What a weak programme this was. It must have been funded by First Direct. (Strategic advertising, first ad at the begining of the break and last before then next bit). If not First Direct then one of the other call centres taking part. I worked in call centres for in excess of 10 years. This programme missed a golden opportunity to put the real truth out there. The "customers" came across like 1st year drama students, it just didn't seem real. The commentary was poor and it all seemed just so half hearted, all in all a very disappointing programme

I agree with you there LDK

They could have done much more with this programme.

I was surprised that there was no "tell all" interview with an ex-staff member or someone who still worked there whose real identity was hidden.

As for that awful training course at First Direct.....you need to make your name 'land' and the 'high impact' words or whatever they were. How many times have I been on courses similar to that run by people who haven't spoken to a customer in about 15 years !

'Paddy's Power House' ? How does having a stupid team name make going to work more fun ?

I wasn't convinced that Paddy Power House himself took calls when it got busy.

Why didn't they mention the breaks that are timed down to the last nano-second and the strict targets on length of call times ?

Oh the irony of First Direct being in the ad break. When I saw that I did smell a rat. The footage of First Direct was very showed happy people, enjoying their jobs and not an angry customer in sight. Must have been in return for all the advertising bought from C4.

However, it was interesting to watch and First Direct was so much like places I've worked in before, but they could have covered a lot more.

The fact that South Africa is the new India shows that these big organisations still don't have a clue what they're doing.

I really felt sorry for Mandy, the South African girl, taking her first call and then ending up with an angry lady on the other end. It seemed to me that Mandy hadn't been given enough training or she would have known the situation about the no claims bonus being transferable between cars. It wasn't Mandy's fault and where was the trainer who should have been there to help ?

It's typical of a call centre to put staff on the front line with only 50% of the required knowledge and then leaving them to it when a customer bursts a blood vessel on the other end. The difference is that the job meant so much more to Mandy than it probably does to people over here.

I really wanted to give her a hug. I hope things got better for her.

i don't know how them people do that job.

People shouting all day long. I cant rem her name but that blond woman did nothing but complaine

Hello LDK

As one of the 'customers' I can promise you I am not a drama student of any sort (I wish!) Maybe a drama queen or someone fed up with the drama of trying to get things done on the phone! Maybe it looked that way as it was quite scary for someone, like me, not familiar with the media!

Hiya Amanda, TBH the customers shown were tame compared with the everyday callers I have had to deal with. Being on both sides of the fence, (I have just been onto Budget today to cancel my car insurance)and I deal with many British and foreign call centres just like any other customer, I know how frustrating it can be for the callers. Most people are calling in to air a complaint or rectify a problem so are already upset and or angry. Whilst most operators appreciate that it is not them directly that the customer is angry with some operators are immediately defensive and in some cases downright obstructive, raising the temperature of the call without any cause to. A lot of it is down to good manners, without being patronising, and good training. Unfortunately it is the training more often than not lets the call centres down. Constant target driven, changing the criteria from hour to hour in some cases so that the operators often give out conflicting information. The conditions are not great, having to put your hand up if you need a toilet break outside your normal break times, toilet breaks being monitored, yes, believe me, I have been made to monitor operators who take, in the opinion of the manager, too many toilet breaks and have even been told to get an occupational health referral as they obviously have a problem! Being off sick for more than 7 days is a disciplinary matter, even if you have a valid Doctor's note. It is a diciplinary matter if you do not meet your targets, even if you have missed them by only 1 call or take too long in handling calls. Holidays are not included in your monthly target so when you are on holiday you cannot possibly make up the lost time. I could go on and on. There are young, inexperienced operators who are downright rude at times, even older ones who are the same. They "play" the internal systems by cutting customers off etc. Some, who in the event that it is 5 mins before they are due to leave, take the call, don't action anything on it and say to the customer, "..yes I have your details here on screen, (Liars) but I will have to get a supervisor/superior to call you back on this."
They then pretend to take details and guess what? Correct, you never get your call back, there are no notes on the screen to advise that you have called, and no way of tracing who you spoke to. You are frustrated, the next operator confused and in the dark and the problem exacerbatated by this deception. Did any of this get shown on the programme? No. The input from the customers on the programme was really played down. Did you feel that you were fairly represented on the programme? Was everything clearly explained to you before filming and were you given any opportunity to veto anything that you disagreed with in the finished product? I appreciate that it must have been quite a daunting thing to do, taking part in this sort of programme, it is just, in my opinion, a shame that the programme didn't come up to the promise of the trailers shown. It was, again in my opinion not representative of the truth and reality and too lightweight in its content. BTW, which one were you? None of the customers came over as being drama queens but I did feel that the customer side was let down by the poor production methods, nothing to do with the customers themselves as like you said it was probably quite scary dealing with the media in this manner and in your own home too. Well done you for taking part. All the customers were pussycats and quite nice really, if I had had more "angry" customers like you I would have thought my job a walk in the park. You were all so nice.

