(A RANT)Callcentres - The problem with them (from the viewpoint of an ex callcentre worker)

Now havign had to deal with the stuff that gets thrown at callcentre staff day in and day out for about 7 years (with two major financial firms in that time). I have a few views on the plus and minus points that callcentres give both their staff and customers that at the end of the day pay the bills.

My first point is that callcentres seem to be on the rise, be they based in India or some other place abroad exploiting low paid workers at the expense of workers in the UK, or over here.

It seems to be a corporate mindset that in every large company says that they need a callcenter where all the calls can be processed by dedicated staff, and thus we will provide a high level of customer satisfaction and all our customers have one (or seventy) handy 0800/0845 numbers to remember.

With regard to the staff, the hassle that they take is immense and the stress that builds up you would no believe. Before now I have seen people litrally walk out of the building never to be seen again, and it does make you thankfull that we have some of the tightest gun control laws in the world. Else I feel that our callcentres would rank about US post offices for the number of employees who open up on their co-workers one Friday afternoon.

Now the question that comes across is why do we do it, take the abuse of shitty managers and abusive customers call after call for a poor wage. Mostly its a case of better the devil you know, a lot of people fear making that leap out of the centre, others need the extra money they get from being on the phones.

One point I would like to cover is burnout, and no amount of team meals, group hugs and other corporate b/s can cover the fact that the callcentres have some of the worst worker turn over rates for any industry. The simple fact of people being yelled at on a regular basis gets them down, and so when another door opens they jump at the chance to get out. Even if they have to take a 40/50% cut in wages, and no I am not joking on that. I even know a chap who had so much of the hassle he ended up doing work abroad for nowt!

The companies know this and so play the team thing to the hilt, as well as trying to put everything that happens in the place across in a positive light. Indeed the levels of spin and hype would leave a lot of our political masters wondering why they never thought to hire a few call centre managers to run their P/R.

In fact think on this that there are people dealing with difficult subjects like insurance claims, obviously people are either a/out of work and so claiming or b/ ill and unable to work. Those calls are bad enough, add the fact that you have to deal with a lot of customers who have other problems, errors occuring in the procedures that the company lays out, declining people and you can see why nerves get a tad frayed at the edges.

As for the wages in our callcentres, to be fair its not enough. I have done it, read the book and got the company tee-shirt etc. Me personally I was on 14K+ which for a 35hr week in which I am dealing with 30-90 calls per day, and then doing any follow up calls to other depts./branches/customers etc etc as well as updating the system with the details of what was going on - plus admin work as well when I do finally get a gap between calls - to be honest its a shitty deal.

Ok enough on that then lets look at how call centres become annoying for customers. Most people will be will a bank(they make a good example) and so you want to call your local branch. Tough. It all go's through to a 0800/0845 number at your local callcenter. The fact that you go drinking on a Friday with the branch manager and have been with the bank 40+ years dont impress Sharon in the callcentre, she aint going to put you through to your local branch. (yes there are banks where you can still through to the branches but they are a dying breed alas)

The customer(you calls up usually with something to alter/query/complain about) and get through to Sharon. Sharon doesn't know you, and so she then asks you a load of questions (all off her pc screen) so that she can be sure you are who you say you are. She would love to not do this but alas the FSA rules say she has to and she wants to keep her job, pay the mortgage etc.

After that, she then listens to what you have to say and as often happens she needs to put you through to someone else(she is perfectly trained on one thing but knows nowt about what you need resolving there and then) and so she pops you over to the right department(hopefully), and this is one of the major problems....WAITING. Both you and thousands of other people have phoned the other people on Sharons team and the department they are transferring you over to has 35 calls waiting to be answered due to Derek the expert on the department you need calling in ill with stress that morning and so they are one man down on a Friday. Yes I have seen it worse than that, and thats when people exlode, staff make mistakes and blood starts to broil.

Now the shitty bit, TARGETS. Yes sales is where it is all boys and girls. You want this, thats fine, and whilst your on the phone Mr Smith can I interest you in a no obligation quote on pet insurance/life insurance/motor insurance. The staff get it in the neck to pump you with crap you dont either want or need, the managers then get in the neck when the staff dont get the numbers in a set month, then the company decides to do a "team building wankfest" that will motivate the staff into SALES SALES SALES! Naturally they then put in the bit about how its a "TOUGH MARKETPLACE" and how other big companies are under cutting them by using employees from India etc and they must get the sales to keep their jobs.

An the plus bit, well if you need to find out your account balance at 2AM, and cant be arsed to walk to the local shop to use the cashpoint there, then I am sure that Derek or Sharon(who are pulling a nightshift for some extra money, or Mr Singh if the callcentre is in India will be happy to give your balance.) Just dont get annoyed when they try to "offer" you stuff.

The last part I want to cover is honesty. To be fair its all bollocks, I know having worked damn long and hard in the trade that all the financial companies and probably every other organisation that has a callcentre doesn't understand what that word means. Now I am not saying that they will lie to you but think on this gem: In some of the callcentres in the far east/India, the staff there are told to use western names. Not only that but they are told to indulge in chat about day to day stuff from the UK, like whats happened in the soaps(as I never watch them I know they would know a lot more than myself.) Then these same companies use phrases like "we pay our staff a good local wage". Now you think about that, some graduate ends up earning a good wage - (£60 a week?) working on the phone, pulling long shifts with no union back up, and taking shit off irate customers from the US/UK who dont like it that they cant get through to their local branch. You ever heard any company thats outsourced admit that it was so they could fire their western staff and get stuff done on the cheap.

(The names of Derek & Sharon are not real, but based on real call centre staff.)

And so after my quick bit about the ever growing and all pervasive nature of callcentres, I have a new pic of the latest recruits for a large companys outsourced callcentre... 

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