A letter to the Sullivan borg:
Call center reps are among the lowest paid workers in the service sector, and have one of the hardest jobs. We spend most of our days solving problems and fielding complaints, soothing angry customers and explaining incomprehensible company policies. We are tethered to desks by telephone headsets, staring at computers for 8-10 hours at a stretch, in airless and windowless cubicles. Not only must we have encyclopedic knowledge of our services and products, we must also be able to articulate clearly and empathetically with our customers. We must never lose our temper, sound uninterested or uncaring, and be willing to listen to tirades and invective without responding in kind.
The most offensive customers are the ones who assume that CS reps are uneducated, have landed in their jobs because they have no other choice, and simply cannot provide help without an aggressive approach by the customer. The great majority of my co-workers in both of my jobs are college-educated, experienced in a lot of different life situations (including world travel, and a great variety of past jobs and professions) and are CS reps because they respect the companies they work for and believe in the product and services they sell and represent. Most of them have chosen to work as reps, often because of the flexibility (as I do, for seasonal work that allows me a lot of time off to travel). We relish our ability to solve problems and help people.
No one hates call center workers because we think they are dumb. People get angry with call center workers because they have generally been driven to madness by the corporate practices that are causing the problem. Then, when the call center worker just repeats scripts rather than attempting to solve the problem, people get madder.
Trust me. I didn’t call paypal with any negative opinions of the call center worker. I was livid with the company.
And I still haven’t resolved my issue with them because my phone is dead and I’m waiting for a replacement cell and have gone without service for two days. It’s actually been kind of nice not having a phone.