Thanks for that really interesting insight! You should have been on the programme! I do always start off being polite thinking that you attract more bees with honey and all that but sometimes, (not nearly so much with UK call centres), I do get very frustrated! You're insight was really fascinating as I had no idea of all the goings on!

I was the blond one that was sitting in front of a plant talking, the third one, obviously not the bloke, but also not the Geordie lady. I was at the very end saying
They are going to call me back - from Mumbai

quote:

Originally posted by amanda5653:
I was the blond one that was sitting in front of a plant talking, the third one, obviously not the bloke, but also not the Geordie lady. I was at the very end saying
They are going to call me back - from Mumbai

Hey Amanda

I've only just seen this and did think last night that there was something about the lady in the red dress that made me think of the Panorama programme you were on. WOW ! Well done you !

I meant what I said on the other thread about you being the "sensible lady customer" and that what you said about how we get the call centres we deserve. Very true. Customers don't complain enough which is part of the issue.

Lemon Drop Kid hit various nails on the head with her comments earlier about toilet breaks and other staff playing the system to help meet targets etc. Things like that really do happen.

If someone calls in and says something like "you're the third person I've spoken to and I'm still getting nowhere", I take ownership and do everything I can to help them. That takes time and that's the one thing call centre staff don't have. We're expected to take three minutes on a call to hit our handling time target.

If someone has a long drawn out situation to go through, there is no way it can be done in such a short time.

There are many like me where I work, but it's a constant battle against management as they just won't see our points of view.

At the end of the day, the managers have the power and the better salaries and the reps just have to get on with it.

This is so interesting. Customer Service Centres were, I thought, designed to help customers! Imagine, what naivity!

Your description of managers in the centres actively penalising those call centre staff that would be prepared to get a complicated problem solved is awful! There really is no hope is there? It's so true, we do live in a greed driven society!

quote:

Originally posted by amanda5653:
This is so interesting. Customer Service Centres were, I thought, designed to help customers! Imagine, what naivity!

Your description of managers in the centres actively penalising those call centre staff that would be prepared to get a complicated problem solved is awful! There really is no hope is there? It's so true, we do live in a greed driven society!

Service no longer exists in the way that it should.

Managers in contact centres (as they prefer to be called) insist on over complicating what at the end of the day is a fairly straight forward job.

All you need is a polite manner, a desire to help, the product knowledge and system training.

However, they send you on endless courses and teach you all kinds of empathy and listening skills (most of which are common sense and are just there to keep the training department in work) and then it goes all out the window when you get told of your targets.

Part of the reason why customers have to explain themselves time and time again is because there is so little time to make full notes on the system. They expect you to be either on a call or available to take a call. Therefore you have to make notes as you're finishing a call and then hope their aren't calls waiting so you can make a proper update.

If you get a call before you finish your notes, you have to abandon them and speak to the next customer.

You also have to hope that the customer you spoke to doesn't call again within a certain period (4-5 weeks where I work), because if they do it means that you couldn't have fully dealt with their query or they wouldn't be calling back at all. We have a target for solving situations on the first call and if a customer calls again soon after, the target takes a beating.....even if the second call is totally unconnected to the first.

There are so many targets and general barriers I could keep you here for days

This has certainly given me a completely new insight. I think it may alter the way I think about and deal with staff at call centres that I have to call from now on. No wonder you found it hard to relate to the call centres and staff you saw in the film!

quote:

Originally posted by amanda5653:
This has certainly given me a completely new insight. I think it may alter the way I think about and deal with staff at call centres that I have to call from now on. No wonder you found it hard to relate to the call centres and staff you saw in the film!

