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Time to Say Bye Bye… to Sutherland

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | Author: Vivek

Yea… Its Time to Say Bye Bye to Sutherland… I’ve decided to Quit this week… Have submitted a formal resignation and will be relieved by the end of this week. Had a Real Good Experience with Sutherland which is my First Job!

The Only negative Factor i found was the change in timings and offs every week and obv the night shift. But working at night shifts proved to be quite useful(a blessing in disguise perhaps, for me) because i was able to carry out my other works in the mornings and sleep after that. But it was okay since it was a temporary job for me, kind of parking space for the 6 odd months between my undergraduation and Permanent Job/Graduation. Dont know how i would feel if this is supposed to be my Permanent Job or something like that.

It has been nearly 5 months since i started working at Sutherland. It had been a very good learning experience. The 15 Days of Versant Training was really interesting with a whole new bunch of Friends/Colleagues! The Training part was almost like college with a lot more freedom. The Trainer Chandini was not exactly that Good in Teaching but was Okay coz she didnt disturb us. We got a lot of Interesting Insights into the American Life Language and Culture.

And then there was the Technical Training which helped us again learn more about computers! And it was the first time we worked in the 12am-8am shift, something new for us at that time. And a very Amusing Trainer Vengat who had us in splits during those night shifts.

Then we were given the Process Training for Printers for nearly a month. During which we learnt a little about printers and more about the different ways of sleeping/doing something else in class. A Comm Trainer Shyam who had funny piercings on  his face but was really cool and a Process Trainer Ramji who seemed to be strict at the beginning but later on became friendly. And that too his Terror experiences on floor had us in splits most of the time. After a little bit of learning here we went on to the floor.

At the Floor we had a “Mr.Cool and Calm” Trainer Deepak Patel and two L2’s Suceendran Meganathan and Chandra Doss. And GLs Satish and Narikot Nair. All of them were really Good and made my first Job into a Good Experience which i can remember for all Good Reasons than the Bad Ones. The Call Taking experience was really new and amusing for me. Its been more than 3 months since we started taking calls. A Day used to be Good at one point and Really Bad at an other point. Depending on the customer. But later on after getting used to the calls and getting matured enough to understand the life at call centre, it doesnt matter if a customer is Good or Irritating.  We starting finding the amusing and interesting things about the calls and customers. Doss my L2 who’s really good at taking escalation calls helped me understand the importance of keeping cool and handling the irate customers – That would be really useful for real life as well. Suceendran my other L2 and his antics keeps us laughing all the time. And Deepak had been a real inspiration of being a Good Team Leader for all of us. Same of Satish who’s our GL – Dell 4 in one. And recently, that is, for the last two weeks our teams have been shuffled and my New TL is ParamaGuru, who also has been Good.

In all, it was a Really Enjoyable and Learning Experience at Sutherland. My first work experience… A cherishable part of my life indeed!

Call from India!

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 | Author: Vivek

Now… Don’t get angry on me that i am always writing about calls! Since i am working at a Call Centre, right now my life revolves around calls and thats the reason majority of my posts are about calls…! Will try to write about some other topics as well…

Now this post is about Amusing US Customers…

The US Customers are so very Amusing to us and i think that they think likewise about us!

Its all about the kind of reaction that we get when we tell the customer that we’re calling from India. Many of the customers would be surprised that we were speaking to them from India.

They would tell me, ‘Its really amazing to that you could take control of your computer from that far and resolve the issue in minutes!’ And if i solve their issue, they would jump with joy and pour out praises on me! And my reaction ‘Ah! That was Nothing!’ Trying to be Modest!!

Some customers have the impression of the Old India with Elephants, Kohinoor Diamonds or Beggars, Poverty etc. One of the cx asked me, ‘I’ve heard that you have lots of Diamond Mines there!’ Me:‘I guess so’. And Some of the customers dont even know where India is! One of them asked me, ‘Is it near Brazil?!’

Our Ops Manager(Short for Operations Manager) told us that, these days the surprise element has gone down, because many of the customers would know that the call centres are in India, Philipines, etc. During the Days when he took calls(That would be 3-4years back), if the customer comes to know that he’s speaking from in India, they would literally jump with astonishment and surprise. You are talking to me from India?! :o He said some customers even disconnect the call immediately after hearing that he’s from India thinking that they’re on an International Call and that they’ll be charged! Or else, the customer would call everybody in the family near the phone, like for example their son/daughter, grandson/granddaughterand tell them, Hey Jim/Mary(any name!) I am talking to a Technical Support Person who is from INDIA!!! Can you believe that! He’s from India and he is able to access our computer so fast. And One by one each of the family member will have a word with him. Say Hi to that Uncle from India! lol