Late shift for me tonight. One of my
team members needed off for the night, so I filled in.
So I'm surfing the net, and come across this video that I see
maybe a month ago. It is hilarious, believe me. It's a
commercial. Click below
Now tell me that wasn't funny.
These are the things that keep call center and answering
service reps busy late at night, or in those early am hours
for our 24 hour services out there.
Annoying
with a capital A
Today there was a caller who just
refused to get off of the line. He wanted to speak to someone,
who actually couldn't come to the phone for a few hours. The
caller just refused to hang up, and kept repeating over and
over "I want to speak to Mr. Smith". Then again "I want to
speak to Mr. Smith". Now that is frustrating, as I tried to
help the guy out, but he was mental or something. Images of
Rain Man flashed in my head. "I want to speak to Mr.
Smith". If he isn't mental, then he has serious issues.
I offered to call him back personally when Mr. Smith could
speak with him, but nothing but a blank stare over the phone.
No one on the other end, just a robot saying "I want to speak
to Mr. Smith".
Everyone in the answering service
industry has come up against their version of this caller. The
absolute irritant that you just love to hear on the other end
of the phone.
Examples -
1. You answer the phone "Thank you for calling
All The Way Records how can I help you?
Irritating response #1
Is this All the Way Records?
or Is this Cracker Jacks?
or you say no this is not Cracker Jacks, you
have the wrong number and they say.. irritating
response #2. Do you have their number?
It is so so common in a call center to hear
someone say that phrase "Do you have their number?".
Why in the world would anyone who calls someone by
accident, think that the person on the other end of
the line will know just by chance what the phone
number is that they're looking for? These people are
out there, and in great numbers. I may not be a
rocket scientist, but let's be real ok.
Is there something to be said for birth control
in larger numbers? Maybe some people should
never have children. Mencia on the Comedy channel
had a great routine on this.
Since it is our job to do everything we can to
help the caller, sometimes it is a bit insane.
Anyone in the general public can call, including
mental patients. So when a caller is doing the
equivalent of drooling on us over the phone, maybe
even the best of us isn't at 100% at that point.
Too bad we don't have one of these in the
answering services and call centers all over the
country. It would make some shifts really cool, like
the midnight shift.
.gif)
