As a contributor to Mouthpiece I’ve shied away from dissing contact centre agents, having been of the opinion that there is plenty of that going on in other media and we’re about supporting the profession.
But over the weekend I was told an anecdote at a social occasion which led me to consider just about how much power the humble agent has. Because if it’s true that a manager is only as good as his or her staff; then senior management needs to realise their brand’s reputation is only as good as those who are paid to promote it.
My friend was at home one day when the phone rang and it was a representative from a telecommunications company attempting to sell her more services. At first she thought they sounded useful so she asked a couple of questions but then she decided they weren’t for her, so she told the agent she wasn’t interested. To which he said in a huff, “You’ve just wasted all my time.”
Her reply: “But you phoned me, I didn’t ask you to call,”
His rejoinder? He hung up the phone in her ear.
I was stunned when she told me and wondered how the team leader or contact centre manager would have reacted if they’d been a witness to the call. But according to research from callcentres.net only about five agent calls are taped and listened to each month, so rude behaviour such as this can go completely unnoticed.
Meanwhile a huge marketing budget can’t erase the bitter experience that my friend received in the middle of the day from a representative of this company – nor the fact that she’s told several people about it, spreading the bad news from dinner party to dinner party...