5 posts tagged “work”

When I began this new job, information & requests came at me and I reacted like a deer in the headlights.  I expected it, I did not stress over it and I adapted to it.  Soon when new information & requests, more and more the latter, came to me, I attacked immediately.  If it was familiar to me, then I already had the pattern down and proceded.  But some of what I do still requires figuring out what I am going to do.  And I am good at that, figuring out things, so I enjoy the tasks.

But what I get stressed out about now is when my very clear goal is stymied by someone else.  Yes, another customer service rant. 

Today I got a simple request, and attached was a guide on how to finish that request.  There was a definate possibility that someone else should perform this task but I went ahead anywayz and researched it.  Quickly, I found the steps to solve the task and went on with them.  But based on the original communication, and it seemed to be very accurate considering it was a MS FAQ on the subject, I should have found what I needed very quickly.  It was very clear that this requested tool needed to be attained by their Volume Licensing dept.  It even told me how to find it there.  But was it there?  No.  It was not.  Sure, five different sources referenced the item being there but it wasn't.  So I called the Volume Licensing number as was suggested on the site. 

I realize that people answering phones in call centres are often the least experienced people in reference to the subject at hand.  And yet realizing that doesn't make me understand it.  If someone sits at a desk and answers emails and phone calls relating to a subject, I feel they should know the subject.  I never heard so much of, "I don't understand what you want."  I even directed them step by step through the webpages I was reading.  But no, they didn't know what I wanted because they didn't understand the product they were dealing with.  They transferred me.

A shorter conversation later and I was transferred again.  This time I was told very quickly that I had to call my MS Rep.  No one understood me or wanted to help me.

I hunted and hunted and hunted on the MS site looking for someone to help me or some way to connect.  But the only way is to actually go to MS support.  And that costs money.  For an email.  An email from them to tell me why the steps they tell me to follow do not work.

It made me think about how I could have a goal in life.  I could get involved with Customer Service Consulting.  I could work for, or help build, a company that provides working models for customer service and how to implement it within your environment.  But then I remembered, companies do not want to provide good customer service.  They want to provide the illusion of working on it but the actual activity of providing customer service is metered by the number of clients you close down. It doesn't matter if you actually helped them, as long as the ticket is closed, you have succeeded.  And even if the company actually cared about Service you would have to man the lines and desks with people who cared.  And people who understood the service or product you provide.  And actually wanted to do their job.

Yeah right.

Ever get away with saying somebody else did it?

Yes.  It was one of the bad things I learned to do at The Store. 

I never learned so many bad habits as I did from The Store.  I learned to lie on a regular basis, to smile at people when I didn't mean it, to appear happy when I wasn't, to tell someone I would do them a special favour when I knew I probably wouldn't, to badmouth someone behind their back, to not tell someone something when telling them would have helped them out, to snap at someone just because I had become tired of answering their questions, to not understand that they were new at their job and needed time to learn.

I learned only a few good things: to truly cherish someone when you know they are interested in helping you, that sometimes acting happy when you are not can actually make you sort of happy and wearing a pair of tight dress pants can make people believe you actually care about your appearance.

The purpose of Customer Service is assist your customer in accomplishing things.  On the front line, such as the cashier in a store or the CS Rep in a call centre, there is usually not much you can do.  But when encountering a problem you cannot assist or supply an answer for, you should be willing to either forward to an applicable person or do your best to find someone who can help.  The worst possible answer is, "I am sorry but we cannot do that."  Very rarely is someone going to ask something of a customer service rep that has not been asked for at a previous time.

Here is a simple request I had to make to Network Solutions.  The company I work for has about 4 dozen domain names, one for every possible permutation of a product name that we carry or produce.  Ninety percent of these domain names have a single contact listed, but that contact is not a person but a department.  For some reason, there is not one account but many accounts, and I imagine that it was Network Solutions contributing to this reason, not ourselves.

I ask for a list of all domain names associated with our company name, the dates they are going to expire or the dates they recently expired on.  A list.  Have someone query the database, as I imagine it's all in a database, produce a list with the needed information.  Nope.  Cannot be done.  The only way for ME, and they were very clear they would not provide ME with any information but I would have to get it myself, the only way for me to get this information is to log into every account individually and find out the information.

Obviously the CSR could see this information, as she agreed with me that we had a lot of accounts, but she would not provide me with it.  It was not a security reason, for I had requested the info be sent to the account associated with the domains.  It was simply because it was not easy to do.  She did not know how to get that query off her screen and to me.  Because she could not do it herself, it was considered impossible.  That is soooo not customer service.

All too often these days this is the answer.  There were days before when account managers would babysit a client and do anything within their power to make the client happy.  You would think that Network Solutions would love to keep the three dozen accounts we have with them under their umbrella but you and me know, that their money is not made in the registration for one client but having an amorphous public opinion draw more clients their way.  One client doesn't matter; thousands of new clients matter.  One customer doesn't matter when there are thousands of customers in the pipe who need new accounts and want them now.  Once they are signed up you just hope they never need assistance again.  But that is not customer service, that is sales. 

Luckily not everyone is about that.  We are buying software and hardware from one company who still remembers how to keep existing clients.  They do their best to keep us happy.  They will go out of their way to get me, the new guy on the block, the information I need.  They want to keep our business.

So yeah, I am now settled into The New Job.

I am now sitting behind my own desk with my own list of, and mostly done, tasks.  The training took about 4 days and the rest of the just-under-two-weeks was spent in adding knowledge to that list of Usual Things I Will Do.  I must say that I went from Deer In Headlights mode to being pretty comfortable in a shorter than expected timeframe.  Now I am just learning to cope with the challenges of actually having things done on time.  No, I am not saying I am challenged by doing that but by the simple act of having the time to actually get things done.  Sure, my Usual Things are usually quick bursts of activity and it is the holiday season, but as I was saying last night, it's nice to have about a dozen things on my plate that are caught up as opposed to a dozen things on my plate with one or two actually getting any attention.  I feel accomplished.

Now I have to stop thinking about work at home, a habit I gathered out of pure necessity.  I was wont to say, "If I don't worry about it than nobody else will and it won't get done."  I don't have to say that now as tasks are very very defined and once I do my part it's in someone else's hands.  I am not expected to get other people's work done and I only have to nag in the very least.  People will not nag me nor do I expect many people to yell at me. I can leave at the end of the day knowing that the only unfinished tasks are reliant on other people approving my POs or replying to my emails.  Nice.

Other things?  I like the neighbourhood.  Downtown means comic book stores, Chinatown, food choices galore, streets with character, people with character and for some odd reason, more sane drivers.  Yonge & Eg had more than it's fair share of nasty ignorant drivers who liked to try and run down pedestrians.  Another thing is that I am one of those nutty people who likes a commute.  I have finished one book (creating the need for a review here) and am most of the way through another.  Yay reading!  So far?  Nice people.  Computer geeks and techies and administrators and tech writers and various types.  No yelling customers, no needy rich people, no negative emotioned coworkers (nor me) and generally normal people.

And the money.  Yay money.

So it is finally real. I signed a contract and I will be working somewhere other than retail for the first time in 5 years. The New Company is paying me decently so I don't have to worry about money for the next few months. The work sounds good so I can now rebuild the damage done by the environment I was in. More is to be said on that but for now, I am here now (literally here in a chair having just signed contracts) at a new place and officially gone from The Store.