Well, the month is almost over.  I've had to send way too many escalations this month: most all for follow-up.  I've ranted about this before: but this is something that could be prevented with one, simple phone call.  What's so hard about that?

 

No funny stories to share, sadly.  It's been slow and a little boring.  Not much to do to finish out this month: hopefully something crazy will happen soon.  I need a laugh.

Slow day.  What's really upsetting me is not calling people back.  There are so many tools available to use to remind yourself to call a customer back.  We use Outlook, which has a really nice Calendar option.  I set reminders to myself so I can go back and look at QAs and see if the CSR called someone back like they promised.

 

Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to verify information.  Make sure you have all possible information.  Then, for goodness sake, make the call!  Don't leave them hanging, waiting for an answer: or cause them to be irate when they do call back and ask why.  It's simple.  If you promise it, do it!

Wow. What a day. I'm still pretty flabbergasted. A friend sent me an email that said, simply, Congratulations. I replied, "For what?" Then I looked over, and my voice mail light was on. I listened.

I won our equivalent to Employee of the Month. They choose one person who does not take calls each month for this award. The people who take calls get a lot more rewards, as they should: they are on the front lines, taking care of our customers. Every email I got said I deserved it: I just feel I do my job the best that I can. It really made my day.

I was listening to a call today. It was going rather well. The CSR politely asked the customer to hold while she looked up their account information. She placed the customer on hold: then, I heard the most beautiful three words I've ever heard at work.

"I gotta PEE!"

Ooooookay. I had to listen very carefully throughout the rest of the hold time to make sure I could hear the CSR's voice. She wasn't likely to go potty with a customer on hold, but in my position, I couldn't take any chances!

Had a couple of great ones yesterday. First call: the customer starts the call with, "If someone promises to send a fax, and they don't do it, would you consider that a good business practice?" At this point, I knew this was going to be good. It turned out to be a true test of the CSR's patience.

At this point, the CSR actually was able to get to the problem and solve it. I thought the call was over. But no. "You didn't answer my question," the caller said. He asked it again. She said, "Sir, I don't know what happened. The previous person may not have sent the fax. It may not have gone through on your end. I can't answer that question." Not good enough. "It's a simple question," he asked. "If someone promises to send a fax, and they don't do it, would you consider that a good business practice?" She said, "If someone promised me they would, and they didn't, no. I don't think that's good business practice." the customer said, "Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear." The CSR was, at this point, finally able to close the call.

Even just listening to this call, I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle this dude. He came across as truly obnoxious. But our CSR handled it with skill, grace and dignity. She probably cussed when he hung up, but I can't count off for that.

The other one: the customer called and wanted several cases of product for Saturday delivery. It's not until you get into the distribution business that you realize how expensive Saturday delivery is. She advised the customer that the freight was going to be high. She called our warehouse to verify, and was told the freight was going to be over $300. By the way, that's about double the cost of the product she was being shipped.

The CSR told the customer, and asked if we could just ship part for Saturday and the rest for Monday, so she could save the freight charges. The customer said no: she needed all the product for Saturday. The CSR told her again that the freight would be over $300. The customer asked if she needed to send in a fax saying it was okay. Our CSR said, "All these calls are recorded. I'm going to say this one more time, and I need you to say whether you agree to the charges." The customer agreed to the freight charges, and the CSR closed the call. Really great job of CYA there. Before recording, if the customer would have called back and said they never agreed to the freight charges, unless the CSR had written proof, we would have credited the account. In this case, because of recording, she is covered, and the customer will have to pay the freight.

I experienced really horrible customer service tonight: and it was at our local Kroger store.

You see, I had a coupon for a free container of Nesquik. Well, it was almost free: the coupon covered up to $2.99, and the price of the item was $3.19. Silly me forgot to give it to the cashier when we went through the line. The cashier helpfully said we could take it to Customer Service.

I didn't know we had found Customer Disservice.

I went and explained the situation to the cashier. She said, quite rudely, "Are you going to pay the difference?" I said, "I already paid for the item. Can't you just give me back the $2.99 for the coupon?"

Well, that was the last I heard from this woman. She gave us the money back for the item - all of it - and put the item behind the counter. I wanted to keep it. I just wanted the money back for the coupon. And, even better - she kept the coupon.

I have realized at last why I could never get a job at Kroger working in the Customer Service area. I have more than two brain cells.

Where, oh where, is Harry Scheff?

 

He writes the ICMI blog, Call Center Today: and his last entry was July 11.  It's August 1 now.

 

If I were a believer in conspiracy theories, I'd say he was kidnapped by the US Government after writing that article on Government Call Centers.  But I don't believe that.  Not for a minute.

 

But just because I don't believe it doesn't mean it ain't true...

 

(fade in Twilight Zone theme)

 

Shane!  Come back, Shane!