I had the displeasure of speaking with another "financial adviser" today.
This one called with "our mutual customer" on the line, to discuss a balance transfer promotion "they" had been offered earlier. There was a lot of "us" and "we" used during the conversation. It seemed a bit too personal to be professional, in my opinion. It also bothered me that the "adviser" monopolized the conversation. I don't think she understood that while she had my customer's permission to remain on the line during this exchange, she is not authorized on this account...therefore I will need verbal confirmation and permission from my customer.
In any case, I was able to offer the same promotion which "they" had rejected earlier today. Given that her "financial adviser" was making such a show of working to reduce "her client's" debt; the customer currently revolves a balance higher than $40,000 with my bank; and the customer's profile showed external revolving balance in excess of $10,000...I thought surely we would be using the remainder of her rather large credit line to pay off this external balance at a lower rate.
The balance to be paid was a little over $1200. 
I asked whether this amount was the statement balance or a payoff amount. First, the "financial adviser" told me it was the amount on the bill. When I informed her that it might be wise to account for any additional interest which has accumulated since that billing cycle closed out, she was thoroughly confused.
When I asked her what date the billing cycle closed, she said, "Well, this bill was due July X, so that would be the same day." 
More confusion as I tried to explain thatno, that is not correct.
Next she changed her story and claimed that this amount was a payoff. I asked her how long that payoff estimate was good for, and she flat out said, "I don't know what you're talking about." Cue additional confusion as I attempted to educate this "financial adviser" that a payoff estimate is not extended permanently...there must be a date after which additional interest will be charged if payment is not received.
She had no idea what I meant and made a poor attempt to mask her ignorance in condescension and disdain. Lovely. 
I just really want to know where these people get their "qualifications"...how can you give someone advice on credit cards if you don't know how interest is calculated and charged? The worst part is that we devote half a page on every billing statement to the explanation of these charges!
We do weekly training sessions where we're supposed to learn and discuss any new policies and procedures, sales techniques, etc. They usually are pretty informative, plus it gives us time off the phone, which is always a welcome break!Today we got on the subject, yet again, about dealing with customers who are upset because they had to wait for a representative. I'm not talking about customers who want to speak with a rep for problem-solving and are upset about the hold time. The bank I work for has a very "interesting" marketing strategy wherein they select customers to be routed through to a rep, whether they like it or not. For the most part, this selection is based on the customer's relationship with the bank...namely their credit rating and available credit line.When these customers call in to, say, make a payment...they do not get a menu option on the phone to select to make a payment. As soon as they enter in their account information, they are instructed to hold for a rep. So of course by the time they get to us, they are a bit perturbed...they want to know why they had to hold for a rep...What's wrong with my account? What's wrong with your systems? Etc etc.We have received extensive, continuous training on dealing with these calls. I have become an expert at stroking the ego. We explain that we want to provide excellent customer service...that they are a preferred customer who is very important to us...anything to get this person calmed down and make them feel better so that I can service the call and then segue into any promotional offers available on the account...because this is the real reason why the customer was placed on hold and transferred to my line in the first place. I am fully aware that this is a sales-based position, and I do really believe that we have some excellent promotional offers with fair terms, but FML I hate this strategy! It creates such a barrier to gaining the customer's trust...but mainly I feel like it's a bit unethical. Our marketing/advertising team basically sucks balls, and can't figure out a way to make people want to call us for these offers, so now we're going to hold someone hostage on the phone and force them to speak to a rep? Oh! I almost forgot to mention that we also do this thing where, when a customer calls to activate a credit card, the automated system will ask if they'd like to complete a balance transfer. Even if they select the button for "no," the customer will be routed to a rep. I'm sure you can imagine how pleased these people are to speak with me and what their response is when I offer them said balance transfer.
I took a call today that I had to transfer to our fraud department. Apparently one of our customers needed to order a replacement social security card, and after searching for "ss replacement," clicked on the first ad that popped up, completely ignoring the officially Social Security Administration website. They not only charged some bogus fee to their credit card but also gave up a lot of personal, identifying information in the process.
