Customer service reps get a lot of flack. We’re called ignorant, stupid, arrogant, and a whole bunch of other negative adjectives. Sometimes, we deserve it. I wouldn’t be so high and mighty and even begin to claim that all reps are perfect, as we’re not. Sometimes though, the reason why you get a hold of a rep that appears to be those adjectives, would be because of the people above them. We are often caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of wanting to help the caller, and what we’re told to do/say from management.
To make matters worse, there is often a ‘two-way mirror’ between management and the ‘grunts’ who do most of the work. From what I can tell, this wall is there to prevent poor reactions to choices management may make. What it actually does though, it place a lot of pressure on anyone working under management to try to compensate for poor choices. Management will typically try to spin the situation onto the reps’ shoulders, to make them responsible for poor performance. Similarly, if the performance is improved, management takes all of the glory.
Case In Point:
Last night, our team had a meeting. In this meeting, the reps are told to try to not put as much of a work load on the team leaders. (The ones who help us with cases, questions, take escalations, etc.) In essence, we’re being told not to use them as a resource. We’re told that we’re using them as a crutch, and “… that has to stop.” . That’s dangerous for customers calling in, as they may not receive the service that they should.
Then we’re told that these team leader will take on additional work. Instead of being more of a resource for us, they are becoming more of a resource for our supervisor. Essentially taking away a vital way for reps to better assist our customers. This will mean that instead of someone getting to speak to a supervisor if they so wish, they’ll end up waiting 24 hours or more for this to happen. Instead of us taking five minutes to answer a question, we send an email to these team leaders to have them call the customer back with a response. That’s not a ‘one call resolution,’ and is poor customer service in my book.
In the end, what this really means is that my supervisor, who is above these team leaders, is delegating more and more work to people below her who are already over-worked as. Instead of doing something a little more creative, or really something more practical like hiring more people, she’s instead going the easiest way out, putting more stress on not only the team leaders, but us as reps. It could have been explained that the resources our supervisor has at her disposal are limited. Instead, she’s spinning it as if it’s our fault that she made the choice that she did. It’s a form of dishonesty, and the only thing it does is open up speculation from people like myself who question possibly illogical business choices such as this one.
One Day…
I hope one day, this wall will not be common place. In my experience, it doesn’t help the company by keeping any of its employees in the dark. Actually, all it does in the end is create a high turn-over. Eventually, employees will get tired of such practices, and move on. For employees that have been there for a longer time, this is very, very bad. Employees who have been at their job as a rep are typically more knowledgeable about every aspect of what they do. They’re a resource that can tremendously help out a company in terms of customer service.
Unfortunately, this is not the only job where I’ve encountered such issues. T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Dell have all had similar ways of keeping their ‘grunts’ in the dark, and putting more pressure on them to make management appear better. (They are expendable after all, aren’t they?) I believe one reason why call centers have such high turn-over, is because the representatives have way too much pressure placed upon them to perform the way management would like. Until that changes, customer service will remain poor.
