A big issue sometimes is that people have to want to help themselves - often you'll find there are people on the phone that say "I have no interest in how it works, just make it work!!!!", and those types of people can be the most frustrating to deal with.
Digital switchover sort of Customers i deal with
- Thread starter Calgar117
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Soldato
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Unfortunately, most people are really, really stupid
In my experience, help line people don't tend to be the best and brightest but delight in misunderstanding the customer and would rather have a cheap laugh at their expense than bother to actually help them.
Draw a triangle on a piece of paper and ask 100 people what it is and most will say a triangle, not an arrow. The fact that people are phoning up for help points at the fact that they are not technically competent so telling them to look for an arrow instead of a triangle isnt going to help. The fact they are confused and looking at 50 odd buttons coupled with their worry about pressing the wrong button and im sure they love talking to some muppet at a support centre who can't give clear, concise instructions over the phone.
Everything is simple when you know how its done. There is a talent to helping others learn and to make them feel stupid because you can't give good instruction is a bit sad really.
Draw a triangle on a piece of paper and ask 100 people what it is and most will say a triangle, not an arrow. The fact that people are phoning up for help points at the fact that they are not technically competent so telling them to look for an arrow instead of a triangle isnt going to help. The fact they are confused and looking at 50 odd buttons coupled with their worry about pressing the wrong button and im sure they love talking to some muppet at a support centre who can't give clear, concise instructions over the phone.
Everything is simple when you know how its done. There is a talent to helping others learn and to make them feel stupid because you can't give good instruction is a bit sad really.
i have also had some fantastic ones before
Customer: i am connected to the wireless but i can't access the internet
Me: correct as the phone line hasn't been installed yet and no adsl service is active
Customer: but i am connected to the wireless so why can't i get on the internet
Me: correct as again we are awaiting for the phone line to be installed
Customer: can i plug a cable in and it work that way?
Customer: i have lost a file on my computer
Me: have you tried searching for it?
Customer yes and google cannot find it
Customer: i cannot log into my pc
Me: what error is it giving you?
Customer: user name or password is wrong it says administrator but my name is john smith
Customer: i am connected to the wireless but i can't access the internet
Me: correct as the phone line hasn't been installed yet and no adsl service is active
Customer: but i am connected to the wireless so why can't i get on the internet
Me: correct as again we are awaiting for the phone line to be installed
Customer: can i plug a cable in and it work that way?
Customer: i have lost a file on my computer
Me: have you tried searching for it?
Customer yes and google cannot find it
Customer: i cannot log into my pc
Me: what error is it giving you?
Customer: user name or password is wrong it says administrator but my name is john smith
Dealt with Sharp/sanyo and dealing with technical enquiries for over 4 years so i do know how to explain and help resolve issues for customers and it is breif parts of the conversation i am posting so without you listening in so i find your opinion to be a little offensive
But in a majority of calls i do answer and pretty much stick myself on repeat mode customers understand straight away in terms of where to find a button even if it takes them a few seconds to find the button i refer them to press.
Now i am not sitting here going ''check out these idiots LOL'' as in most cases i do feel alittle sorry for them if they cannot understand instructions given and i do give them clear and precise in reference to company policy and experience in explaining in a way customers understand.
What i am posting is a small minority of the type of customers i get and if i had customers querying triangles or misunderstand on a frequent basis i would then put the blame on myself in how i am explaining instructions to customers.
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Depends entirely were you live and if any call centres are operating in your area too be honest.
If you live close to a call centre, depending what they cover you can normally be hired for making outbound calls selling insurance for example but.. that in itself is a nightmare and only call centre work worth sticking too is if you are dealing with inbound calls only.
Soldato
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awwww, I actually want to hug these callers, I find their lack of understanding quite endearing tbh, it's not their fault, they just need a little help bless'em.
Working in a call centre is not recommended the amount of patience required dealing with customers of this nature is unreal
Yep, I used to sell tellies years ago. Even back then tellies were more or less 'plug & play' setup but the ignorance of a most people made me a fair bit of money on the side by setting said tellies up. I even told them what I'd done & some of 'em said "is that it, Could've done that myself". Those sort of people & the ones that annoyed me got charged an extra fiver, especially when it took me longer to explain how their new telly worked than it did to set it up.
With all the features on modern tellies these days a lot of people wouldn't know how to use said features, let alone use them. (this is based purely on my own experience of course from 10-15 years ago, things may have changed since then)
We had our switchover in 2009 and freeview is turd here. All I can get is BBC 1/2/3/4/News/Parliament/CBBC/CBeebies, ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4 and +1, E4 and thats about it. Other side of town gets Dave and such delights.
The thing that mystified me was that I could happily receive Dave & all the tosh shopping channels fine before I did the first stage of the retune
I am hoping they will all return after the switchover is complete.
Associate
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A customer once asked me how many jigabytes of SD card he would need for his new digital camera.
When I worked for Sky I had a call from an old guy needing help to reprogram his remote control for his tv. I explained the procedure to him and then gave him the 4 digit code to use and then started to hear the beeps on the line as he keyed the numbers into the phone instead of the remote control.
I despaired.
I despaired.
tell them that with the tv came a manual
then suggest to them they try reading it.
Beter still, just answer the phone; "hello, please RTFM!!!!!, goodbye"
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Really? I usually find it's the people wearing the purple shirts who sometimes literally have no clue. The amount of times I've gone in there for something and overheard a purple shirt talking utter bs is beyond belief!
Agree 1000% and the BS hasn't changed since the first day they opened.
I went in the purple place in Festival Park and went up to the first staff member:
Have you got an Asus Transformer?
A what?
An Asus Transformer
No
Do you know what one is?
No
So how do you know you haven't got one?
Err err err
Yeak OK mate (and I walk off)
Second staff member:
Hi, have you got an Asus Transformer?
Do you mean Acer?
No Asus Transformer
What is it?
It is a top selling Android 3.0 10,1" tablet
Are you sure you don't mean Acer?
No it is definitely Asus
I think you're wrong sir, oh hold on, there's the Manager. This man thinks there is a tablet called the Asus Transformer
Yeah there is one, we had some in but they aren't very good so we haven't had anymore
(I walk off)
I ended up buying it from OCUK.
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Soldato
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Going against the grain here, but whilst on the phone to sky this afternoon after being passed from dept to dept and hung up on twice (because i'm guessing they can't figure out i have an activated phone line, but no phone line), third time attempt at calling sky customer services.
Sky Customer services: Hello and welcome to sky, how may i help you today?
Me: This is my third call attempt this evening, I took out your broardband unlimited and sky talk package, but I don't currently have a phone line and I've waited in all day for a new phone line installation, but nobody's turned up!
Sky customer services: So you have a problem with your phone line? Do you have a dialling tone?
Me: FFS here we go again.
Sky Customer services: Hello and welcome to sky, how may i help you today?
Me: This is my third call attempt this evening, I took out your broardband unlimited and sky talk package, but I don't currently have a phone line and I've waited in all day for a new phone line installation, but nobody's turned up!
Sky customer services: So you have a problem with your phone line? Do you have a dialling tone?
Me: FFS here we go again.