Contain vs. Complain
April 12th, 2012
The other day, one of my colleagues got the dreaded “caller from hell“.
For a full twenty minutes, the customer bombarded my hapless co-worker with all manners of insults, cusses, screams, and even threats. To the credit of the CSR, she held on bravely until she finally decided to escalate the call to one of the floor supervisors. After nearly a half hour of holding her patience, she finally gave up, pa
A Lesson in Empathy
February 21st, 2012
Not too long ago, I read about how you get more pleasure from patiently waiting and eventually getting that which you waited for. Now, after less than a year, I realise that apart from enduring “the wait”, there is also something you always have to consider – timing.
I have always believed in the greater good. I always believed that people in this world are innately good or at least, some people rema
Making a Relationship Work for Call Center Reps
February 20th, 2012
I don’t believe that two people are ever really two-peas-in-a-pod.
No matter how similar we seem to be with our significant others, we usually lead very different lives. We have different jobs, are interested in different, sometimes contradicting, things and have different schedules. One of the biggest differences lies when you happen to be a call center agent, and your partner or significant other is in a &#
Call Center Records
December 14th, 2011
In every business, there is that one thing that always seems to be crucial to operations in the long-term. Often, these are actually very little things; people wouldn’t really notice their importance until it hits them in the face with the force of a high-speed truck. In the call center field, this “little thing” would be records. While other fields and lines of business need it as badly as the ca
How to Spend Your Money Wisely
November 11th, 2011
I believe it’s a fact that your monthly salary as a call center agent is hard-earned money. It is worth a month of sleepless hours, stress or emotional fatigue when you ‘battle it out’ with difficult customers. This is why it’s also understandable that you get really excited when you get your paycheck. Sometimes, you get too excited that you end up using most of it for things that may be unneces
Inbound Sales Tales
November 4th, 2011
While they’re not necessarily the most prevalent or well-known type of call center work, there are instances when the sales team handles things inbound. In other words, they’re not the ones calling the customer, but are instead on the receiving end. Sure, this takes away a bit of the sting that outbound sales gigs tend to have, but that doesn’t mean there are no problems with this line of work. Th
Questions for a TL Wannabe
November 2nd, 2011
You are a call center agent. You know what it means to be an agent – working shifting schedules (graveyard for some), answering customer queries, troubleshooting. You excel at your job, and you’re aware of it. You are never late for work, and you have a commendable Average Handling Time (AHT). You also have superb QA scores, enough to earn yourself the “CSR/TSR of the Month” title more than
The Basics of Cloud Computing
November 4th, 2010
A cloud is basically another way of calling the Internet. The main function of cloud computing is to utilize the highly superior computing power to everyday business process. Trillions of computations per second can be done through cloud computing.
Enterprise cloud computing (or cloud computing for businesses) is a computing model which interconnects large groups of servers in order to provide low-cost, high-capaci
How to Make the Best of Break Time in a Call Center
October 2nd, 2010
By now, I’m sure you’re used to your job at the call center. The endless beeps of call waiting and the seemingly bottomless pit of your supervisor’s anger seem to follow you everywhere you go. Although working at a call center can be an arduous, humiliating, and annoying task, many hardworking employees have managed to do it for years on end without fail. What is their secret to simple success, you ask? The a
5 Ways to Calm a Furious Customer
August 29th, 2010
Working in the call center industry is rewarding. However, it can be very difficult and exhausting. Every once in a while, you will encounter an irate and irrational customer. While your gut impels you to answer back, being an agent, your job is to deal with it coolly. Yes, even if the customer is on the wrong pole. What you can do is to calm yourself and calm your client as well.
That being said, here are 5 tips t