"Your call is important to us please hold..."

[GazM]

Phoned the docs yesterday & took 40 minutes to get through. Told to phone back today at 08:30.

Phoned the docs today at 08:30. Got through after 20 mins. Told to phone back today at 09:30...

All because they have no record of a face-to-face appointment I had last month.

"Is there anything else we can do for you today ?"

Erm, how about doing your job properly. NHS c****.

 

[threespires]

Its all about money - they move us on-line with telephone contact centres but to keep profits up as they put more customers on phone contacts they don't employ more staff to answer the things.

I remember very late 90's working at a place where the boss wanted the USP to be contact with real people so he wanted those of us out on the road to cover 8am to 1pm 5 days a week and 8am to 1pm Saturday BUT at no extra cost? We had a working party looking into it and basically the only way it works is to have more people and we experimented with rota's for a whole day until the boss Martin accepted his fantasy pipe dream was just that - we did explain he could do it with a 30% pay cut across the board but he would likely lose 90% of experienced staff in the first month

You are right, about the cost side but what is interesting I think is there's a whole generation raised on digital communications and systems many of whom prefer/or are conditioned to interact this way rather than talk to a person which they seem to find quite stressful. I was discussing this with my nephew and when I asked him what he did when the bot couldn't service his request he shrugged and said he pretty much gave up at that point. Which I'm guessing from a post sales service perspective suits many companies.

Bizarrely, my own kids are absolutely fine on video calls but I've had to 'teach' them how to communicate effectively on a voice only call. World's gone mad (the cry of the foc).

 

[Deleted member 13905]

Funny how they always pick up instantly if it's any sort of sales line

"press 4 if you are thinking of leaving us."
gets you through to someone pretty quickly.
it seems to be the same people on the other end,
they don't seem to know which number you have pressed.

 

[bluethrunthru]

You are right, about the cost side but what is interesting I think is there's a whole generation raised on digital communications and systems many of whom prefer/or are conditioned to interact this way rather than talk to a person which they seem to find quite stressful. I was discussing this with my nephew and when I asked him what he did when the bot couldn't service his request he shrugged and said he pretty much gave up at that point. Which I'm guessing from a post sales service perspective suits many companies.

Bizarrely, my own kids are absolutely fine on video calls but I've had to 'teach' them how to communicate effectively on a voice only call. World's gone mad (the cry of the foc).

I agree - foc's like you and me actually know how to speak to people. Younger generations have known nothing different than digital comms. Family does my fucking head in on this as did work - people text each other or just send and e-mail than 2 mins later are back at you asking " does the reply mean this or that? " I have a tendency to lose my rag at this point and suggest I can't help them but if they have a number why not try ringing and having a conversation? Oddly enough they find thats a way to quickly resolve their questions.........

 

[bluethrunthru]

"press 4 if you are thinking of leaving us."
gets you through to someone pretty quickly.
it seems to be the same people on the other end,
they don't seem to know which number you have pressed.

another annoying one is when 4 gets you to speak to someone and you trot out your tale they go "a right let me transfer you to someone who can help " 3 or 4 minutes pass then you get " hello my name is Mia can I help you? " You ask have they been given the details you gave earlier and they say "No" cheerfully and you are off again......WTF happens in that 3 -4 minute delay whilst you are transferred?

 

[MCFC Wirral]

As others have said, don’t take it out on the poor fuckers paid crap wages to sit in a battery farm of a call centre. I’ve been there and am still scarred by the verbal abuse I’d (rightly) get from customers screwed over by a terrible insurer.

I could do anything with their policies but was not responsible for the poor judgement in how many employees were needed when they shut the local offices and centralised.

 

[Deleted member 13905]

another annoying one is when 4 gets you to speak to someone and you trot out your tale they go "a right let me transfer you to someone who can help " 3 or 4 minutes pass then you get " hello my name is Mia can I help you? " You ask have they been given the details you gave earlier and they say "No" cheerfully and you are off again......WTF happens in that 3 -4 minute delay whilst you are transferred?

they are probably sat next to each other...

mia "tea and biscuits time?"
the first fella "blow job time?"

 

[BLUEYESTU]

Can’t beat a bit of Kenny G to soothe the spirit while you’re waiting to speak to someone.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

With the iPhone, I can put it on speaker and do other stuff (play FIFA) until someone answers. Far better than holding it to your ear.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

When I worked at barclays our team were fielding calls about Changes and Incidents, too many calls.

We setup a call system with a few options that always led the caller to the online form that they could use instead. My god it improved our work load. Cynical, but we all got lovely annual bonuses based on reduced calls.

I assume that's the way all company's work, everyone pretending to do a good job whilst getting 'outstanding' annual reviews. From the phone call handling business to child care service, we're all faking it on the whole. I best stop there.