Category: workaholic

March 9, 2008

I’m tired.

I got a lot of good calls today.

There were only few bad ones.

I got one really long call.

And a lot of really short ones.

My AHT was good.

My customer relations were also good.

But I am tired.

Indeed I am.

Now how am I suppose to follow his personal advice?

“Never get tired of taking calls,” he wrote.

How am I suppose to do that?

If my left eye is constantly twitching…

And I am now tired.

Tired.

March 8, 2009

Now this is really getting disturbing – writing daily about my adventures at work. But then again, this is a novelty to me and as such I find it such an interesting topic to write about. I don’t know though if the reader shares the same thoughts.

Anyways, today my first call was an irate customer. My second one was another irate customer. The third was still an irate customer. By the time I got to my fourth call, my voice was already shaking and my supervisor remarked that I sounded nervous. She advised me to simply breathe. I guess even if one does treat each call as a new call, and completely forego the previous call, the subconcious will still kick in and one cannot really control certain factors regarding one’s self much as one would want to. (Am I making sense?)

Good thing though that SGS doesn’t tolerate customers who use abusive language. Otherwise, even if I know I wouldn’t be affected by such language because I wouldn’t take it personally, my subconcious would probably suffer.

The good thing though with my shift is that I was able to identify customer relation as my priority – metrics wise. As such, I need to ensure that in each call the customer would attain total satisfaction with the service I’ve provided.

A good friend and mentor once told me that in our jobs the focus should not be on the salary (although I know that is important) but rather on the service that we deliver to those who we serve in our jobs. For example, a teacher is a servant to his students in the sense that his job is to ensure his students learn something from him. As such his first priority should be the learning of his students. The rest, such as his performance or his salary should be secondary. They are important but they should not take precedence of his primary duty which is to ensure that his students learn.

In the same way, as a technical support representative my priority should be to ensure that every customer who calls me would receive the resolution to his McAfee concern that is within my support boundaries. That should be my first priority – the customer’s experience with me as the agent who helped him. Because that is basically my job – to help hapless and clueless customers with their technical issues.

And having defined that, I now set-off with a new passion and zeal for work. A new definition of every call being a new call. A new motivation to coming to work no matter how tiring the hours maybe.

Now, ain’t that grand?

March 7, 2009

Is this getting to be a regular thing – writing about my daily adventures on the floor? I never thought there’d be much to write about really but here I am documenting my third day – or should I say, night.

Well there are several reasons why I’m documenting this day. First maybe the fact that today I had an encounter with him – although again it was strictly professional. Second maybe the fact that I believe my performance is improving and I’ve had quite a number of critical realizations on how to improve myself so as to receive a promotion in the shortest possible time. Lastly maybe the fact that I am just dying to talk to someone, my friends maybe or perhaps just the whole wide world and anybody who cared to listen or in this case read.

So now let me dwell a bit further on those 3 reasons.

So how did we had an encounter? A virtual encounter that is? I have sworn to myself that I wouldn’t get in touch with him primarily because I didn’t want myself to hinge on a false hope and I certainly didn’t want my heart to kick on overdrive. So not until I had fully ascertained with myself that I am at least a bit over him – meaning I can fully deal with him in a professional manner – then I’d be free to consult him. Afterall I do need his professional opinion regarding my work. So in a time of desperate need, when I was not getting ample feedback on my performance (and of course I was adamant that I perform well because I’m aiming for promotion so I could get out of the call que) he became my last resort. I emailed him and to my utter surprise he answered quite quickly and in a very lengthly manner too. I was surprised that he had monitored my performance since that time we met (I guess it was part of his job description) and I was quite grateful for his feedback. I must say his email was really comprehensive and it would take me more than just one sitting to digest everything in it. And thus I was able to ascertain with myself that I am indeed over him. Not completely, I must admit. But enough to keep him at a distance, treat him professionally and protect my overacting hypothalamus.

Now for my second reason. I realized that I need not be concerned so much of my AHT (average handling time) because this is just numbers and they have a funny way of fixing themselves. Like for example if I got a really long call (about an hour and 30minutes) at the start of my shift, it would be possible that by the middle of my shift I would be getting really easy calls that would last for less than 20 minutes. It is also probable that I’d receive ghost calls (wherein no one is talking on the other line) or disconnected calls that would last for less than 5 or 10 minutes. Now these really short calls would drastically lower my AHT so that by the end of my shift I would fall within the requirement of 19 minutes, sometimes even less. AHT’s therefore are really fickle and easy stuff. What I have to focus on however are my CSATs or customer satisfaction. That is how I am able to help a customer. Apparently I sound intimidating over the phone and I guess I bit bossy to the customer. The feedback on me was I sounded like a professor giving out instructions. Of course if you were a customer you really wouldn’t want that right? So what I need to focus now is how to sound accomodating to customers. What a task right?

Now the third reason I believe should be further expanded on another blog entry. For reasons that I do not want this entry to be too long to read and because I think it constitutes a whole new set of ideas. Suffice to say that I get to relate my day to just my family members and of course my workmates. I kind of missed having friends outside my family and immediate workplace to whom I could discuss things with. And that probably is why I keep tab of my daily happenings at work. Then again my blogs are really my efforts to stay connected with the social network I have hesitantly gave up.

Then again maybe all these blog entries are just sleeping pills for my tired body whose mind refuses to shut down even though it greatly needs so.

March 6, 2009

I swore to myself that I would never be impatient nor irate to a customer. But again, I realized that once you’re faced with a really computer challenged customer, who would take more than an hour just to navigate to a particular webpage, you really can’t help but be irate. Of course it is a demerit to swear or show signs of impatience to a customer while talking to him on the phone. It is also a demerit to swear or show signs of impatience to a customer with the mute button on – especially if the QA (quality analysts) catches you live in action.

So how do you vent frustration? Simply, I clenched my fists at the monitor..hehe. And my notepad, which contains my documentation of the call, also contained my emotions during the call. Of course the latter was deleted before I submitted my documentation.

But whatever happened to patience? Isn’t that a component of the fruit of the Spirit? Along with love and joy? And yet where are all of these during my calls? Where is my love for the customer? My joy for the job? Idealistic, you’d say. But I also swore to myself that I’d enjoy this job. That I’d love it. Transitory as it may be. Unexpected as it may be. And as seemingly as of course as it may be. I had sworn that I would love this job, and do my very best – be excellent – in the task that I have been given.

And after just the second day in the job, what happened to that?

Of course, along with my rant written on my documentation were also declarations that I love this customer, that I am patient. I guess they do help me calm down for I think that whenever I talk to her, I sounded only neutral. Not jolly. But not angry either. Just plain neutral.

And what I cannot vent on my customer, I had unfortunately vented on my immediate supervisor – someone who was clearly trying to help me. Yes, I understood her concern and her efforts but I think she misunderstood my situation. I mean she showed me something I knew. How I wish she had shown me something I didn’t knew. Probably a way to help the customer better. And because of that I sort of talked to her with an edge to my voice which prompted her to scold me as well. So much for good impressions.

But, by God’s grace, the rest of the shift went well. Somewhere in the middle of my shift, the calls got more bearable and I got better AHT’s and I got more patience and a tiny bit of joy.

I just hope that by the time I do am qualified for a promotion, I wouldn’t have looked at this job as a nightmare. A waking nightmare that is. Pun intended. ☺