Customer Service versus CSR stats

For a company to thrive, it should be customer service driven, of course, the 4P's are essentially a part of it. But when it comes down to basics the old adage about the customer being right can never be broken. The call center industry's view on this is variable as most call centers are based on the needs of its business partners but as always customer service should be of top most priority. For the agents (or should I say customer service reps) this has always been a topic of discussion. Customer service reps are metrics driven, we have to go through one week of balancing our stats which would include all aspects of a call. Such would include, aht (average handling time), att (average talk time), hold time, off the phone codes, sales metrics (for some), offer rate, survey rate (again for some), number of calls, call quality based on whether you followed the correct call flow, the correct procedures, the words that you needed to say verbatim (opening spiel, FCA advises, procedural advises, and closing spiel). With these myriad metrices you would have to be someone who can do multi-tasking otherwise, you would never be able to complete your task and hence, fail on some parts of your stats that would affect your scorecards which is pratically the basis for your salary increase and /or your bonuses. But like most of us who always keep in mind that we, too, are customers, we empower our customers by providing service beyond what should be at the same time forgetting that, we,  are employees who need to maintain certain standards in our work place.

I remember one time I was the unfortunate recipient of a call from an old lady who, at the onset of the said call, was already shouting at the top of her lungs. I was not able to say my opening spiel as she kept hollering for goodness sake! The moment she stopped I asked her how  I can be of help, and with a certain disgust in her voice she just said "get me your supervisor!" I stood my ground and ask her if I could get her details so that my supervisor can properly address her needs. At first she would not give in and finally in exasperation she began telling me her name and why the hell she was so disgusted with our company. She has been transferred from one department to another and nobody was willing to help. I could understand her frustrations, I have been a victim of the same situation. So I told her that her problem is something I was an expert on (this is so your customer would feel that she is in the right hands). The problem was I am not from technical support and according to our procedures, problems that are technical in nature should be transferred to the Tech support. This woud mean advising the old lady that I needed to transfer her to the correct department (which would probably be like staging World war 3) and adding that she needed to pay 10cents per minute to avail of tech support (like Hell will break loose right?). So, instead of doing that, I took charge of the call (Call Ownership). I told the old lady in my sweetest voice that normally the call would have to be transferred to Tech support but because she has been through a lot I will help her with her concern. I even reminded her that this is one time only as this is not allowed. I walked her through the process, almost in a whisper, as I felt that it was something i did not want our Quality assurance officer to hear. The call ended pleasantly as the old lady was very thankful for the assistance I was able to provide her. I felt good...really good! well...until our quality assurance officer approached me and told me that she has marked me down for the call. (to be continued...)