|
Holyshoot posted:Ya the hosting guys know their poo poo for the most part. Stay away from the sales dudes. They'll try to sell you so much garbage you don't need.(most of them, not all). Gotta make that bonus somehow.
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2016 17:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 07:06 |
|
|
jassi007 posted:I may although I know and like everyone in the department. The nice thing is my wife is the administrative assistant to the IT dept. head in a other large company so if I want to shop around I can get my resume seen. Im happy now to be keeping all my benefits etc. I don't know all the particulars of your situation but usually you can get a large pay bump if you jump ship (or at least have an offer in hand to make your current employer negotiate, although that's riskier).
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2016 22:45
|
|
|
Nothing is worse than a coworker that has gone power-mad after a supervisor takes a vacation. This moron wasted an hour and a half of my time walking to my cubicle every 30 seconds to quiz me with stupid questions such as "if I'm a client and looking for x, what do I type into the database?" He meanwhile ignored his own work because he wanted to "train" me on the new system that we have had for a year. I am a lowly phone monkey and I can find information and contacts for near anything in about three seconds, gently caress off and do your own work!  This coworker was put "in charge" since the supervisor took a week and a half break. Since then, he's tried to re-train half the staff, has set everyone's breaks and quotas, and has been trying to shuffle everyone's hours around despite most of us having our hours set in stone in the schedule over two weeks before this.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2016 16:56
|
|
|
This will be boring but I need to vent: About 3 months ago we had this "regime change" i call it, where they clamped down on replacements for broken equipment and buyouts, and all these brown shirt corporate stooges who hit their metrics every month but don't have a brain in their head were jumped up to management spots. It's been chafing me since it started but today UGH. One of our contract holders, her fridge had an electrical failure, so we do $500 of repairs on it. 2 weeks later, the fridge has a sealed system leak, which means the welded shut box where the cooling gear is has a coolant leak, it's $1000 to repair it. I tried to get the fridge replaced and my team is like "replacement will be $1200, offer repair or a buyout", so I go back to the home owner and the buyout is puny as gently caress, like $600 because we're lowballing them, so they're pissed off but say "fine repair it", so I'm like "GENIUS TIME, why can't the homeowner pay us $200 to bridge the gap to replacement, they get a new fridge so they're happy, we don't drop $1000 into a shity jacked up fridge and it has a manf warranty for a year, AND TRIPLE BONUS, it costs us the same so WE'RE happy, everyone's happy!" I present this to my manager. "Nope, buyout or repair." She just stonewalled me on it because my solution's not policy and procedures and will proffer no logical reason why my solution isn't better. I pressed back on her twice, but she basically cut me short by saying "I shouldn't have to keep going around and around with you on this" (presuming that somehow we were in a duel where she was making ripostes and counters, instead of me just standing still sincerely baffled that my solution won't be greenlit). This company is going to go bankrupt and it'll be because nobody knows how to use their loving brain or critical thinking skills.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2016 20:15
|
|
|
I suspect your manager has no power to actually implement your suggestion, but doesn't want to admit it, hence the stonewalling.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2016 20:20
|
|
|
I've done creative poo poo like this before and it's very simple to get done, we just replace the unit as we usually do and collect a chunk of money from the home owner on a credit card to offset the increased cost. The way I used to do it was just asking the purchasing department to work it up for me, but they told me today that they can't make that call anymore. All this poo poo is on lockdown. Bleh.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2016 20:34
|
|
|
Call centres generally frown upon you using your initiative. I once worked in outbound sales for Alico health insurance (via a third-party call center). One of our selling points was that the policy was underwritten by a large, reputable bank called [redacted]. I literally had a guy on the phone tell me that if I could provide him any sort of evidence that we were underwritten by [redacted], he'd sign up. So I made a call to the underwriters, and after about five minutes my manager came storming over and hung up my phone to abuse me. Apparently no-one had ever had the audacity to make an unsolicited outbound call before, how dare I. Frankly I think we were just lying about the bank and they didn't want us making that fact known. Anyway, gently caress that place.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2016 11:36
|
|
|
The project I'm on that was supposed to 'be hiring hundreds of new agents is now downsizing and sending like half of us to a new project. poo poo sucks its rare to find a place where you like all your coworkers and boss. Time to redo my resume and see if I can leverage all my call tech support work into a real help desk position. Apparently I should find where go daddy's centers are located. Too Poetic fucked around with this message at 19:15 on May 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2016 19:13
|
|
|
Too Poetic posted:The project I'm on that was supposed to 'be hiring hundreds of new agents is now downsizing and sending like half of us to a new project. poo poo sucks its rare to find a place where you like all your coworkers and boss. Time to redo my resume and see if I can leverage all my call tech support work into a real help desk position. Iowa and Arizona.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2016 20:49
