Different Types of Callers in Call Center™

Here I go again. After posting my blog about how the life is in the call center industry, I am here, yet again, to post a new one. This time, I'm am taking on the different types of callers that we get.

Since I'm going to tell you the callers that we usually get, I'll introduce to you first on what account I am working in.

Our account is Polaris (I can't give the real name of the company for security purposes). Perhaps most of you have heard this before. Polaris is a telephone company in the US. It's like PLDT here in the Philippines. Anyway, specifically, we handle wireless phones' (cellphones) warranty. Well, you know what warranty is. So our job is that if their phones are having problems like the screen is blank, phone won't turn on, dropped calls, etc., we are the ones who help them. If we do not solve their problems then we will process an exchange for their phones (lucky Americans!). Basically that's our account. Anyway, let's get down to business.

Everyday we receive a lot of problems from our customers' phones. Every caller have different concerns and every call that we receive are of course, different. I gathered here a list of different types of callers that I encounter.

1. HELP ME CALLER - Ok, this is the purpose of our customer service, to help the people who are having problems on their phones. These callers are pretty polite. They don't complain a lot and they don't talk a lot. Also, they don't ask many questions, they just agree and follow whatever we make them to do as long as we are able to solve their concern. This is the type of caller I really want to receive. I hope all the callers are like this (How I wish...).

2. IRATE CALLER - You've heard how these types callers gets so irritating but you've never heard how monstrous they can be! I'll tell you how are they like. These callers can easily get into one's veins. No matter how agents are so polite, these callers can easily get into our veins (yeah, we do get angry, we're still humans you know). I remember one time when I encountered an irate caller, he was shouting throughout the call. I don't know what's his problem but I'm sure how he looks like in person when in that state. He shouted and shouted and complained and shouted, it did not stop. After the call, he was still irate and he was saying, "ah whatever, your company sucks blah blah blah...". But even how frustrating they can be, they are still fun to help with (especially when we are using the power of the MUTE button!) Hahaha!

3. KID CALLER - Yes! There are even kids who calls us. But I would just like to let you know that according to my cousin, cellphones are not allowed for kids in the US (lucky us, even Grade 1 students can use cellphones), anyway, they are only allowed IF they are included in the plan (yeah, most of the Americans are using Postpaid phones). Okay, these types of callers are very fun and nice to work. They are fun to work with because they are polite, they always smile (we can tell if the caller is smiling just by the tone of their voice), and they do not complain a lot. Also, these types of calls are not too long because most of the time they cannot verify the account and what will they do is to call back. I like this call, it lowers my AHT most of the times. (+++AHT = Average Handling Time)

4. LOLA/LOLO CALL - In English, Granny calls. This is the type of call that takes so looooooong for us to solve their problem. First, they are slow talking people (but mild mannered), they don't get angry, and they are very very VERY polite. We call this call AHT KILLER call. AHT by the way is Average Handling Time (we have an average time on handling calls. Ours is 11 mins.). Sometimes granny calls are frustrating especially when they make us repeat what we (agents) say because we are talking fast. So we have to talk so slow, like Kuya Cesar, in order for them to understand what we are saying. They are fun to work with because sometimes they call our supervisors to commend us (how lovely!).

5. CUSS CALLERS - These are the callers who never cease to cuss all over the call. They are like, "F$(* this company, S#&$ I hate this, F you,", something like that. I have only received this type of call once and it really frustrated me. I hop I would never encounter this type of call again.

6. GHOST CALLERS - Or what we call dead air. No one speaks on the other line so we end the call. That's how fast it is. Agents likes this call so much.

7. I-DON'T-TRUST-YOU CALLERS - I only encountered this twice. When we are finished troubleshooting her phone and in the process of exchange, I need to verify her last four digits of her social number in order for us to proceed, she told, "No, I won't tell you. I don't trust you.". So you know what happened. The call ended right there. The other one is different. She was a pre-paid user customer and for pre-paid customers, we need to get their credit card information in order for us to proceed. The reason why we do need to get it so that when they get charged on something, we just charge it on their credit card. Anyway, we are in the exchange process and the caller refused to give it. So what happened is that I transferred her call to the manufacturer of the phone. That how simple it is.

8. THE WHISPERER - These are the callers who is like whispering. They are in a very looooow volume of voice and when we ask them to make their voice louder, they get angry. I don't know what's with them. But most of the time, and through observation, they are first time callers and maye they are too shy and afraid. Whatever the reason why they are afraid, I don't want to know.

9. SUPERVISORS - "I want your supervisor!" - That is their first line when we answer the call. Of course we will try to help them first but if they still want a supervisor, we give it to our supervisor and let him/her handle the call. Just imagine how frustrated these callers can be.

10. RACIST CALLERS - This is very common. These types of callers are sooooo irritating. Their favorite line is, "You are not an American.", "You are an Indian!", I don't like you, I want an agent who can speak English", "I don't understand you. Where are you located? Are you even an American?". I hate these callers. We are here to help them and yet our nationality is an issue. Sometimes it is! They even forget their concern and take on our nationality. This is a very common incident in call centers. These callers never grow up. I hate them... personally.

Well, there you go. I only listed the callers who usually calls us. I did not include here prank callers because we rarely receive one. I did receive one and he gave me a non-existing number and he told me his name was JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and he sounded like a black. Then he hung up. Obviously a prank caller.
So there, that's all. I have been planning to do this blog a couple of weeks ago but I didn't have the time so I planned on doing this on my day-off. And today is my off! Yipee!


jhay-r
09/03/08