You Worked in Call Centers for How Long?

When I first started working in the business world, my first job was in a call center. It quickly became apparent that not only did I like it, but I was really good at it. It's funny how that works. Within a few months of being hired at Nice Corporation, and yes that was the name, I was promoted to a 'special' team. The special team was a team of five of us who worked on the most strategic projects. I realized then that I liked this type of work and stayed in it for more than twelve years.

That's right! I worked in call centers for more than twelve years. I worked in call centers at Novell, Nice Corporation, Matrixx Marketing, US Hotline and Sears and I seem to get grief about that a lot. Some people wanted to know how I 'stood' it for so long and others wanted to know how I kept from going 'crazy' working in that type of job so long.

There's only one reason and that's because I got to work with customers! For many of those twelve years, I was a manager but either way whether I was on the phones directly with the customers or coaching employees how to be better at customer service, I loved it!

One of my favorite things about that job was difficult customers. That's right. I said difficult customers! I loved to get a customer who was upset about something and I turned them around and made them happy customers! I made it a personal goal to turn customers around. Here are some tips how I did it:
- Stay calm. No matter how upset a customer gets you do not have to get upset, in fact the calmer you stay the shorter the call with be and the more you can help the customer.
- Listen. Put your 100% attention on to the customer and try to find out what they really want. Honestly, one of life's most important lessons is to learn that it's not WHAT the person is saying but what they are 'really' saying. For example, if your kid came home from school and said she hates everyone at school, would you think that's what she really meant? No, it probably means someone was mean to her at school and it hurt her feelings and now she's upset or maybe she doesn't have a lot of friends lately. The same principle applies to customers, try to find out what they are 'really' saying and you both will win.
- Next, take notes. There is no way you can remember everything the customer is saying so you can follow-up. Plus sometimes I could even make a map of what the customer was saying and figure out where the problems started.
- Own the call. Sometimes people hide behind the phone literally. They use fake names, they won't give out their phone number and they don't want to transfer you to their boss. Imagine the customer's surprise when I got on, gave them my full name, my direct line and told them if they got cut off somehow to please call me back.
- Go the extra mile. This little principle can turn the most upset customer into your biggest advocate! Maybe it's following-up on the concern yourself, or calling them back personally or whatever. There's always an opportunity to go the extra mile for a customer.
- Remember everyone deserves respect. If your sister, brother, mother, dad, uncle, grandpa etc called a company for some help, how would you want them treated? Honestly here folks, do unto others as you want them to do unto you.
- Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Please for the love of customers, follow-up on the issue until the customer is happy. This world would be such a happier place if more companies did that.

Well that's it for tonight. Have you helped a difficult customer today?