Call Centres - are they lying to us?

[Pitre]

Every call centre seems to just put out a message that 'we are extremely busy at the moment' or 'we are dealing with very high call volumes' or some such platitudes, even if you ring first thing on a Sunday morning or last thing on Monday. If they're that busy they surely need to just employ some more agents? Or are they all victims of COVID?

Or do they simply not give a flying fk about customer service, as you can usually 'press 1 to place a new order'?

[rowley birkin]

Unless you select the 'New customer' option, when calls seem to be answered promptly. Strange that...

[Driller]

Chooses the “speak to a sales person” option and see how quickly they answer (clue: immediately)

[Tankrizzo]

Every callcentre I've rung for years has said "we are currently experiencing a high volume of calls" on the call tree. Doesn't seem to matter what time of day you ring, even 10pm. I always assumed it was just bullst.

[KarlMac]

Call centres have KPIs for time to answer and call duration as well as time on hold, keeping you in a never ending loop of options doesn’t count towards these durations.

[Ouroboros]

i used to work in one, best way to keep stats looking good, when people are on hold for 5 plus minutes, was to answer, I wouldn't say anything for 20 seconds then hang up.

Edited by Ouroboros on Wednesday 29th June 20:49

[p4cks]

Ouroboros said:

i used to work in one, best way to keep stats good when people are on long hold, don't say anything for 20 seconds and hang up.

I run one, and this doesn't make any sense. Unless you're referring to something to do with the software your call centre's provider used then that maybe the case, although there are hundreds of call centre software suppliers and millions of configurations so the same can't be said for every contact centre.

[Ouroboros]

p4cks said:

I run one, and this doesn't make any sense. Unless you're referring to something to do with the software your call centre's provider used then that maybe the case, although there are hundreds of call centre software suppliers and millions of configurations so the same can't be said for every contact centre.

what doesn't make sense.

average call handling time was bought down whilst increasing calls answered.

[Bobupndown]

It is reassuring to know that my call is very important to them!

[Plymo]

...But not quite important enough to answer promptly!

[A Winner Is You]

I must say I was impressed by Amazon's policy of telling you all complaints need to be sent via email to an address that doesn't respond, and hanging up on you. No wonder they're profits are so high, don't even need to deal with complaints.

[Mastodon2]

I rang a call centre at 01:40am on Tuesday morning - they said they were "experiencing unusually high call volumes". Yeah, sure you are.

[p4cks]

Ouroboros said:

best way to keep stats good when people are on long hold, don't say anything for 20 seconds and hang up.

It's this sentence that doesn't make any sense, although I think it's more to do with your description than anything else.

What's a long hold?
Who doesn't say anything for 20 seconds?
Who hangs up?

If you're an agent avoiding calls, why don't you just answer then hang up and save all that long hold stuff you're talking about?

[Ouroboros]

p4cks said:

It's this sentence that doesn't make any sense, although I think it's more to do with your description than anything else.

What's a long hold?
Who doesn't say anything for 20 seconds?
Who hangs up?

If you're an agent avoiding calls, why don't you just answer then hang up and save all that long hold stuff you're talking about?

You get the gist. High/long call waiting times. You answer stay quiet for 20 seconds, less than 20 seconds would be classed as a short call,would be flagged up.

I used to love the ranting ones, waited 10 minutes to get through to hurl abuse at you, then you just cut them off.

Best one was this guy said he wanted to record me, I said I didn't consent, he said didn't matter he could legally do it (debatable), I just cut the call.

I helped people who treated me with respect, the rest well they wasted a lot of time.

Anyways.

[Pitre]

So, back to my original point and for those working in call centres, are you actually getting more calls these days, or do you just have fewer agents?

[N111BJG]

Pitre said:

So, back to my original point and for those working in call centres, are you actually getting more calls these days, or do you just have fewer agents?

It’s inevitable that a question about call centres won’t get a useful answer the first time of asking

[plenty]

Pitre said:

So, back to my original point and for those working in call centres, are you actually getting more calls these days, or do you just have fewer agents?

More calls.

[vaud]

Business applies their resources to most profitable areas while balancing risks to their customer service levels shocker.

[wombleh]

Suspect folk prefer to call then go into branches these days. Not looked at all platforms but I’d be surprised if any were unable to include hold time in their stats or monitor for silent calls. Whether the company actually pays for dealing with those things is another question. If they don’t then probably time to take your custom elsewhere.

Last one I worked on could detect sentiment to do things like pick out calls when someone was getting shirty.

[bongtom]

Years ago if they put you on hold and you were effing and jeffing to yourself the phone would be picked up quicker. Maybe the software listened to angry customers and prioritised?
So anyway, every-time I rang a call center and was put on hold I would start effing and jeffing and it was always picked up. Now, not so much.

Most call centers now are in India or Philippines, especially for the southern hemisphere, although Natwest moved back to the UK. Thankfully.