Ya know, people are just darn weird.

Did you ever think about how careful you have to be with sending supplies to a prison? It's true. You have to make sure what you send has no metal in it, because they would make weapons out of it. I actually expected that: but what I heard yesterday threw me for a loop.

I had the opportunity to call a customer yesterday and check on some research we were supposed to do for her. Well, she asked me to find out a couple of other things for her. She asked if we could get some alcohol-free hand sanitizer. I made the mistake of asking her why.

A prisoner drank the regular hand sanitizer.

Ewwickgross.

First day back at work, after massive house cleaning all weekend and being sick as a dog on Monday. It was a nice day, except I'm now even farther behind than I normally am. I always panic when I'm behind. Most places I've worked have had more than one QA rep. They tried adding another one once, but she became the trainer. And she's really, really good at her job. Her new hires have awesome QA scores. She makes them fill out the QA standards form WITH NO NOTES. They really know what having a good QA score requires.

So I'm still alone, and probably will be until I decide to apply for another position. I like being alone, but it's a lot of responsibility and a lot of stress. But it's fun, too: which makes everything worth it.

Okay. I didn't see another half naked man today. It was a half naked woman. Yike.

What really ticks me off the most is a CSR not using the Internet for work. There are so many opportunities to locate product information online. But they choose to be in online chat rooms or download pictures to their cell phones while on line with a customer.

Another long day in the QA trenches. All I can say is I hope I never see another half-naked man in my screen capture software.

Have to laugh at this one.  It's so funny when you're sitting here, listening to phone calls, and one of the CSR's starts talking to YOU.

 

I'm listening to a call, and there are strange sounds coming from the other end.  Then I hear, "Sorry, Ann, but my nose is itching."

 

So I respond, "It's okay.  I won't count off for it."

 

We both got a good laugh out of it. 

Had a bad case of lastcallitis. Again.

Customer wants to return product. She has a return number: all she needs are call tags. She's been waiting a week, and she is understandably agitated. The CSR says she will make the phone call to have the tags sent, and asks the customer to hold. She then makes the phone call, corrects the fax number in the system, and gets the call tags sent.

Then there is a silent period for about a minute.

She picks up the phone and calls another customer: she lets them know that the order is shipping. Customer is happy.

Then another minute of silence. Where did customer number one go, you ask? Good question!

The phone rings. CSR gives the scripted greeting, then you hear, "SOMEbody put me on HOLD and LEFT me there. My account number is 1234567, and I wanted call tags."

That's right. The CSR completely forgot customer number one was holding. She was genuinely surprised when the original call rang back to her.

I wrote it up, finished my nightly report, clocked out, and left. That was it. I was done.

However, my job is apparently rubbing off on those around me. My husband has started evaluating the calls he makes to customer care centers. For example, he called a phone company today, and was faced with about six minutes of dead air time. He kept thinking, "Boy, if my wife got a hold of this call..."

I'm taking my job home with me.

We went to Barnes and Noble last night. Now, I haven't been there in about six years, because of the horrid customer service I received that time. But there's a book I need. My boss let me borrow a book, and I love it so much that I want a copy. It's already on my Amazon.com list, so I knew I could get it there. But I wanted to see if I could get it locally, and one bookstore did not have it: the other was closed.

So I handed the piece of paper to the guy at the Customer Disservices counter. He looked at the paper, and said, "I can tell you we won't have this." He looked the ISBN number up in his computer, and said, "We can't get this. Maybe you can try Amazon."

#1: no empathy. Minus 5 points.
#2: no positive statement. Minus 4 points.
#3: He sent me to a competitor. He just freaking failed his QA.

I said, "It's already on my list at Amazon." He said, in a condescending tone, "Yes, but can they get it?" I said, "It's in my cart. They can get it."

My husband and kids went to the children's section while I looked around for other good books on Customer Service. Yes, I've read a lot about this. You should see my work bookshelf. Anyway, I had an idea. I went back to the dude and said the following.

"Sir: if you really want to provide good customer service, here's what you do. You saw on my paper that my book involved call centers. You could have said, 'I'm sorry, but we won't be able to get that particular book. However, we do have other books that you might be interested in. May I show you where to find them?' Then you could either take the person to that section or show them where it is on a map of the store. Have a nice day." And I walked off.

So, I'm going to order the book from Amazon. And it looks like another six year period before I step foot in that store again.

Bad customer service chafes my hide.

The armor in the picture should have said it all. Actually, the worst part of today was the switchboard. I can't wait until tomorrow: I always send out a really funny email on Friday the 13th. I may need the armor tomorrow, so I think I'll keep it on for the night. :)

Great day. I had to work switchboard for a while today, and it was kind of fun. It's nice to just transfer people. Since I haven't worked switchboard for two years, a lot of people had no clue who was up there. I had two calls just to find out who was on switchboard. :)

And I realized why my right wrist is messed up. I changed mice on my home computer. I had a wireless mouse: just a normal, regular sized one. I have a trackball now. It's unlike the one I have at work: my work trackball is in the middle, and easily operated by the fingers. This one, the trackball is on the left, and you have to use your thumb. I either need to get used to it, use it less, or buy a new mouse. I needed the wireless one for my laptop.