I could relate to the "forced corporate fun" at First Direct. I bet it's not like that when the cameras aren't there.

While I can only speak for where I work/have worked, it is a fairly similar story.

My best advise for anyone dealing with a call centre (in whichever country) for anything that you ask them to do or look into is to make your own notes as to who you deal with. Also note what they promise and the timeframe they give.

Don't badger them for their surname if they don't want to give it. Respect their privacy, just ask for their extension or name of their manager.

If you ring back and find something hasn't happened, ask for a manager. This is the stage when you should escalate the situation and log a formal complaint. Don't waste time leaving it with a second call centre rep. Make sure it is logged as a complaint and that they send you a letter giving you the right to go to the ombudsman. Complaints held up by the ombudsman result in heavy fines for the company concerned.

The ONLY way for these places to improve is for the managers to get the ear bashings instead and for them to have to explain to THEIR bosses why there are so many complaints being logged.

OV, I am so glad that I am not the only person who has shop floor experience of working in the call/contact centre environment who has posted. Where I worked we had the silly team names to "foster" the team spirit and "encourage friendly competition". Friendly, who are they kidding, you are fighting constantly to meet targets so you can keep your job. It is counter productive and "fosters" a dog eat dog culture where you will get your "save" or sale or upgrade even if you haven't done the work by whatever means you can. It is survival of the fittest. I agree with the KISS system, you know the one, Keep It Simple Stupid. Yes we know that keeping customers waiting causes frustration but if when they get through they are afforded full attention without being rushed then they more often than not would not have to call back and would be fully satisfied. I know which I prefer. Shame that the managers done agree. Poor Amanda, you must be feeling very bewildered by now, it just goes to show how misleading a programme can be. We had the Fun thing at......a famous communications company. It was far from being fun, but in the early days of the industry, when things were much simpler and more relaxed I did enjoy my work, we did help customers, no matter how long it took and the customers themselves were much less angry. Isn't it funny how the rise in angry customers and complaints coincided with the introduction of target times for calls. Well, rant over.

Hi LDK

I can also remember an earlier job (about ten years ago now ) where these places were much more relaxed.

I worked for a call centre for one of the big High Street banks, but our office didn't cover the whole of the UK, so we were a much smaller team. Also we all lived in the area we covered, so between us there was a lot of local knowledge, which the customer appreciated. There were no issues over breaks, sickness and while call time was a target, I don't remember being hauled into a "capability meeting" if it wasn't met.

AND

Crucially for the customer, there was no voice response system. They rang a number and if there was no one available, they waited with a ringing tone. It was very much "Keep It Simple Stupid" and everyone was happy, both staff and customers.

Then we were closed "to improve customer service" (the exact words of the manager who told us all) and all the calls then went to a much bigger operation. As a whole the bank went from around 45 call centres across the UK to about 20. In came the targets and the 7 option voice response systems.

The BBC Whistleblower programme did an undercover documentary about a big Barclays call centre about a year ago. Now that WAS true to life.

Hats off to you, Amanda, for the view point you gave as the customer. What you said was very balanced between what you thought of the company and what you thought of the staff. I liked it when you said to one of them “Thanks for your help anyway.” To me it came across that you still weren’t getting anywhere, but could tell that the person you were dealing with was doing everything in their power to help you.

I bet they still had to say “Is there anything I can help you with?” As daft as it seems, reps can lose marks on their call reviews if they don’t offer further assistance, even when they have spent the last 10 minutes not being able to do anything resembling help.

Crazy !

Can you have “They are going to call me back - from Mumbai” as your signature from now on, Amanda ? It’s a classic

Testing.

Done, as you requested OV, but how do I get it in colour? I think it looks better in colour!

That has got to be a classic sig. PMSL

Testing

Darn it! Someone please tell me how to get colour for my sig! Thought I had cracked it but obviously not.

quote:

Originally posted by amanda5653:
Done, as you requested OV, but how do I get it in colour? I think it looks better in colour!

It used to be above the box where you wrote your text, just like replying to a post.

It seems to have gone.

Drat! Thanks anyway!

meh