Not So Much Against Lusers...

[canray.livejournal.com]

But against fellow Techs in Tech Support. (At my workplace, not you guys!).

It's called a *WARM TRANSFER*! It doesn't take much time, ensures you're getting to the right person (So easy to misdial a wrong department), and the customer isn't pissed off that they have to give out all their personal info (Again) and explain the entire situation (Again) and so on. Just confirm some info and "Woo!" done.

Also comes in handy to know when I'm going to need a translator (I work in a *VERY* small department, no language lines!), or working with a Relay Call.

In addition: Know who does what! I keep getting calls for "Sign me up with your great service!". I'm Tech Support. Out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. *ALL* Sales is done Locally! Why? Because the company is stupid and wants to have everything different for every local market. *EVERY* Local Market. I don't do Billing (Failed Accounting in School), I don't support TV Service (Did that before, *NEVER* going back!), and I never even want to *SEE* a VoIP Box (Too unreliable technology!).

I'm bloody outsourced, and I know the departments better than people who work directly for the company! (Yes, this includes the Tech Support lines, too. So it's not just the idiots in Sales. Which is another rant all on it's own.).

Now, for the Lusers. If you've just been transfered to someone, for no reason whatsoever, don't expect us to know what was said before. "I was just put on hold, then you came on. Can you help me?" is a perfectly good thing to say. Respectable-like.

Cursing me out for being the recieving person of the call doesn't endeer me to helping you. In fact, it encourages me to transfer you back where you belong, instead of helping you out. (I worked regular tech support, and remember most of it. You lucked out getting me, not everyone in my department has my experience.).

Finally, yes, I'm outsourced. I'm foreign. Don't complain. English is my first language, and I can get by pretty well in American, too. There are call centres in the US. You don't want to talk to them? Why? Because the people who work directly for the company itself doesn't want to. "I keep calling back until I get someone in Canada." is how one Local Front-Line CSR put it.

Sorry folks, I just finished my weekend, and have a bad feeling about this week. And *REALLY* needed to get that off my chest.

Comments

[fearrett.livejournal.com]

Warm transfers own, I use em at Dell all the time

[jecook]

No worries. That is what this place is for.

[canray.livejournal.com]

I warm transfer myself.

And, to tell you how bad it is, I'm a Specialist. I can only be gotten to *BY* a transfer. No direct line, no ability to get to via Voice Mail Hell.

*EVERY* monitored call my Supervisor has done has been a Cold Transfer. For over TWO MONTHS.

[canray.livejournal.com]

OK, was wondering because it wasn't against Users, but against fellow workers. Still had to get it off my chest.

[harmer.livejournal.com]

Ughhh..I hate cold transfers with pissy customers. You know it's going to be bad when you ask them for their phone number and the first thing they do is sigh loudly.

[canray.livejournal.com]

It's "I JUST ENTERED THE ****ING THING FIVE TIMES AND GAVE IT TO THREE PEOPLE!!!" that are my bad calls.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

I love warm transfers. I use them constantly.

I hate the retarded clients who bitch about how long they were on hold because I spent thirty or forty seconds reviewing their issue with the new tech before bringing them on the line.

[harmer.livejournal.com]

Haha, true that. And while I agree with the customers that it's annoying, they act like it's so painful and torturous giving their phone number again. I'm not highly political or anything, but it always makes me think, "Thousands of children are dying and starving in Africa right now and you're complaining about telling me a 10 digit number?!"

[canray.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I wasn't doing the Video Billing when the Hurricane hit the Southern States like some of the people that I trained with.

Listening to whiney SOBs that didn't have their Cable TV when their NEIGHBOURS were without homes!

[canray.livejournal.com]

"I was on hold for AN HOUR!" "No, actually, it was three minutes. I know this because we're not busy at the moment and I have a timer here that tells me how long the calls are. I spent those three minutes asking the person you talked to earlier so you wouldn't need to repeat yourself."

I did say this after my transfer, as I *KNEW* I wasn't being monitored yet. :-D

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. When we've got calls in queue we can hit a button on our phone to check the number of calls in queue, and the wait time for the longest one.

Just a couple days ago I had somebody where I checked the queue time immediately before answering the phone, and had her tell me she was on hold for a half hour.

Her actual wait time? Under seven minutes.

[harmer.livejournal.com]

Ooh, funny you say that because when the hurricane hit, the billing offices got closed if they were in the hurricane area and so my tech support centre (in Canada!) had to take on all these Houston calls. There was nothing we could do except say the office would open later and I had to listen to countless people complain about not having TV. I remember once person said, "I know it's a hurricane and all...but I just don't feel like [company] is doing enough to get our TV back. I am missing Desperate Housewives."

PEOPLE WERE DYING!!! Oh, I heard so many complaints about women missing Desperate Housewives!

[canray.livejournal.com]

Wish I had that!

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

We use Symon-View here. It gets REALLY funny during the holidays (retail bookstore chain) when we reach the time limit that it can display (999 seconds) and it rolls over to 0. Fortunately, that only happens if something big takes a huge dump, which is surprisingly rare considering how many ways things can break.

[merryharper.livejournal.com]

As a user, I VERY much appreciate your warm transfers, since I have gotten the runaround on phone trees and been disconnected and been sent to places I know I shouldn't be sent to.... On behalf of all of your customers, let me say THANK YOU.

One thing that I find frustrating is that when I'm on hold waiting for someone to answer, I often get the "For faster service, please enter your account number," and so I do, but then when I get a real person they have no clue who I am. They ask for my name, account number, and a verification. I appreciate the concern for my security, but why do I have to give it all again and have someone retype it (I can hear them)? That does irritate me. (Although I have never taken it out on the live person; not their fault that the phone doesn't tell them things.) Why does that sort of thing happen? I don't think they should have the phone trees ask for info if they don't intend to use it.

[Sorry -- rant of my own there --!]

Thanks again for your good service.
:)
Meredith

[canray.livejournal.com]

"I appreciate the concern for my security, but why do I have to give it all again and have someone retype it (I can hear them)?"

Typically (Not always), this means you've just been outsourced. You're no longer dealing with someone that works directly for the company, but works at a call centre. This info is routed only within the client company, and isn't passed on.

I admit, yes, it's poor customer service, but, hey, we're talking about megacorporations here. They. Do Not. Care.

"I don't think they should have the phone trees ask for info if they don't intend to use it."

They do, however, still use it. They track who, and in what area, are calling. And use that to base projections on call volumes in the future. As well as track trouble-spots.

If you get 1000 calls from a small area, all punching in, "No Service", it' a flag to the Operations Department in the area that something might not be working properly.

Now, weither said OpsTeam is actually awake at the switch and willing to declair an Outage (Or whatever), is a different story.

Gets really annoying when we start booking appointments two and a half weeks in the future before it's declaired.

"The agents are declairing an outage on their own. This is *NOT* a good thing!" is something I heard on a horrific night when I was leaving. They still didn't declare the outage for another hour. That was three and a half weeks worth of appointments that needed to be, manually, called in and cancelled.