company look stupid.At my first call center job, senior representatives lied all the time. In her introductory speech in our company Toastmasters club, one agent even thanked her first supervisor (now a manager) for teaching her how to lie effectively. Or for teaching her the importance of lying effectively. Or why lying is necessary. Something like that. I was stirred by the speech, but not for the reason she expected.
Sunrocket sinks below the horizon
This week we've been talking about VOIP, which uses data lines, not phone lines, to make and receive calls. It's ideal for virtual call centers because it's so cheap, so cheap that some VOIP companies are having trouble making any money. In fact, we're told by Inbabble, the mobile applications blog ...
Does your virtual call center have enough features?
John Kim of LeadMarket gives the third item in his checklist for virtual call center success - feature functionality:
While hosted call center technology has been around for several years, premise-based - or traditional - call center technology has been around for several decades. This means that some hosted vendor offerings may not have the feature richness or the particular functions that your call center operations need. This author has witnessed too many large implementations go awry because the customer did not do a complete due diligence checklist of required features and functions, only to realize this fact after speaking with technical support.
Uptime for virtual call centers
John Kim of Five9.com talks about the importance of good network uptime for virtual call centers:
In the event your system should go down, one needs to know that the virtual call center technology vendor will have a high level of technical support available during the hours which your call center operates.
Virtual call centers need a good connection
This week, John Sung Kim gives a 4 Item Success Checklist for virtual call centers. In 2001, John invented the world’s first VoIP Call Center Software-as-a-Service. He is the founder of Five9.com and LeadMarket.com.
One of the first questions to ask any vendor is how much bandwidth will be required per agent in order to ensure toll voice quality. While Internet data packages vary from service provider to ISP, it is crucial to remember that with VoIP, it is not just about the download speed of the Internet connection, but the upload speed as well. This is to ensure not just receiving the voice packets when hearing, but to ensure that voice packets are getting uploaded with the proper bandwidth when the agent is speaking.
Spelling it out: funny call center stories from the Philippines
Sometimes the only way to get a customer to understand what you're saying, especially if you use different brands of English, is to spell it out. These stories come from Pinoy Exchange forum's Call Center Bloopers and Boo Boos. You can read more Filipino funny call center stories and call center bloopers here.
If you want to learn the most common phonetic alphabet system, it is used by NATO and starts with Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Chris has a complete guide to the NATO phonetic alphabet system, as well as a less-militaristic version, on his website. Otherwise, why not make up your own? It may confuse the customer, but that makes it more fun.
Mija tells about a call center agent whose spelling did confuse his customers. She says, "Maybe this is due to the fact that he actually came from a seminary."
For example:
P as in Psalm
E as in Eucharist
I for Immaculate Conception
When you shouldn’t oursource
Outsourcing call centers has been criticized as sometimes leading to worse customer service. Ken Carlon, CEO of Optima, suggests that companies need to have a level head about the subject.
Isn't there a danger of losing touch or losing control if a company outsources their call center?
Our recommendation is always to insource service and outsource sales for this very reason. That being said if a company is prepared to hire a management company (such as Optima...) or devote the appropriate amount of internal resource to the effort; this can be overcome. The most important consideration is not to assume outsourcing of the call handling means outsourcing responsibility for the function that call center served in your business. An outsourcers primary responsibility will be to their investors, not yours.