|
|
|
I put my notice in at the call center I used to work at to just put in overtime at the one I've been transitioning to. I'm about to make slightly more money and spend 16 fewer hours each week working and commuting. That's pretty shiny.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2016 01:32
|
|
|
My last day at my call centre job is on Monday. Feels weird. I've been here for 3 and half years. As call centres go it's not too bad. But I can't stay here forever, I'll go nuts.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2016 22:43
|
|
|
My wife's call center just told her she can't go to her doctors appointment because there is a client walkthrough. This doctor's appointment she made two weeks ago, told them about, and had approved. It's a doctors appointment for her knee, and to finish some paperwork so we can start training to be foster parents. I told her to go anyways and take the "double points" because she has 0 points anyways. gently caress them.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2016 15:43
|
|
|
ratbert90 posted:My wife's call center just told her she can't go to her doctors appointment because there is a client walkthrough. What the gently caress? Like the client is going to go "WHAT IS THIS?" at the site of an unoccupied workstation? "Do you not chain your workers to their desks so they can't leave? *harumph* I believe we'll be taking our business to a more dedicated operation!"
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2016 15:33
|
|
|
I'm going to guess that they don't have as many agents as the client is paying for and they're trying to make it look like they do. Edit vvvvv Yeah, it's a combo of that and trying to make sure there's enough bums on seats so if they do a quick headcount it's not too far away from the paid number. Fil5000 fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Jun 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2016 16:58
|
|
|
My guess is they are understaffed, but don't want to build a queue while the partner is there. Agents stressed out about back to back calls isn't a good look. Still though, gently caress them if it was already approved off.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2016 22:47
|
|
|
Oh she went. And yes; they are understaffed due to bad management.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2016 15:25
|
|
|
Speaking of queue, that was one thing that always baffled me. Were the employees that cared about if the queue was high or not and felt bad taking breaks or tried to be quicker about their job to help bring it down. Like normal "taking phone" call employees. Why do you give a gently caress unless your management.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2016 20:22
|
|
|
Holyshoot posted:Speaking of queue, that was one thing that always baffled me. Were the employees that cared about if the queue was high or not and felt bad taking breaks or tried to be quicker about their job to help bring it down. Like normal "taking phone" call employees. Why do you give a gently caress unless your management. Pretty much. Where I worked you couldn't see how many calls in queue. So unless you knew it was dead because there's a wait between calls, you had no idea how many more calls to come. From a management perspective I imagine it prevented both trying to rush through and empty the queue (so you could then relax between calls) and getting demotivated because you see that there's 1000 people waiting with an average wait time of 40 minutes, so they're gonna be angry as soon as the call starts. Sometimes you get a feel for what shifts are better than others. I spent most of my time working the weekday 1-9pm shift, because the call volumes fell off a cliff at 6pm every night. (On the west coast servicing everyone, with a local close time of 9PM. Most of our customers were in EST, so by 6pm PST they couldn't call in and you went from back to back calls (or short pause between) to 5 minutes between calls, sometimes like 30 on particularly dead nights.) less than three fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Jun 13, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2016 04:53
|
|
|
We can always tell if the queue is poo poo where I work because on good days they have it displayed on every TV with detailed statistics showing how low it is. If it's 600+ people the public information monitors always mysteriously changes to sporting events for teams no one gives a poo poo about.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2016 07:57
|
|
|
Holyshoot posted:Speaking of queue, that was one thing that always baffled me. Were the employees that cared about if the queue was high or not and felt bad taking breaks or tried to be quicker about their job to help bring it down. Like normal "taking phone" call employees. Why do you give a gently caress unless your management. Yeah, if you're on the phones you absolutely shouldn't give a toss about what's happening with the queue. If it's bad enough that you've got back to back calls you're going to be abandoning calls anyway, regardless of how fast you work and whether you take two minutes or five minutes to go to the toilet. If it's a one off then ok, maybe managing handling time and breaks is going to help but if it's a constant state of affairs then the only thing that'll fix it is more staff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2016 10:43
|
|
|
I always hated having a queue. Even when working at godaddy where a queue means money becsuse it was people I could sell too. I guess it's what u get for starting my call center career at an isp.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2016 20:46
|
|
|
Hey gooncenters - I know this is a Longshot, but so any of you happen to know the attendance hotlines of the Tulsa Oklahoma dish network branches? My mother got dizzy behind the wheel and had a gushing nosebleed, but neither of us can find the number in her handbook and she can barely stand steady enpugh to drive.  we've tried Everything we could finds and theses still no info that we found easily.
