How You Can Help
Behind the Scenes at a Call Center!
Be Empathetic!
Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel. Proverbs 11:17
The next time you use the phone to call Customer Service, please keep in mind that there is a person on the other end of the phone. They are there to serve you but you can also serve them (and yourself) by being kind! Let me share some of MY stories about WORKING in a Call Center. I found myself in need of a new job.
I was in my 50s and wondered who would hire me?
I had a degree in nursing but did NOT want to have a job in the medical field with long and stress-filled hours. I wanted something that was ME. Just searching for a job that fits is an adventure in itself, as we all know. Where to begin? Polishing up my resume was the beginning. We each know how difficult that is!
Interview Scheduled!
Within a day of submitting my resume online for a call center job, I received a call requesting that I come in for an interview!
The interview went well — probably because I was so relaxed. I knew nothing about call center work and figured that interviewing there was just a fun exercise to give me practice for a ‘real’ job when it popped up.
Never in a million years would I be working there, I thought.
To my surprise, I received a phone call the next day! If I was still interested…
I was HIRED!
Please scrape me off the floor!
ORIENTATION DAY
I was inside that glass-fronted beauty of a building, gathered in the lobby with 20 other new hires for our orientation. My future co-workers came in every size, shape, and color, most of them younger by about 30 years! For many, it was probably their first job.
We were greeted warmly and informed about what our day would look like.
Then we were immediately taken through locked doors to have our photographs taken for our ID badges which would allow us access to the vast secure rooms that were filled with call center workers. Somehow, as I walked from place to place, I felt like the prison doors were swinging shut behind me.
That was a strange thought!
We were then led into our training room designated for us twenty fortunate ‘prisoners’. There were computers, manuals, and telephones galore.
Thus it began!
Passwords were set up for the computers, the phones were readied…and we were quaking in fear of WHAT NEXT? We wouldn’t be taking ‘live’ phone calls until we graduated from training yet we were SCARED.
We learned the exact wording to use for each new call, the computer program, and how to view customers’ accounts. A large portion of our job was to learn how to untangle knotty problems. I cringe at angry people’s words! Over time, I learned how to defuse such hot situations, but at first, it was quite unsettling.
Are YOU an angry person when you call for help?
Our first lunch
When it came time for lunch, the bank provided pizza for us trainees in the immense cafeteria.
That day, we were given an entire hour to enjoy our lunch. Little did we know that when we were finished with training, we would have a half hour for lunch, strictly timed via our logging into and out of our computer.
If a call went over the time allotted for lunch (which often happened), we had a shorter lunch. We HAD to maintain a very disciplined schedule which they set for each of us.
How many of those we call for help are operating under time pressure and without adequate nutrition or hydration for the day?
Did I mention that every phone call we took was monitored and critiqued? After our 8 weeks of training, we were placed as a team out on the ‘floor’ where calls would be taken non-stop. We were fortunate — there were eye-level partitions between us but many call centers are just wide open spaces which makes hearing the customer and communicating extremely difficult.
I can still remember taking that first telephone call! How traumatic that was as we were expected to use the exact wording they wanted and to be able to navigate the computer programs to provide needed help FAST.
I began — my career in a call center.
Over the next four years, more and more information was given to us to KNOW. It was endless! We competed with ALL of the customer service people in regard to how many calls we took in an 8-hour time frame. A rare slow day saw approximately 60 calls per day but one could have up to 150 calls per day.
Behind the scenes at my workstation:
We became inundated by an avalanche of details we needed to know as evidenced by a co-worker’s desk who had been there for over 10 years.
Of course, we had to watch our Average Handle Time (AHT) — how long the call was from beginning to end. The faster we went, the more calls we could take.
By the time I went home at night, I was so keyed up that it was hard to ‘come down’. Even my dreams were filled with phone calls.
Games Made It Fun!
To make the tedious work more inviting, team leaders came up with games that allowed us to compete against our co-workers on our team. Some days I felt like I was in kindergarten as I ‘earned’ petals to put on huge flowers on the wall to show how I was doing.
Teams competed against each other and once, when my team was the best, the sign in the front of the building told the story to everyone coming and going.
Three Years Later
After three grueling years of taking so many calls per day and trying to do each one perfectly, I knew I was burning out. Onward to burnout, I went although something else was going on.
I felt ill.
Week after week, I struggled with exhaustion and nausea. When I asked to take a couple of personal days off, I was told to hang on until the weekend, then I could rest. Your customer service person may, too, be experiencing burnout or illness and because they are on the other end of the phone line, you will never know it as they discipline themselves to be kind and courteous at all times.
When I got home that evening, I called an ambulance. I was too ill to even drive myself to the hospital emergency room.
That was so dangerous!
My son informed my team leader that I was in the hospital and would email when I was out, recovering, and ready to return to work. That never happened. One week at home stretched to two, then a month. My team leader got permission for me to work from home with all of the computer hookups. I was too ill to even sit at a computer in my own home for any length of time. My eyes were blurry and were not clearing up. I knew I just could NOT.
I had NO choice but to RETIRE! My call center days were behind me at age 65 for which I was THANKFUL! Yet after this call center experience, I have a new appreciation for anyone answering my calls.
How YOU Fit In
After reading this, you have some idea what the customer service person’s life resembles. It’s NOT EASY! The workers are under tremendous pressure to help in a courteous, knowledgeable, and FAST way.
Of all times to display the fruit of the Holy Spirit, this is one of them!
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22
Can you do it for the next call you make?
Edited by Dr. Gabriella Korosi from Dancing Elephants Press.
