Some frustrating facts about Call Center life

I just arrived from a 2-day off and the first thing i did was to check my emails for updates and reports that needs my attention the most. Here's my list:


1. QA audits for this week encoded on the client's tool.
2. Proximity cards for OJV.
3. BINS
4. Annualization review for the rest of the team.
5. Reply to the emails that needs answer while i was on rest day.
6. Send email blast to the team - Running stats.
7.Update 1 (cannot be specific for security reasons)
8. Update team schedule for next week.
9. News Bulliten
10.Update 2***
11. Sympatico idol prizes 11-07-2008
12. Important Update to the PC Care order Process and Product Description
13. FUTURE SHOP promotion
14. New *** Sign Off Sheet
15. Clean up and sort important documents for the OJV transfer.
16. Send email blast for the commendations received by my agents.
17. Follow up salary increase for***
18.Follow up salary increase for ***
19. Qoutation for id lace.
20. Leave Credits for Ayen.
21. Back up all files.

Of course, not to mention the manager calls and immiediate coachings that i have to do within the shift. These two things does not have to be listed as it is essentially part of every single day.


With that, i set about monitoring calls and this is what is happened. As my audits increases, the frustration and disperation almost bordering on anger is slowly boiling up. Of course, there are moments that makes me smile and proud because so and so did a great job on his or her call however, the dismay is heavier.

What's so frustrating is the fact that they have already memorized the call flow by heart yet still misses on a lot of things. Offering an ownership and apology statements no longer requires them to navigate thier tools or memorize a spiel. In fact, it comes as natural as saying thier names at the opening of each call but they have not perfected it yet. If they happen to do those things on thier calls, there are surely some other part of the call flow that will be neglected or forgotten. It may be offering a recap, an effective probing, ticket writing, etc... I know i have always been considered as "too strict, harsh and expecting too much" but what i find hard to accept is the fact that they know how to do it but can't seem to do it right all the time. Also, they are already working hard and exerting efforts in what they are doing, so why don't do it right? Besides,they are perfectly aware that every single call is captured by the recording system and if at least one of thier less-than good calls are monitored, they will receive coaching logs, care form or even termination depending on the gravity of the offense, yet they still do it. Not to mention the fact that, if they receive any of the corrective actions mentioned above, they will argue, complain and or be overly bothered by them yet they still do it. For sure, no one wants to lose his job yet they do things to endanger thier job security.


I know that they would say that its hard to perfect every single call because the issue and the mood of the callers varries. My answer to that is, a caller's mood can be swayed, changed, or aggravated depending on how they handle the call. Its not that, they have not received a lot of trainings and refreshers for these things. A customer can be educated, angered, consoled, amazed, feel insulted and uniformed. The list can go on and on depending on how a rep handles the situtation.