> The instructor writes "35 = 10" on the board, as though he is gifting > the recruits with a magic mantra. > > "A 35-year-old American's brain and IQ is the same as a 10-year-old > Indian's," he explains, and urges the agents to be patient with the > callers.
I find it intriguing that the stereotype here is quite similar -- that is, that the average call center operator's IQ is that of a 10 year old child. I think the real issue is that both sides are in an untenable position. The firm that outsourced its customer service is frequently (though not always) attempting to avoid helping its customers if it possibly be managed, and thus leaves the call center employee with no tools of any use to the caller. In a reasonable world, the employee would be able to do things like escalating the caller's problem in some reasonable way, and might have adequate information to deal with unusual cases, especially since if one is driven to call one probably has an unusual case. Of course, this isn't a reasonable world. The result is that often, a call center employee can seem like a robot repeating a script to most callers with a problem. On the other side, the average caller is pretty angry, having gotten frustrated enough to have to call, having just waited on hold for half an hour while being told "your call is very important to us!" by an automated recording over and over again, and having then been told in an incomprehensibly bad American accent by "Fred" or "Jane" that although the caller is not and never has been a customer of Corporation X, they must find their account number on a copy of their most recent bill (which they've never gotten because they're not a customer) in order to stop the constant robotic dunning calls they're getting. Under such circumstances, even a fairly intelligent caller will start to sound and act like a 10 year old, and even an intelligent call center employee can sound like a low grade moron. (By the way, this has approximately happened to me, though the exact story is even weirder. AT&T was convinced that I had not paid for long distance telephone service on a data only ISDN line that did not have voice service at all and was carried by Verizon -- the line not only had no long distance voice service, it was incapable of having it. I received numerous threatening letters informing me my credit rating would be damaged if I did not pay bills for services I had never received and could not cancel because they didn't exist. I spent almost 10 hours on the phone with AT&T customer service representatives who insisted to me they were in Atlanta or where have you even though one could clearly tell that their accent coaching was, shall we say, less than ideal. I was told in various different ways that their training didn't cover this, that they didn't know how to help me, that clearly the situation could not exist, etc. Finally I fixed the problem by talking to the New York State Public Service Commission, who got me the secret number that put me in touch with actual AT&T employees capable of figuring out what to do. The process had wasted my free time for almost two weeks. I do not blame the customer service people in the call centers. It was not their fault that AT&T had decided it was simpler never to talk to their own customers again. However, that doesn't mean that the situation wasn't incredibly frustrating on both sides. I'm sure that my calls triggered all sorts of "and then this idiot insists he's not a customer even though he's getting bills! can you believe it?" talk after work, just as on my side the easiest thing to say would have been "wow, those call center employees are IDIOTS"...) Perry -- Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
