Thursday, September 30, 2010

UK Call Center: Woman Waited 12 Hours on Hold

by Call Center Gal on September 17, 2010

It is one of the responsibilities of a call centre agent to make sure that a call will be answered in the first few (1-3) rings, listen to the concern at hand and attend to the proper resolution of the concern.

But what happens when you let your customer wait for too long? Shouldn’t you be held responsible for that? Customers aren’t supposed to wait too long even if they have complex issues over the phone, don’t you agree?

That is why my heart goes to this woman who waited for 12 hours on hold according to this article:

A young mother had already been cut off 20 times while trying to reach a customer service call center.

She had first managed to reach someone at 11 p.m. and agreed to be put on hold while she waited for a technical support manager. She had reached a UK call center after waiting for the one in India, but was again put on hold.

A Virgin Media spokesman said her account would be credited 30 British pounds (about $46) as the company investigates what happened.

Okay, that might be a slice of the bigger picture, but in principle, that shouldn’t happen because customer also has their own life after these calls. Call centers are implementing this as a strict policy, to respect customers time and vice versa. Hence, this shouldn’t happen again, because no amount of credits, courtesy rates and money would amount to the lost time, especially if this is the only thing that these customer have.

         

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I agree. This call center incident shouldn't happen again. It's so important that call center companies implement the essence of efficiency and quality in their work, just like the call center company where my brother works. It's annoying for a customer to wait for a long time while being on hold by a call center agent. Thanks for sharing the valuable story, Call Center Gal!