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Do You Have What It Takes to Answer Contact Center Calls Correctly?
July 12, 2010
If Christine Kowalczyk, vice president at the Convergys Corporation, is to be believed, then Wednesday before lunchtime is the best time to call a customer service number to avoid being put on hold.
Industry observer Gregory Warner wrote recently that "I figured she should know; her company answered one billion customer service calls last year. Convergys (News - Alert) is a company that lots of other companies pay to handle their customer calls."
Okay, so why Wednesday?
"It's hump day," Kowalczyk told Warner, who added that on Monday and Tuesday, people are still going through their weekend to-do lists: "By Wednesday it quiets down on the call center floor. Especially just before lunchtime."
Warner then reproduces a Customer Service Empathy Quiz. Sample question: How would you respond to the following call from a customer: 'I was lost in a maze in a telephone menu, transferred to three different departments, and then put on hold for a total of 30 minutes. The customer service is horrible here! All I want to do is pay my bill!'
That's right, we would too, and that's why we're not working as customer service reps, because our career would last all of sixteen minutes.
Other questions on the quiz were a bit tougher. For instance, is this a correct response to the above call: "I'm sorry you had difficulty reaching the customer service department. Our phone service can be unreliable. My name is Dave and I'm here to help you.'
Is that a suitable response? Correct - no it's not. You're not supposed to lie about your name like that.
Seriously, Kowalczyk says it's wrong because "what we're doing is exasperating the problem by validating the negativity of the caller.' The correct answer, she says, is 'I'm sorry you had difficulty reaching the customer service department. My name is David and I'm going to help you pay your bill.'
Take it yourself. You might be suited to the work.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
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