How to run a Call Centre

Call centres can be irritating sometimes.

Some time ago, I had to call a tour operator (name withheld in accordance to Data Protection Act) to advise one of the agents of a possible strike happening in France and affecting one of their clients booked with us.

A task that was supposed to be rather simple, turned out to be almost a Mission Impossible one, considering that I was transferred six times between departments, dealing with seven agents, explaining the same story seven times, listening to the “I am sorry but you have come through to the wrong department, let me transfer you…” too many bloody times!

One of the sufferings I had to endure was actually rather amusing. The agent I spoke to on one occasion, explained to me I had to call the Customer Department because my request was for a trip that had not taken place yet.

You can imagine my reaction (AAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH) when the recorded message instead was something like… "the department deals with trips already taken. Go away if you have not taken the trip yet. Here I go again I thought, and I did go, again and again.

Always look on the bright side of life, as John Cleese taught us, and so, from the dreadful experience, I have drawn the following conclusions on how to run a call centre:

1. If you have a computer, use it

When I called, I gave the agent the reference number and the name of the person who made the booking. Computers were invented mostly to be chatting away on Facebook I admit, but also to allow agents to quickly get the details of the enquiry, store information in the booking system and, if you could not deal with it yourself, pass the information to the relevant agent.

But for some reasons, even with the reference, the agents couldn’t understand what I was talking about.

2. Listen to the customers, they are human after all

Most of the agents I had to deal with behaved like yes/no robots on steroids. One of them was bombarding me with questions like: Are you an agent? Is it before or after the trip? It is about a train or a space-ship? Have you called before? The thing is, if you say yes, when you should have said no, or your enquiry does not fit with any of the pre-stated questions, then you are… yes, you guessed right… transferred to another clueless agent.

3. There is no point in creating departments that nobody in your organisation does actually know what they are doing!

When I finally spoke to an agent who could successfully understand my enquiry, take my details and pass the information to the clients (YUPPYYEEE), I asked what I should do next time I have a similar enquiry.

She said to call and ask for the Accommodation Support Department.

Blimey! Three magic words that would have saved me fifteen minutes and spared me to repeat the reason of my call seven times… If only I (and the five agents who had transferred me too) knew that!