Okay, so to be honest, I actually spent 15 months working as a CSR- customer service representative at one of these so called BPO - business process outsourcers based in Powai (I know - nice place -yet horrible traffic issues). The first 12 months were just out of sheer necessity and the last three months were passed in the hope of getting the bonus worth 1.5 times of salary. Please don't ask how much it was. It was effing *peanuts* in the days of recession :(
Anyways, had some good times and some real phucked up moments there. Starting with the good times, I made some really cool friends and some of them are in touch with me on a regular basis. We shared a good rapport with our trainers and supervisors and my gang had all sorts of people. There was this mature yet shy guy who went on to be counted among the best people that I have known so far. Sadly he left the company within 3 months of joining it. He just couldn't take the pleasure in hearing out the so called Goras - from Amrica cry about their financial problems and then ask for an exorbitant amount for the financial process that we worked for. On the other hand, there was this ever sleeping colleague who used to sleep on live calls so confidently that we used to get scared and pinch her to make her wake up and take another call. Couldn't blame her, most of the calls were so depressing that many of my colleagues used to drop out within months.
I have had some pretty weird experiences myself - Some of the callers were so open that they used to share their entire day happenings with us and I had this one customer who called and told me solemnly that he cant make the payment for the month because He was into GAMBLING. WTH - yeah I wanted to ask him why was he telling this to me. He just mentioned that he was rich yet addicted to gambling and he didn't know why he wanted to confide in me. Maybe it was my whispering voice (Yes I Can Whisper as well).
On another occasion, I had to take this long call which eventually got transferred to my supervisor, yet I had ensured that I remained calm and understanding. My supervisor started laughing as soon as she took the call. The reason - the customer couldn't gauge out that I was a male from my voice and told my sup that he shouldn't be hard on me, bcoz "Jackson(My pseudo name for calls) was very sweet and she tried her best to help me, it's just that I wanted to confirm, whatever she had said). Major face-palm moment for me. We used to have at least one customer proposing to us on a daily basis.
(Sigh - And I am still single!)
Ohh! Did, I mention that I was the executive that was most likely to pass with the best grades for the OJT-on job training test to hit the floor. I didn't right! Well to tell you the truth, I failed the first OJT test. MISERABLY.- Period. And what happened was as follows:
On test day, we had a senior supervisor take mock calls with us to test our skills:
Me: Customer Relations, My name is Abc. May I have you name please?Anyways, had some good times and some real phucked up moments there. Starting with the good times, I made some really cool friends and some of them are in touch with me on a regular basis. We shared a good rapport with our trainers and supervisors and my gang had all sorts of people. There was this mature yet shy guy who went on to be counted among the best people that I have known so far. Sadly he left the company within 3 months of joining it. He just couldn't take the pleasure in hearing out the so called Goras - from Amrica cry about their financial problems and then ask for an exorbitant amount for the financial process that we worked for. On the other hand, there was this ever sleeping colleague who used to sleep on live calls so confidently that we used to get scared and pinch her to make her wake up and take another call. Couldn't blame her, most of the calls were so depressing that many of my colleagues used to drop out within months.
I have had some pretty weird experiences myself - Some of the callers were so open that they used to share their entire day happenings with us and I had this one customer who called and told me solemnly that he cant make the payment for the month because He was into GAMBLING. WTH - yeah I wanted to ask him why was he telling this to me. He just mentioned that he was rich yet addicted to gambling and he didn't know why he wanted to confide in me. Maybe it was my whispering voice (Yes I Can Whisper as well).
On another occasion, I had to take this long call which eventually got transferred to my supervisor, yet I had ensured that I remained calm and understanding. My supervisor started laughing as soon as she took the call. The reason - the customer couldn't gauge out that I was a male from my voice and told my sup that he shouldn't be hard on me, bcoz "Jackson(My pseudo name for calls) was very sweet and she tried her best to help me, it's just that I wanted to confirm, whatever she had said). Major face-palm moment for me. We used to have at least one customer proposing to us on a daily basis.
(Sigh - And I am still single!)
Ohh! Did, I mention that I was the executive that was most likely to pass with the best grades for the OJT-on job training test to hit the floor. I didn't right! Well to tell you the truth, I failed the first OJT test. MISERABLY.- Period. And what happened was as follows:
On test day, we had a senior supervisor take mock calls with us to test our skills:
Call starts
Supervisor-aka-mock-customer: Hi, my naim is Lizaaa (Pronunciation in amrican, pliss don't mind)
Me: Thanks a laat Lizaaa and how may I assissth you?
Supervisor-aka-mock-customer: Oh, I just wanna know if I paid my minimum, then would I be able to get the maximum benefits out of my chard?
Me: No Lizaa, if you just phay the minimum then you will forever keep on phaying interest, so in the long run, you know yada yada yada...
To make a long story short.... I kept on trying to convince her, that I was trying to help her by giving her the best information and the moral of the story was, I was being detrimental to the financial of my own employer....so they failed me.
So I had to undergo the training process again and the story continued for another 12 months.
P.S. BTW - 2 months later, the same jokers award me the Best New Customer Service Representative for the quarter of Dec 2008 based on feedback from Customers in Amrica... Go figure why!!
p.p.s - Dat is all.. and no I did not get a call from Gawd :P I am not C-Bag you c
So I had to undergo the training process again and the story continued for another 12 months.
P.S. BTW - 2 months later, the same jokers award me the Best New Customer Service Representative for the quarter of Dec 2008 based on feedback from Customers in Amrica... Go figure why!!
p.p.s - Dat is all.. and no I did not get a call from Gawd :P I am not C-Bag you c
No comments:
Post a Comment