Friday, December 08, 2006
Reasonable expectations
One of the things that always fascinates me about people is when they just don't have a sensible idea of what'll happen. This comes up sometimes when you answer calls for a job.
By way of example, let's look at a lady who's called a couple of times tonight. We'll call her Betty. Betty has called a number of times over the last couple of years. She's in the top percentile in terms of sheer call volume. Some of the topics have included "oh no, I have a hacker!!" (she didn't), "I want to turn off the Internet for a few days" (she just wanted to unplug her phone cord from the wall and needed instructions), and "something might be wrong on my computer!!" (she had no specific reason to think so). There have been several calls where she would seem to want an answer in a specific way and would constantly interrupt an agent trying to answer her question, trying to harry them into talking in whatever manner she wanted at the time.
Today, her first call involved asking about the installation fee. There is no installation fee. She didn't listen to the agent when he tried to tell her that. She continued to insist that there had been an installation fee. OurCompany has never charged installation fees. She said that the agent was being rude and focusing on the past, not the now, and said she'd hang up and get someone who'd be more polite.
Her second call came less than a minute later, and was handled by another agent. She asked if she should call during the day, or if she could get her questions answered now. The agent told her that it doesn't matter what time of day she calls, she can get the same answers all the time. She then told this second agent that she'd call back during the day when the people on the phones are nicer, since everyone in the evening was surly.
Honestly, if EVERYONE you talk to comes across as surly, do you ever stop to think why that might be? Maybe you're making them surly.
Or maybe you're just crazy.
By way of example, let's look at a lady who's called a couple of times tonight. We'll call her Betty. Betty has called a number of times over the last couple of years. She's in the top percentile in terms of sheer call volume. Some of the topics have included "oh no, I have a hacker!!" (she didn't), "I want to turn off the Internet for a few days" (she just wanted to unplug her phone cord from the wall and needed instructions), and "something might be wrong on my computer!!" (she had no specific reason to think so). There have been several calls where she would seem to want an answer in a specific way and would constantly interrupt an agent trying to answer her question, trying to harry them into talking in whatever manner she wanted at the time.
Today, her first call involved asking about the installation fee. There is no installation fee. She didn't listen to the agent when he tried to tell her that. She continued to insist that there had been an installation fee. OurCompany has never charged installation fees. She said that the agent was being rude and focusing on the past, not the now, and said she'd hang up and get someone who'd be more polite.
Her second call came less than a minute later, and was handled by another agent. She asked if she should call during the day, or if she could get her questions answered now. The agent told her that it doesn't matter what time of day she calls, she can get the same answers all the time. She then told this second agent that she'd call back during the day when the people on the phones are nicer, since everyone in the evening was surly.
Honestly, if EVERYONE you talk to comes across as surly, do you ever stop to think why that might be? Maybe you're making them surly.
Or maybe you're just crazy.
# posted by Terry @ 3:59 PM 