I warm transferred, as always. While I was in the process of introducing myself to the other rep, she said, "I'm having a really hard time hearing you," I said, "sorry, hold on," and suddenly I was completely logged off of my phone as I was reaching for the volume button. System error. Shit happens. I confirmed that the customer had transferred through and commented the account about my end disconnecting. If it had been just me and the customer speaking, I might get permission to call them back, but since 1) I have no way to get back into a 3-way conference call with the customer and that fraud rep, and 2) the whole purpose was to transfer the customer to fraud anyway, I moved on to my next call.
A few minutes later I received an email from my "teammate" in the fraud department. This shit pissed me off so bad that I actually had to log off my phone and take an unauthorized break. I had to take a walk.
Basically, this bitch said, "While we here in the fraud department are happy to assist you and your department with your needs in verifying customers (No shit? Do not act like you're doing me a fucking favor when that is your job description!)...I do not appreciate the way you transferred that call...without giving me your name or your [employee code]...I asked you for the [employee code] but you weren't there and it was only the customer. Our [employee code] is private bank information which the customer is not supposed to be aware of (if you say so...). This created a very uncomfortable experience for me and the customer, and I feel it's very unprofessional to transfer a call like this..."
I thought of a few responses but decided to forward the message to my manager instead. "Not sure how to reply to this, I was disconnected due to a system error."
My manager knows that I am not a fucking idiot but I am a consummate professional so his answer was, "No reply needed." Now, I don't know if this means that he's going to handle it, or just telling me to calm the fuck down, but I don't need to defend myself against this bullshit.
How fucking stupid do you have to be to not realize that the call got disconnected? I was literally in the middle of a sentence when I dropped off the call. If my intention had been to do a "blind" transfer, then I would have done a blind transfer, pure and simple!
I get enough shit from our asshole customers every day. I do not need to be lectured about professionalism from a "teammate." You are not my manager. Go fuck yourself.
Well, I was right. I signed my written warning today. Despite repeated coaching, I have failed to meet expectations for performance standards.
I have shown consistent improvement, and that was acknowledged and praised, but it still falls short. I was asked what else management can do to help me succeed and I really didn't know what to say. They have already provided me with a ton of additional training, which I do make a concentrated effort to implement. I said that I feel like no matter how hard I try, it's not good enough, and maybe I'm just not cut out for this work.
The response from management was that they do not believe that to be true, that they feel like I know the job really well and have a lot of potential. They can see/hear how hard I'm trying. We just need to find the key to get past this barrier where my cash sales are not successful.
The problem is that I don't think there's anything else they can do to help me. The barrier that I'm facing is that I am afraid to talk to some of these customers. It gives me anxiety to have someone on the phone who is rude and nasty because they prefer the automated system and get pissed because they were transferred to a rep. My mind goes blank and I can't keep them on the phone to attempt a sale; sometimes I don't even try because I'm so scared they're going to flip out. Why do I even care? Good question.
If someone calls in with a problem, I'm good to go, even if they're yelling and angry. For some reason I'm okay with those calls because it's something I can solve and I like to fix things. But these people who are pissed because they'd rather talk to a robot? It's like my fight or flight response kicks in and I can't get them off the phone fast enough. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.
I honestly feel like the only way I'm going to work through this is on my own. This isn't a bank problem or a training problem. This is a personal problem I need to get over.
I'm looking into herbal/holistic remedies for anxiety. I should probably meditate or something but I wouldn't even know where to start with that. I just need to figure something out that prevents me from getting so upset with these calls. The only way I can describe it is that it hurts my feelings, seriously. Like, why are you being so mean to me when I'm being so nice to you and I didn't do anything wrong?
I know, logically, that there is no reason why I should even care. I know that whatever irritation these customers are projecting is not directed at me personally and I will never speak to them again anyway. I wish I could just brush it off, but right now it really gets under my skin.
So, today was the last day of the month. My last day to bring in some sales and make my quotas for June. Of course, it would have been nice if I hadn't had so many shit calls last week to cause me to be stressing out at the last minute...
I showed up to work this morning full of caffeine and good cheer and I was pumped! Ready to provide outstanding customer service with a smooth transition into sales!
And then I spent all day fielding calls from complete assholes who wants to argue with me about transaction fees as if I am personally responsible for setting the amount, or yell at me because they prefer the automated system, or flat out hang up on me while I'm trying to explain the benefits and features available on their brand-new account. I actually had a lady yell at me that she could not believe I wouldn't lower her APR...with an outstanding delinquency on the account. Fucking douche-nuggets and twat-waffles.