Freakbox fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jun 16, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2016 15:24
|
|
|
Freakbox posted:Hey gooncenters - I know this is a Longshot, but so any of you happen to know the attendance hotlines of the Tulsa Oklahoma dish network branches? My mother got dizzy behind the wheel and had a gushing nosebleed, but neither of us can find the number in her handbook and she can barely stand steady enpugh to drive. Not that it's the best idea, but have you considered just calling the call center like a normal customer and then asking the agent that picks up?
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2016 18:00
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:Yeah, if you're on the phones you absolutely shouldn't give a toss about what's happening with the queue. If it's bad enough that you've got back to back calls you're going to be abandoning calls anyway, regardless of how fast you work and whether you take two minutes or five minutes to go to the toilet. If it's a one off then ok, maybe managing handling time and breaks is going to help but if it's a constant state of affairs then the only thing that'll fix it is more staff. One night at the banking factory our debit card system went down at 6PM. My break was scheduled for 6:15. I took the break at 6:15 and got yelled at by a co-worker. Told him I took it then because the entire team next to us left at 6:30, and we were about to lose 10 people. He was still pissed. He also got mad at me for not taking calls fast enough when I got back. Hey, it's not my fault that some people came through on my line that were other than the debit card issue. Yes, I did spend 20 minutes helping someone who wanted to know how to set up an international wire. Sorry for not hanging up on the guy, but it's not like it makes any difference with 3000 calls in queue and 25 people in the entire company answering them. In other news...just got a promotion! Unfortunately, the promotion requires 2 hours a day on the phone, plus taking the occasional escalation. But for the pay, I'll do it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2016 18:48
|
|
|
blackmet posted:One night at the banking factory our debit card system went down at 6PM. My break was scheduled for 6:15. I took the break at 6:15 and got yelled at by a co-worker. Told him I took it then because the entire team next to us left at 6:30, and we were about to lose 10 people. He was still pissed. LOL @ people who take pride in call center work like that co-worker of yours. The only logical reason of him giving a gently caress about why you took a break and not taking calls fast enough.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2016 20:19
|
|
|
I can't imagine giving a gently caress about answer performance, they even send front line reps the %'age every hour, like what the gently caress am I supposed to do? You KNOW summer happens every year, you KNOW we get slammed, hire more loving reps assholes! Someone gave me advice once that I always go back to: Sloooow down, take your time. Finishing one call is just starting a new problem. If you're a complete idiot your average handle may go too high, but generally you'll be going faster than it anyway, so you may as well take your time.
