Nightshift:call center agent’s blog

Before you read this entry, let me give a disclosure and a disclaimer: I work as a “specialist” in a call center in Metro Manila. The account is a major computer company. The items that you will read is my personal opinion and in no way reflects the company’s position.

1. Compared to Filipinos who like doing things by themselves, Americans want everything to be spoonfed to them.

Since we are the frontliners for the American account of the computer company, we are the first persons customers call when they are having problems with the computer. Some of the customers I handled immediately report the error message they encountered, which may be both positive and negative. In a positive note, the technical support can immediately troubleshoot and diagnose the problem; however, sometimes, the error message are not that serious and all it would require is a restart of the computer or clicking the cancel option. Which brings me to my second point:

2. They seldom make research on what they paid for. I was a seatmate once of a tech support guy, and according to him, the old lady asked him how to use the computer. With their AHT (or average handle time) pegged as 12 minutes, it is difficult to explain to her everything that she wants to know on how to operate the computer. My seatmate told me that there should be a policy banning senior citizens from buying computers since they are not tech-savvy enough to know learn how to use the machine.

Unlike us Filipinos, where we would research first and will make sure that we are buying the right product, Amercans think that it is our responsibility to teach them everything.

3. Speaking of the old lady, it’s a practice of Americans to purchase something that they themselves would not use, or they will just buy it as a give to someone. Well, I wouldn’t be surprise since they have a strong purchasing power. And if they encountered problems with the product, in this case a computer, they call the manufacturer and not the person who gave the product. Sometimes they would ask us to reset the Windows password when they can actually ask the person to give them the password.

4. Even if they know that the problem with the product is not caused by the manufacturer, they blame the company for whatever damage, and they will say that it’s a product defect. One time, a male customer said that suddenly, one of the keys popped off. When I checked the database, the last incident reported on his computer was two years ago, and by the time he called, the warranty already expired. My philosophical instinct tells me that this is not a valid concern, since it has been two years since a problem occured. Why is he blaming the company?

5. They are loyal. If they liked a certain product, they are faithful to that brand.

6. But if they feel unsatisifed with the product, they will call the manufacturer and will tell the agent that s/he will make the world know how defective the product is.

7. They are willing to wait to have something repaired on their product.

8. They seldom get tired of giving their contact information like name, phone number and state, unless they’re already pissed off with the company.

9. They will complain to the company if they feel that they have been mistreated by the store who sold the product.