I can't even properly vent because I can't take the risk of revealing my place of employment; despite the fact that I left work in tears today, I really do like my job and would like to keep it. Unfortunately, with my low sales, I fully expect to receive a written warning for performance any day now. I got my verbal back at the end of April/beginning of May.
I'm just feeling so completely discouraged, like no matter how hard I try, maybe I am just not cut out for this sales bullshit. I don't even know.
Working in a call center has given me so much new-found respect for tech support. If we get a call about online banking and it's something "simple," we're supposed to talk the customer through the process. For example, if they just need to know how to set up a profile or where to click to get to Bill Pay or something like that. We're only supposed to transfer to Tech Support if they need to reset their password or something else we just don't have access to complete.
I spent over 40 minutes the other day helping a customer get to our main site page to log in.
A brief synopsis of our conversation:
Me: It sounds like you're looking at the results for a search engine page and not our main site. Can you make sure you've typed thebank.com into the address bar?
SC: How do I do that?
Me: If you go to the top left-hand corner of your browser, there should be a long box you can type the address in.
SC: It just says Mozilla Firefox and then Yahoo but I can't type anything on it!
Me: How about below that?
SC: Below that it says File...Tools...etc...
Me: Is there a box below that line?
SC: Where it says http:// www .yahoo .com?
Me: Yes! That's the address bar. Ok, click on that, and type in thebank.com.
SC: Okaaay...and I leave the letters that are already there, right?
Me: No, no, no. Delete all of that. Delete everything, and type in www dot thebank dot com.
SC: Okaaayyy...
Me: OH! And make sure you don't have any spaces between the words. Just, "wwwDOTthebankDOTcom" with no spaces at all, ok?
SC: Ohhhkay...OH! There it is! Why did you guys change it?
Why do people think that if they refuse to verify account information I'm just going to let that slide? Like if they yell at me or threaten to close their account I'll just suddenly bypass all of the government-regulated security measures and do whatever they want to the account?
This lady called in today who claimed to be the authorized user on the account. The phone number she was calling from was not on file for the account, so I have to ask a security question. I asked her for the DOB of the primary cardholder, which was 2/4/1956.*
"2/8/1956," she says. Keep in mind that the authorized user on this account is the WIFE of the primary cardholder.
I asked her if she could verify the last 4 of his SSN. She cannot. As I'm reviewing the account to see what else I can use for verification, she blurts out his mother's maiden name.
Why oh why do people do this? I cannot accept any piece of information which is offered by a caller. So now we are down to virtually nothing that I can use for traditional security verification...and I haven't even asked her if she has the card to verify the CVV. If she doesn't have that, then I'll have to verify a non-traditional question as well.
She makes some comment about how she doesn't understand why I'm asking her so many questions when she already gave me his birthdate. I apologize and explain that it didn't match the DOB on file.
"2/4/1596?!" she exclaims.
"That is not what you told me earlier, ma'am," I deadpan.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm just so nervous!" she's suddenly trying to be meek and mild. Please explain to me why the wife of a cardholder, who is herself authorized on the account, would have any reason to be nervous.
"I apologize for the delay, but I'm going to need to place you on a brief hold while I bring an associate on the line to assist me with the security verification." When I can't authenticate a customer I have to conference in someone from the fraud department, but of course I'm not telling her that. I just say I need assistance.
She gets very aggravated and informs me that she'll just have "him" deal with this later. Then she hangs up the phone.
Whatevs, bitch. I take account security very seriously. Account documented and frozen for potential fraud.
Then there was the alleged wife who was not authorized on the account and became so angry when I politely informed her that I could not perform account maintenance or release account information without speaking to the cardholder that she yelled, "That's fine! We'll just call back later and close this account, how about that!"
First of all, cuntmuffin, I don't know who this "we" is of which you speak. There is only one person listed on this account and he is not you. Secondly, if you think that I personally care whether or not your husband maintains a credit card with a $5000 limit, you have huffed too much paint thinner today. Zero fucks were given about this conversation, although I did comment the account that an unauthorized person attempted to get account information.
This is getting into TL;DR territory, but maybe tomorrow I will tell you the tale of the "cardholder" who was unable to verify her own DOB correctly...and told me that she would have to retrieve her tax records to give me her SSN.
*Not his real DOB, in case you thought I was completely insane.