The past couple of days have been sheer torture: but it isn't the calls this time. It's my carpal tunnel. My right hand and wrist have been in unbearable pain the last two days. Considering that is my dominant hand, my typing has been a lot slower. I have an ergonomic keyboard at work, which has helped tremendously. I highly recommend one, even if you don't have carpal tunnel. It's a lot easier to use once you get used to it.

Only one major malfunction today, and it caused me to get off work a half hour late. You know how it is: it's the last call of the day syndrome. You get off at 5pm, and you get the call at 4:59pm that will last for hours? That was my problem when I was on the phones. I think that was because when they told me I would be getting off work at 5pm, that meant that I don't log off the phones until 5pm. Other people were under the impression that you log off the phones about 15 minutes before end of shift, and you run like the wind out the front door at 5pm. I never saw it that way, and thus always ended up staying over. Great for the paycheck: lousy for the home life.

Anyway, I had to escalate a call, and the research itself took 20 minutes. Loads of typing, which was stressing my already sore wrist even further: and a quick meeting with the supervisor to ensure the problem would be corrected. I've done worse, and stayed later: but today every letter typed was torture. I came home and went straight to bed to relax. My hand feels a lot better now, but the brace will have to go back on tomorrow. Ah, the perils of call center work. :)

System Glitch of the Day!

Or...

These had better be Platinum top, not Copper top!

I was listening to a call, like I normally do. It's my job, after all. A customer called in and wanted to change her order slightly: add an item, drop an item. The CSR did this, then gave her the new total. It was around $2200.

There was a moment of silence, followed by, "My order was only $500 a few minutes ago."

The item she added cost less than the item she dropped, so the CSR went to investigate. There was a box of AA batteries on the order. The box price had jumped from around $71 to $1,716.72.

I just sat there and watched in disbelief. The call was screen captured, so I was able to see what the CSR saw. Dang. The order, as it was showing in the correction screen, read $1,716.72. But the order in the history screen read $71.

I thought I'd seen it all. At that rate, as my husband said, we might as well send these guys a generator. Those are some real expensive batteries.

But the CSR persevered, and she fixed the problem. She saved the customer a major case of sticker shock. She did a great job.

I have three pet peeves. Only three, you say? Yes, only three. Two involve toilet paper, and one involves work. Here they are.

1: Put the darn toilet paper on the holder. Don't set it on the back of the toilet.

2: The paper goes over the roll, not under. It's much easier to pull of the roll that way.

3: If you accidentally disconnect a phone call, or if the customer hangs up, CALL THEM BACK!

I have had to report this more last month than any other month. Most of the time, at the point of disconnect, the CSR already has the customers account number. It's a whole lot easier for the CSR to look up a phone number and call the customer back than for the customer to call back and try to get the same CSR they were speaking with. Plus, it makes the CSR look good: it makes them look like they really care about that customer.

It's not that hard, doesn't take that much time, and promotes good will. Just make a simple phone call. It's a good thing.

I am sobbing right now. From the main article for today in CallCenterScript.com, there is a link to an article titled QA Professionals: The Unsung Heroes. It can be found directly here: http://www.callcenterscript.com/2006/08/qa_professionals_the_unsung_he.html It hit me pretty hard. Being the only QA person in my call center, I've always considered it like a ministry. My job not only affects our CSR's, but it affects our customers as well. And our customers affect our bottom line, which makes everybody happy.

It's amazing, the amount of responsibility they have entrusted to me. It is a lot of work, a lot of research, and a lot of worry. I'm sad when I have to escalate a problem: especially one that could get the CSR written up. I'm overjoyed when I hear a call where the CSR goes the extra mile to help the customer. And, at the end of the day, when I come home to my family, I know what I have done all day has been worthwhile.

It's hard, being behind the scenes: especially when you have spent your whole career taking care of the customer directly. But once you get used to it, there's nothing like it in the world.

Thanks, Jam and Michael. Those words meant a whole lot. I appreciate it.

Wow. Two days passed. Two very long days. And NOTHING HAPPENED. It was wonderful. But I have no stories. I am bereft of things to share. I am saddened.

Well, back to work in the morning. I have done a couple of things work-related this weekend, between a good bit of traveling. I am so thankful that hotels have wireless internet connections. That was a god-send.

Hopefully, something funny will happen that I can post. Tomorrow and Friday will be pretty long days.

And I did not mean to have comment moderation on. Hopefully that has been removed now. :)