|
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 02:21
|
|
|
Seriously, an individual agent has bugger all influence on average speed of answer, service level or abandon rate. The only influence they DO have is in terms of schedule adherence, and anyone yelling at people for taking their scheduled break at the scheduled time is a loving idiot that needs to shut up.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 10:29
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:Seriously, an individual agent has bugger all influence on average speed of answer, service level or abandon rate. The only influence they DO have is in terms of schedule adherence, and anyone yelling at people for taking their scheduled break at the scheduled time is a loving idiot that needs to shut up. Every call center drone knows that smart people don't run call centers.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 17:35
|
|
|
Loving Life Partner posted:
We didn't even have a formalized AHT. As long as 80% or more of your time was spent talking to clients or waiting to do so, you were good. Obviously if you averaged 10 minutes a call when most people were around 6-7 minutes they'd make it a problem, but I never really had that problem. Though when I had my first review they miscalculated the AHT for the department to show it was 321 seconds when it was actually about 410, so my 425 or so was right around average. I pointed this out (our stats are public on a website everyone has access to, plus I was the person in charge of sending a weekly update to a team), but it didn't bump my review. My wrap idle generally averaged 18-19%...good enough to meet the standards without killing myself to do it. If I needed to pee or walk away after a bad call, I did it. For 31-35K a year, I ain't killing myself.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2016 18:50
|
|
|
Hi Phone Rep goons, Analytics management goon here. Question for you: If I told you that my phone reports indicate an unhealthy amount of pre-lunch debarkation and a high abandoned call rate starting at 11:50 am, would you still think that I was cool, even if you knew it was me who did all the ms excel math to figure this out? Small call center here, 100 reps. edit: sorry our call center is not normal and I'm just drunk. I want to read this thread to see everyone hurt more than I hurt when I was on the phone. but I also want to know pure unfiltered criticism of management. I make the excel files from the call logs. How many calls did you take, how long. We NEVER tell anyone to decrease their call time, but we give everyone a lot of freedom to put themselves Off Ready so they can be free to ask questions, take breaks when they want. At some point we have to CRACK DOWN! My job is to look at the phone log and determine this. This is not difficult from a math perspective. Is there anything that should be measured that isn't? As a big shot analyst, I don't think there is. If there is anywhere that I can get the right opinion, it's right here on this forum of smart weirdos, please help me. Cool Bear fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Jun 30, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 04:07
|
|
|
Let mgmt say "this has to stop." If it doesn't, let mgmt deal with it how they will. If that means scheduling and staggering lunch times, let mgmt do it. If someone bitches at you about it, tell them to take it up with their manager. You just make spreadsheets, not rules. Done.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 04:43
|
|
|
blackmet posted:Let mgmt say "this has to stop." Well, if it weren't for me, "management" would not know (I'm management). Management will not outsource some 100k giant consulting project when they have me (if you think you are ok at ms excel, then google every question you have, google everything, get better at excel!!!! google "vlookup" right now!!!!) I don't want advice, I want hateful criticism of management. I want someone to say that my excel sheet is full of poo poo. I want someone to say that some dumb rear end in a top hat thought he could fix his department with his little spreadsheet but really he effed it up. I might not find that here, I'm sorry. Maybe someone will ask "How do I find this call stat in Excel" and then they can pm me and I will help anyone with excel anytime. I love my job and excel so much. and i love my reps. i love you call rep thread. edit: when I went from tier 2 up to management, it was only because i knew excel. I don't even have to manage anyone, I just advise all of the other managers. NOBODY UNDERSTANDS EXCEL and it is critical to call numbers. Either excel or SQL, but really, excel. Maybe it means more for a small company who didnt already outsource every detail, but outsourcing every detail is extremely expensive. You can look at raw numbers and turn it into charts, daily. Or you can pay some other rear end in a top hat. Google every excel question!!!!!!!!!! Cool Bear fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Jun 30, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 05:00
|
|
|
Cool Bear posted:Well, if it weren't for me, "management" would not know (I'm management). Management will not outsource some 100k giant consulting project when they have me I have my own spreadsheet I made for my finances where I can type in "i spent X dollars today for some misc purchase" and I'll know based off my normal expenses if I will be in the negative at some point in the next 3 months. I also played some EVE and did some spreadsheets. Excel is pretty cool friend. But it sounds like your reps are taking a mile with the inch they were given. Or they are allowed to chew gum but some people are putting it under desks. Are you losing money based on this pattern? Are there higher ups that will care? Are there any negative repercussions? If the answer is yes to any of that just give the numbers to management and let them handle their reps however they want to fix it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 14:35
|
|
|
Your first question needs to be "how boned am I if this is discovered and not by me?"
