So you’ve said you’ve worked in a variety of call centres so you will have taken plenty of first calls. How does the first call in a new job go, and how did your very first call ever go?
The first call centre I worked in it was a help desk so basically what my job was, was to take calls from Sainsbury stores when something wasn’t working. So I would speak to the facilities managers in these stores they would tell me what was wrong, I would put the information in the system then I would tell them the estimated time for the contractor to get there. Maybe I would have to contact contractors or the store if something changed. The first job I actually had to deal with customers was outbound, so where I’m contacting customers to cross sell them. For me to be honest it was a bit nervous but once you get the first one done, once you realise the worst the customer can say is no you tend to be not as bad. But you do get a lot of people that are absolutely terrified of taking their first call because they have this notion that the customers going to come on and shout at them. Especially if you’re working in an inbound sales role where the customer is calling you because they want something. Your first call you’re only expected to do what they want, put the information in the system and that’s it. You’re not expected to do anything else just get through the call.
So first call in every job then, do you approach it the same way, just get it done and dusted?
Pretty much. I’ve worked on the phones for that long that it doesn’t really faze me. I’ve always been confused about people get so nervous about it as when you go for your interview you do a role play which these days is done on the phone. You should look at it as another role play. The people that are interviewing you make the role play harder than the job so you’re better equipped to handle the pressure and the call. You know more about the products and you’ve been through the training, you have your team mates and support now. You’ve already done your first call.
During the training process you said that you get trained on dealing with customers. By the time you get on the phones do you feel equipped to deal with them?
No. To deal with customer enquiries, aye, because you have the knowledge to answer questions. Well, if you’ve retained that knowledge, my first call in every role, everything I’ve just learned goes straight out my head. It goes because you’re concentrating on getting the call done and talking to the customer you’re not thinking you need to find something or answer a question. But to deal with customers I don’t think you’re well equipped. That comes from being on the phone. Answering enquiries aye, if you’ve been trained properly and paying attention, but the only way to learn how to deal with customers is to do it. They can tell you this is a customer type, this is how you deal with a customer type but you very rarely get a customer that exactly matches a customer type. Everybody’s different. Everyone reacts differently to the people they’re speaking too. It might be you come on and your accents Scottish so they automatically get their back up if their English because they think they won’t get anything out them. The reason there’s more call centres in Scotland than anywhere else in the country is that people trust the Scottish accent. But the only way to learn is to go speak to customers.
Do you think that customers affect your mood and your day?
They can do. Your always told that you leave your life at the door and if you have a bad call you put it behind you and don’t let it affect you but it’s not quite as easy as that. If you have a call where I customer is calling you for everything it’s going to affect you. I always think your first call of the day defines the type of day you’re going to have. If your first day is a great call it will put you in a good mood for the rest of the day but on the flip side if you have a bad call it can put you in a negative mood for the day.
Thoughts of a Millennial 