The Only thing one gets to do at a Call Centre is Answering Calls. That is what we are getting paid for. I learnt the value of every minute only after joining the Call Centre. In a Call Centre, a person called CCOD (The Person Who Controls the Call Flow) always shouts Auto-In Auto-In (The Term Used for asking the Agents to Go On Calls instead of Staying Idle) and you can see people speaking all over the floor. Time Flies when U r on calls. You never know when the Shift started and when it has Ended! Its nearly 5 months since i joined this Call Centre. And I nev er felt like that!

Yesterday the Call Volume was very Low. And most of the time we were in Aux 5(The Reason Code that we enter in our Avaya for Staying Idle). All the fun started when Govind started Reading Palms. We knew he doesnt know much about it. But ellam therincha maathiriye appadi oru act vitan! And almost everyone started surrounding him, for him to read their palms. Including the Group Leaders. Thankfully my seat was next to Govind’s and since there was no space for me, even to go near my seat i remained in Idle Aux for almost the entire day. And roamed around the office, listened to the stories that he spinned for everyone. The Best Part was when Gowtham said Our CCOD would always say Auto-In Auto-In!

Palm Reading is quite interesting. Interpreting your love, head and life lines in palm reading can be a fun game to play with your friends, not to mention a great conversation starter at a party. So whether you take this art seriously or are just curious to see if your hand accurately reveals your personality, take a look and see what your palm says about you. Or, examine the palms of your friends to gain insight into their past and emotions. Pretty soon, you’ll have all the knowledge about their lives in the palm of your hand!

I’m planning to learn it sometime, provided i don’t lose interest in it before i start learning it!!!

We started taking Calls right from Day 1…!

I didnt expect that!!! I thought they were joking! Come on man… Do U mean, Real US Customers?! And we are going to solve their issues?! What about the Quality Parameters? Quality of Support?! And all other Parameters?! But No… They werent Joking! Our TL said, dont worry guys, this is a kinda practice for you… Dont worry about quality parameters, just go on and take calls… Wel, Okay! I rehearsed my script and then i went on to take my first real call… Poor Customer!

A Lady called in with a Fax Problem! (Hey… Whats this! They didnt teach us about any Fax issues in Training!!!) After Greeting the customer exactly as in the Opening Script! I went on to collect the details like First Name/Last Name, Phone Number and Service Tag of the Printer! We had to Alpha Verify the Name for Spelling Errors! I started… Lemme verify ur Name ma’am… (read this slowly) A as in Alpha, B as in Bravo, C as in Charlie and so on… I didnt memorize that at that time! I was searching my empty brain for the correct word! As soon as i finished Alpha Verifying her name… She asked me, “Are you in Training?!” Me: Hey, How did she find that out? Again Me: By the way U spoke to her, dumbo!!! U shud’ve been more confident! She: “I want to speak to someone who is not in Training or to a Supervisor.”

I called in my TL and gave the phone to him! He went on and solved the Problem for her. It took him 45mins for him! I wondered, if that issue took 45minutes for an expert, guess how much time i wud have taken!

And then, i took another Call… That was a transfer Call and i had to Transfer it to another Department… This time, the Customer didnt find out that i was in Training…! Thank Goodness! And i transferred it successfully… Well, actually I Though So! Until i found out that i didnt get any details from the customer or log a case in the DELL Tool!! That was again a failed call!

After some time, our TL called all of us and asked us to pair up with someone and take calls. One person will speak to the customer, and other will help him/her find a solution and log a case in DELL Tools! This time around i was more confident and the remaining calls i took that day were kinda okay!

You can’t always make everyone Happy. If a group of people adore you, another group will hate you. There’ll always be people who will not like you at all! There is much truth in his statement. In this post, I will describe my own experiences from which I’ve learned you can’t make everyone happy, and tell you why that’s alright.

Some times its that First Impression that people get about you. Why i am writing this now, is again my call centre experience. I’ve talked to Dell customers who are absolutely Happy with Dell and are pleased with the best quality support they receive everytime they call Dell and there are also customers who say that they have had very bad experience with Dell Products and support and that they would not buy Dell again. I, as a Tech Support Agent, especially have learned that you will always piss someone off. You can’t make everyone happy. It all depends on my mood, their mood, their previous experiences, etcetera. Itha thaan neram nu solranga!

So, what we understand from all this is that Nobody can make Everyone Happy.

You should therefore accept that you can’t make everyone Happy either - and know that it’s alright, because nobody expects you to. When you go out and face the world out there, there will undoubtedly be people who will disagree with you. You’ll upset people, make them angry and all that. Don’t worry about it or even think about it. Let go of the idea that you can make Everyone Happy, and focus on Making Urslf Happy. That is something you Can Control. It’s up to everybody else to decide whether or not they want to be Happy along with U.

About all you can do in life is Be Who You Are. Some people will love you for what you are. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.

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?! 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