#call center

or any call center-ish work aaand I can’t seem to find another job. not sure if this is the place for this just wanted to rant somewhere that wasn’t  facebook, facebook sucks

Typical Challenges Consumers Face and the Necessity of Small Businesses Taking Notice

It has happened to all of us at some stage. A problem with our purchase or a service disturbance arises, and we need help from a local firm.

We dial the service number only to be met with a documented robot voice that doesn’t know or answers. We press endless buttons trying to narrow down our petition and trusting with each media we get a real human being to talk to about our difficulty.

Or we head over to Social Media in hopes of finding someone who cares enough to respond to our issue simply to get automatic messages and chat bots answers back.

Technology has helped small businesses grow and succeed in ways previously never thought possible. But with this growth, the demand for more personalized customer service encounters has developed.

What’s a business to do? Employ the cool features and performance of AI, Chatbots, and other technology improvements or revert back to a time when real human beings answer their phone?

Nobody can argue the importance of customer service; after all, without happy customers, it is difficult to have a thriving business.

The solution most businesses are turning to is call centers. Years ago, I worked in a call center and we provided a valuable service to companies who wanted someone to answer their telephone day or night. We replied for many emergency service businesses such as veterinaries, property management companies, and restoration businesses.

It was a win-win situation where the client’s telephone call was answered by a real person and their needs were taken care of. Call centers are designed to deal with the requests of customer contact in an efficient and cost-effective method. They can be an important solution to a lot of businesses’ customer service requirements.

But what about technology? At what stage does automation become detrimental to your business? The business to client relationship is becoming less personal the more technology is brought into the mix.

When implementing your customer service systems and processes, it is great to invest in technology that will help streamline jobs and reduce cost overheads but it’s important to maintain your client in mind and take into account all potential interactions they’ll be having with your brand.

Will those interactions produce a raving fan base of happy customers or are they so frustrated that they turn to social media to bash you?

The other day I came across a Twitter accounts I thought for sure was murdered. The account owner seemed to be VERY upset with a large corporation where several times a day, for several months.

Once I requested the account holder concerning these repeated irate articles, it turns out that they were added intentionally. Talk about an unhappy client! But what’s sad is that this company hasn’t replied once in efforts to address the problem this individual experienced.

Whether it is using call centers, or just how your client contacts you to place an order or needs a problem solved when managing your clients, you will need to be conscious of these interactions are impacting them to steer clear of irate customers like this individual on Twitter.

Despite us living in a world of abundant technology options to save us money, a business should discover a balance between using technology and utilizing direct communication with their clients. Start by considering all options available and think about the customer experience with every - will that choices help or hinder your business?

I will tell you one thing we’ve heard again and again is that our customers are so thankful that we answer our phones and reply ASAP to all emails. In actuality, many of our present customers came to us for the fact that their current web developer or marketer disappeared on them or did not answer their phone or answer to queries in a timely way.

What experiences have you found when dealing with a firm’s customer service systems and procedures? Can it make you want to continue to support the head to social media and whine?

Ok y'all, so I’ve been working remote for a call center for a medicaid dental company for almost 2 months now. And it’s honestly better than retail, but there are still some definite pros and cons.

Pros:

• Working from home fucking rules.
• I was in training for over a month, 2 weeks in an actual training class, 3 weeks in a nesting period (basically you’re taking calls, getting comfortable with taking calls, but you’re still technically in training so there’s like this safety net) and I feel like I actually got properly trained before transitioning to operations.
• This company is awesome. They genuinely want you to succeed, and they even promote from within. Like seriously. 2 out of the 3 team leads when I was in nesting got promoted in the 3 total weeks I was in nesting, and even another coworker and I got offered higher positions a week into training.
• My coworkers and even my supervisors are great. In my training class I was with the best group of people I’ve ever worked with. We all got kind of split up when we all moved to operations and I genuinely miss them.
• I also feel like I’m genuinely helping people.
• It’s full time, and I get health, dental, and vision insurance.

Cons

• The people. OH MY GOD THE PEOPLE. It’s the same dumbass people I’ve had to deal with in retail, but now they’re not breathing down my neck, which is honestly better.
• “Can you help me find an eye doctor?” Ma'am we are a medicaid DENTAL insurance company. (I understand that they may have one card for their entire medicaid plan, but this happens too often)
• Trying to find a dentist that will take medicaid is absolutely infuriating sometimes. Especially in rural areas and…Florida??? For some reason???
• Like seriously I had someone from Florida was trying to find a dentist for their 3 year old who had tooth pain, and it was damn near impossible. And it wasn’t like they were in a small town or rural area, they were in like, Orlando.
• Another time I had someone from Idaho call trying to find a prosthodontist (dentist who specializes in dentures) and the only one I could find, was over 100 miles away from their zip code, wasn’t accepting new patients, and didn’t even accept medicaid for people over 18. And this was the only one I could find within a 250 mile radius, which is as far as my portal will let me search.
• When assigning a dentist to a member, I can’t just assign them to a dental group. No, I have to assign them to an individual facility, as well as an individual dentist. Makes sense, cause some facilities within the dental group might take our insurance. Some others may not, and I just can’t assign them to any dentist in that facility, cause what if that dentist is completely booked out for the next 6 months? Or what if they’re retiring tomorrow? Or what if it’s a specialist that’s only there once a month? But this is especially frustrating when the people calling don’t remember the name of the dentist. And most of them will ask if they can call and see, but then there’s the ones that are just like “Oh I didn’t make an appointment yet, can’t you just assign me any dentist?” Or the one lady who got snippy and said “ Well I gave YOU the number, can’t YOU call and check?” As if it’s my fucking responsibility to know which dentist you made the appointment with.
• There is one thing I hate more than anything else in this job, and it is filing disenrollment requests. I can understand why people want to dis-enroll. Maybe the dentist that they’re seeing no longer accepts our specific insurance and they really want to stay with that provider, or they’re having a problem trying to find any dentist that will take this insurance. That’s understandable. I don’t have a problem with that. I have a problem with the entire process in general. Because it’s not like some box I can check that says “Member would like to dis-enroll” No, I have to file a grievance, and then get approval from my supervisor before I can submit it, and then this person, who just wants to go to the dentist, has to wait for us to send in a letter (which there’s no time frame for how long that could take, so if the person has a dental emergency and can’t find any dentists that will take their insurance, they’re just fucked I guess) telling them whether or not the request was approved or denied, because yes, a disenrollment request can be denied, for WHATEVER REASON. And it takes FOREVER. If it’s just one person it’s not so bad, but yesterday I had to dis-enroll a mother and her SEVEN CHILDREN. I was on that call for OVER AN HOUR. Not to mention our messaging system was down so I had to get approval by emailing my supervisor, which takes longer and is harder because I can’t send confidential medical info through email. That’s a HIPAA violation.
• Our breaks and lunches are scheduled, and it’s fucking bonkers. Why on earth is my lunch break at 3:15, when I start at 9AM??? Why is my last break scheduled half an hour before I leave for the day? And why do I have to fill out an adherence tracker form whenever I’m late for my breaks? I was on a call??? My supervisors are able to see that???