Call Center Calls (or Calls, Part Deux)

There are, of course, things that we are supposed to do with each call that comes in.

One of these things is to use the customer's name. My only problem with this is that there are names that I just cannot get my tongue around. Or there are spellings that fool me the first time I see them (Caryn = Karen, btw). When I'm talking to someone, looking over their account information and trying to find what they want, all at the same time, sometimes my brain doesn't process a name correctly. Most of the time people aren't offended if I mispronounce their name. If the name really stumps me, then I just say "Please state your name as it is printed on your credit card." (And if I don't say to keep the card handy so that I can get the number later, most of these people will put it back in their wallets. 'Cause looking at it = giving me the number.) First name or last name? I usually use their first name because if there's a name that I can't pronounce, it's usually the last name. Sometimes I just get a sense that a customer wouldn't want me to do that, then I do go the Mr and Mrs and Mizz route. I don't remember ever having a customer reprimand me for calling me by their first name. Maybe it's because part of our call's opening includes giving them our first name.

One of my co-workers has a really hard time with this policy of using the customer's name throughout the call. She claims that half of her callers objected to her using their first name, and that last names are just too hard to pronounce. Besides, she said, with all the other things we need to do during the call ~ cross-sells, phone specials and getting things right ~ it's just too hard to use the customer's name during the call. So, even tho' her supervisor keeps telling her to do it, and it affects her monitoring scores, she won't do it. Sheeesh. She's been here for a few years, and she was at BOMC for a while, too. Should be old hat by now.

Oh ~ she did have a funny name story. Got a call where the names on the account were Shannon and Preston. The caller was a woman. Turns out that she was Preston and Shannon was her hubby. I know that there are gender-crossing names, but that's a first for me.

Oh, wait, I do have one more interesting name from yesterday. Somewhere out there, there is a little girl whose name is GREYLYN. Hmmmmmmmm

I haven't even gotten in to work yet today, and here I've posted already. Gives a whole new life to working at the CCC - keeping notes for blogging! hehehehe