Lying is bad, mmmmkay?
I can not stand liars. When you are president or a governor or a supervisor in a call center or the spouse of a member trying to get information, just tell the truth! You may not get the response you want, but I will be a lot more willing to deal with you.
Of course if you are going to lie, then at least be alittle creative about it. By all means, use a little common sense people! My example this week:
Me: (In my ever pleasant voice, because I love my job, and continue to work ever hard and at the best of my ability even if I have been told that a person who has never worked in my call center before is better qualified then me to do my job, with my top numbers in the office except for Maggie who is Puerto Rican and talks really fast, and no I am not cynical but if anyone out there is looking for a call center rep who answers an average of 80- 100 calls a day and has reached numbers topping 130 at times then drop me an email.) Good morning, this is Larry; may I have your name please?
NotRuth: (Very deep male voice) Yes, this is Ruth.
Me: (Thinking, maybe he said Rudy or something) What can I do for you?
NotRuth: I need to change my address.
Me: (At this point I have the account up and see the name Ruth) And your name again?
NotRuth: Ruth.
Me: And your birthdate?
NotRuth: uh, January 2 uh (I hear papers being shuffled in the background) 1934.
Me: (Trying to be clever) And your name again?
NotRuth: Ruth
Me: (I am out of ideas at this point, and really don’t want go through this with him. So I come up with a creative way to get the truth out.) This does not sound like Ruth.
NotRuth: uh I'm her husband.
Me: (We have very specific rules about this, I can not take or give information to him. I don’t agree with this but not my call and since I do not want to lose my job…) Ok, sir, is Ruth around, I can not take the address change from anyone but her.
NotRuth: Now you listen here, boy! She can’t come to the phone…
Me: Ok sir, then have her call us or put the change in writing. Thank you.
NotRuth: But I had to wait 45 minutes on the phone! I just want to change an address! (Actually at this point he sounded very girly, should have tried that at the beginning)
Me: You have a nice day, sir!
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I do have to note that the Demon dHairy moved to the other side of the office this week. The island will miss his humor and companionship. He helped us prepare for the coming storms. He will always be considered part of the island in our eyes. He is welcome to visit and of course always welcome at the Penguin and the upcoming Island Sledding Day. On his part, he has offered to let Steven visit him and feed his fish any time that he wants.
We of course worry who will be moved into the empty cubicle. Not much to be said on that. I just hope they are willing to put up with laughter, friendship, bad jokes, and Winston not wearing pants.
posted by Firebear at 11:58 AM
2 Comments:
Uncle Larry,
I liked this post. At our call center, we have the same type of rules. We can only talk to the people who are legally responsible for the accout. I hate it when people call up impersonating the account holder. And you always know. It sounds like you did a good job of getting this liar to state the truth.
I wish you were at our call center. We'd appreciate you. I know I'd love to have a person like you on our team. Fun, hard working, and able to understand jokes. You are an asset and if the call center you work and doesn't realize that, they need to look at their evaluation process.
Beth
Oh, I hate that. When they call up and pretend to be someone they are not. That just sucks. And then when you call them on it, they get so pissed off. "Why can't you change it?" Hmm, I don't know. How about the fact that if I do change it, now that I've figured out that you're lying, the actual customer has grounds to sue the pants off of us?
I am so ready to drive out to Michigan and kick some stupid supervisor butt but I would have to steal a car to do it and that would be bad. Technically, I could get away with it because I didn't promise not to steal a car this year, just not kill anyone, but I'm not the best driver yet and probably would run over a nun or something.
Great post, Larry, as always.
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