Five Reasons i hate working in a call centre.
April 22nd 2008 23:25
Before beginning this article proper i must apologise for it being based around a list, the proliferation of lists in every aspect of the media annoys me as much as i am sure it does you. However in the case of describing why i hate working in a call centre i feel that a limited and well defined structure is the only thing that will stop this article becoming a boring rant. I must also stress that the five reasons i give are by no means the only reasons there are to hate working in a call centre and heartily encourage people to write articles adding to this list. If this article prevents just one person from having to go through the torment of call centre work i shall feel it is a job well done.
1. The General Public
By far and away the worst thing about working in the call centre is the fact that it is a job based entirely around dealing with the general public. The people you are dealing with generally fall into one of three equally annoying categories which, at the risk of alienating you by creating a sublist, i shall deal with separately. Firstly there are the aggressive customers. These are generally people who know exactly what they want when they ring you up and if you can't meet there exact demands become very annoyed about it. The worst is when the marketing department of your company advertises a product by saying prices from 150, there are usually about two products available at this price. The few weeks following the advertisement of this price are largely spent explaining to irate customers that there is no longer availability at that price, the majority of whom claim that this is false advertising. I sympathise with them, it is not false advertising but it certainly is misleading. Aggressive customers have different effects on different people, some people get upset, some return the aggression to an equal or greater extent, I simply find them tiresome, as i do the job in general. There is a worse kind of angry customers, the ones with a justified complaint to who you can offer no cancellation other than "it's not my fault". Terms and Conditions are tedious things that no one ever reads and working at a call centre you feel the effects of this. More than once i have been tempted to try and sign custumors up to the socialist cause, there is no better argument for it than the terms and conditions of companies in a capitalist society.
Secondly there are over friendly customers, i am not your mate and i don't want to talk about the weather.
Thirdly there are stupid customers who generally have a question which is either blindingly obvious, or a question that is easily answered by the internet, they have normally used the internet to find the phone number.
2. Call Structures
For those of you not familiar with the concept a call structure basically consists of a list (another bloody list) of things you have to do in a sales call. The problem is not that you have to do these things, in many calls they make perfect sense, the problem is that you are required to do them in every call on pain of death (that may be a tiny bit of an exaggeration, more accurate would be on pain of a stern talking to and some dissapointed looks). Even if it is as plain as day that a customer is not going to book anything you must try to overcome their objections. If a customer has stayed in a hotel 500 times you still have to give him two features and a you must always call a customer by their name at least twice, always, if you don't you will be shot.
3. Pretending the job is more fulfilling than it is
I work in a call centre, and no amount of team building exercises, barbeques or staff parties are going to change that. Neither is calling the call centre "the contact centre" or anything other than what it most patently is, a call centre. Don't try and make me enjoy my job, leave me to my boredom and misery.
4. The things the job drives you too
I recently wrote an article describing my three favourite games to waste time at work and this very nicely illustrates my point in this section. All three of these games are absolute rubbish. They have no merit other than making your brain feel slightly numb, at work though this is exactly what is needed. The internet is a great thing, however when all you to do all day is browse it endlessly you realise there is only about four websites you actually enjoy reading and that after an hour or so you are done with them. You then spend the rest of the day fruitlessly trying to find something on the internet interesting enough to pass the time but easy enough to survive constant interruption. This is a depressing task, having said this the random article option at Wikipedia is wonderful, wonderful thing.
5. Having to wear a headset like bloody britney spears all day
I bloody hate having to wear a headset all day, it makes me feel like a right twat.
1. The General Public
By far and away the worst thing about working in the call centre is the fact that it is a job based entirely around dealing with the general public. The people you are dealing with generally fall into one of three equally annoying categories which, at the risk of alienating you by creating a sublist, i shall deal with separately. Firstly there are the aggressive customers. These are generally people who know exactly what they want when they ring you up and if you can't meet there exact demands become very annoyed about it. The worst is when the marketing department of your company advertises a product by saying prices from 150, there are usually about two products available at this price. The few weeks following the advertisement of this price are largely spent explaining to irate customers that there is no longer availability at that price, the majority of whom claim that this is false advertising. I sympathise with them, it is not false advertising but it certainly is misleading. Aggressive customers have different effects on different people, some people get upset, some return the aggression to an equal or greater extent, I simply find them tiresome, as i do the job in general. There is a worse kind of angry customers, the ones with a justified complaint to who you can offer no cancellation other than "it's not my fault". Terms and Conditions are tedious things that no one ever reads and working at a call centre you feel the effects of this. More than once i have been tempted to try and sign custumors up to the socialist cause, there is no better argument for it than the terms and conditions of companies in a capitalist society.
Secondly there are over friendly customers, i am not your mate and i don't want to talk about the weather.
Thirdly there are stupid customers who generally have a question which is either blindingly obvious, or a question that is easily answered by the internet, they have normally used the internet to find the phone number.
2. Call Structures
For those of you not familiar with the concept a call structure basically consists of a list (another bloody list) of things you have to do in a sales call. The problem is not that you have to do these things, in many calls they make perfect sense, the problem is that you are required to do them in every call on pain of death (that may be a tiny bit of an exaggeration, more accurate would be on pain of a stern talking to and some dissapointed looks). Even if it is as plain as day that a customer is not going to book anything you must try to overcome their objections. If a customer has stayed in a hotel 500 times you still have to give him two features and a you must always call a customer by their name at least twice, always, if you don't you will be shot.
3. Pretending the job is more fulfilling than it is
I work in a call centre, and no amount of team building exercises, barbeques or staff parties are going to change that. Neither is calling the call centre "the contact centre" or anything other than what it most patently is, a call centre. Don't try and make me enjoy my job, leave me to my boredom and misery.
4. The things the job drives you too
I recently wrote an article describing my three favourite games to waste time at work and this very nicely illustrates my point in this section. All three of these games are absolute rubbish. They have no merit other than making your brain feel slightly numb, at work though this is exactly what is needed. The internet is a great thing, however when all you to do all day is browse it endlessly you realise there is only about four websites you actually enjoy reading and that after an hour or so you are done with them. You then spend the rest of the day fruitlessly trying to find something on the internet interesting enough to pass the time but easy enough to survive constant interruption. This is a depressing task, having said this the random article option at Wikipedia is wonderful, wonderful thing.
5. Having to wear a headset like bloody britney spears all day
I bloody hate having to wear a headset all day, it makes me feel like a right twat.
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Comment by James Rickard
unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
Don't you love how suits think that renaming things makes consumerism less crass? Like calling customers "guests". If I was a guest I'd be getting my groceries for free.
Comment by Jarrah
Back to the Eighties
Better make that top 100...
Good post though.
I've been in a job before where Wiki was my best friend.
I now know more useless knowledge than anyone in the city...
Comment by Undercover Brother
Come outside and work with the real men and see if your call center is so hard.
'Get a real job low life.'
I wonder how times a day you hear that?
wonder why?
Comment by ChrisC
The Dissector
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World
The best part is calling them by name when their name is Buck Cock or Burklev Crnogorac.
Comment by Irene
Women In Cinema
Grammar Matters
Anyway, I have the utmost sympathy for you. Hope you get out of there soon.