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 16:43
|
|
|
If people are dodging calls so they can go to lunch dead on time, and that's causing calls to abandon then those people are bad. Those people will probably not like you for pointing that out, but the other people who are actually sticking to their schedule will be pissing and moaning to each other about the fuckers that take the piss and those people will like what you've done in pointing them out. Hooray for analytics and reporting, some people like it and some don't.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2016 16:55
|
|
|
Arrrrgh. As I mentioned a few posts up, I've been promoted. Except that even though the promotion, pay raise, and new title are official as of tomorrow, for some reason they won't announce it until July 15th. This is ragingly frustrating. First of all, I as told I had to end all of my current duties as of 7/1. My manager was out on sabbatical at the time I accepted, which put me in "Oh poo poo, I gotta get my duties covered" mode. Most of what I do isn't too specialized, but I am in charge of two QA functions that aren't well backed up. To get one covered, I got the only other QA at my center (the rest, as well as my manager, are in another city) for my group crash coursed to take it over. This required me letting him know. They know I let him know and are OK with it. Yesterday, I talked to my director and he said "We'll announce tomorrow. Continue doing the other specialized function you're primary on until we find someone to train, but outside of that, your ours on the 1st." Today, I talked to my manager and she confirmed that outside of that one piece, I'm theirs starting tomorrow. Let who will be my new manager know what we discussed via IM. He then told me they'd announce on the 15th, but until then the official story is that I'm on loan from QA. Never mind that: A) nobody's going to buy that a QA group that's already at half staff is going to let someone go to just process and take phone calls in a group that's 90% staffed and in OK-ish shape. B) my company white page that's handled by HR will go from saying "Blackmet, specialist, dept X, manager L" to "Blackmet, Sr. specialist, dept X, manager S." no later than Tuesday. C) Within 15 minutes of accepting a week ago, I had an IM from someone at the other center congratulating me, so it's basically already known. Oh, and I didn't tell her either, someone forwarded her an email. and D) I'll be hanging around our current Sr. a lot over the next two weeks to get fully up to speed on the position. She's nice enough, but I normally barely talk to her, because I don't need to. This is bugging me. Sorry, just needed to vent
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2016 00:17
|
|
|
I work for a tech company in sales in boring grey cublicles. In the last year, most of us have lost almost a third of what we were making based on the bonuses and other ways to make money, while at the same time I've been forced to work harder than ever before, with worse results. We have generally have teams of 10-13 people on the floor. Last week on one team 5 people quit in the same team and the new Director is somehow oblivious as to why they quit. Right now everyone on my team except for 1 is actively looking for a new job. It just sucks because I genuinely used to look forward to coming into work. In 6 months it went from being a fun job to being plain miserable with no morale anymore.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2016 00:46
|
|
|
Glad I remembered this thread existed. I started with my current employer, a Canadian ISP, as a Account Payable Clerk right out of university 4 years ago. I had depression and anxiety so I was happy for any job after screwing up my interviews with the big 4 accounting firms that came to my university looking for prospects. 6 months into my employment, the CEO was replaced and they begin to shift my department around. They centralized the Finance department and everyone at my location lost their positions. Many jumped ship because the roles they offered were terrible. It was going from accounting to going on the phones taking billing call. I was desperate for money as I got out of school and going back home was not a option. I started as a billing rep but it wasn't that bad. I keep my hourly rate and I excelled at the role. Then I got offered to do tech support since the company did not have enough people to fill the role due to high turnover from a change in the account management system we used. I signed on because I was a sucker for more money and it was a easy job. Someone in management found out I worked for a web hosting company so I got into doing domain management which cut a lot of time on the phone. It wasn't a bad gig. Then my depression hit a really bad spot. I started to get help and then I saw that my current role was stagnant and that management was turning our contact center into another call center. We were on troubleshooting scripts and losing points on QA for not being peppy enough. Management threw more and more responsibility on senior reps and there was no increase in pay to compensate. I have to take calls for billing, account retention, all our technical platforms at a level 1 and level 2 role, and all our acquisitions and legacy platforms. I get paid the same wage as the person who comes off the street with only training on our newer internet services at Tier 1. They feel time off the phones does not warren a pay increase regardless of the fact they keep piling more and more on us. Then when I tried to move away from my role, things started to turn rotten. I kept being turned down for positions within the company during the selection stage over and over again. My project time kept getting reduced or cancelled due to increasing call volume. Turnover rates are getting higher every few months and we keep training new billing and technical support classes every month now. My TM and my Project Manager are consistently trying to fight for me to get more time, but now i am limited to 2 hours a day. They let me train someone else help with my domains management but the only reason he was picked was due to him threatening to quit if he wasn't given anything else to do other than answer phone calls. He's pretty much useless but it is all the help I can get. I currently am waiting to see if I got a new job at another company on Monday that is not call center-related. I really don't want to be in this industry anymore as 6 years is too long for this poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2016 16:23
|
|
|
Whiskey A Go Go! posted:Glad I remembered this thread existed. Can I guess what shitshow of a reseller this is based on the person I know still running it's call centre operations.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2016 19:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 07:06 |
|
|
I rather not say anything unless I get the new job. My company is paranoid about what it is said about them by employees. Edit: I just got the job offer! Only 2 weeks left! TacticalHoodie fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Jul 25, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2016 12:16
|
|