Times Of Change

I would base this on my own experience and the environment that I worked with. Before I started being a tech writer, I was a call center agent. Fresh on the field and was on what they called the grave yard shift; it starts from 12 midnight till 8 in the morning. At the first few hours of my shift my group started dialing for the B2b campaigns. I find this process a very challenging one because our goal was to get pass the secretary or what is also known as the gatekeeper. Then I have to set a firm appointment for one of our campaign managers to explain how things work. Throughout the time I have been calling, I find myself coming across different situations wherein the secretary or the receptionist asks me the same questions over and over again; sometimes I was on hold for 10 minutes. I also get responses such as they don’t use leads, that they are not interested or that their hands are full at the moment that I should try calling back another time.

I did find out at one point that sometimes I was speaking directly to the person I was seeking for. They have the tendency to pretend to be the gatekeeper. As days pass by, I learned to determine if I was speaking to the gatekeeper or directly to the person in charge. Things went a little bit smoothly from then on. I bear in mind that it’s not like Christmas everyday that you get to explain everything to the other party and that they would listen. I do get cranky ladies on the line and shouts on my ear just to say if I could get of the phone because I was tying up the line. It’s not my fault that I was calling on their busy day and it’s not their fault either. Among my co-agents, I wasn’t the only one experiencing that kind of problem. I notice that there are some agents that would speak in an un-friendly way back or would simply hung up the phone after saying inappropriate lexis. This wouldn’t look good for the company and as for the agent as well.

I always tell myself that in whatever situation I am in, I should always be polite to the person on the other end. An agent has to possess a lot of patience in order to set an appointment with a prospective client. You’ll never know that that person may be one of the best clients your company gains. As old saying goes it’s like “you’re searching a needle through a hay stack”. Value everything you get and you go a long way.