Years ago I took a part time job at an AOL customer service center to make a little extra cash.
It was our job to answer any technical questions that the customer may have to get and keep them online.
I wasn't there long for two reasons:
Management rated our efficiency at helping customers by our call time -- the shorter the call, the better customer service agents we were, the more chances we had at raises, bonuses, etc. The hero of the center was a girl whose call times averaged around 30 seconds. How much customer service was she providing in 30 seconds?
Next, I hadn't been there long when some suits came in and gathered us all around. They explained that every customer contact was a chance to sell them something and that AOL wasn't going to let that chance get away. So from then on every time someone called who couldn't get his/her modem configured correctly, couldn't get their AOL software installed, or complained that ever since they installed it Windows kept crashing, we were to tell them about a new shopper's club AOL was offering. For $2 a month, they would get amazing discounts on thousands of wonderful products.
Silly me, I thought the way to keep satisfied customers was to help them with their needs -- especially when they were calling with a problem. Take care of their problems quickly and with a friendly manner and they would stay customers.
After about a week of "selling" the shopping club, my numbers weren't quite where they should be (yeah, I guess zero referrals to the club would be less than what management wanted). So they assigned the top seller to sit in my cubical and show me how it was done. Basically, he refused to help them until they committed to the club thing. I walked out that day. I'm sure he got a huge bonus that month.
Worked at AOL
Years ago I took a part time job at an AOL customer service center to make a little extra cash.
It was our job to answer any technical questions that the customer may have to get and keep them online.
I wasn't there long for two reasons:
Management rated our efficiency at helping customers by our call time -- the shorter the call, the better customer service agents we were, the more chances we had at raises, bonuses, etc. The hero of the center was a girl whose call times averaged around 30 seconds. How much customer service was she providing in 30 seconds?
Next, I hadn't been there long when some suits came in and gathered us all around. They explained that every customer contact was a chance to sell them something and that AOL wasn't going to let that chance get away. So from then on every time someone called who couldn't get his/her modem configured correctly, couldn't get their AOL software installed, or complained that ever since they installed it Windows kept crashing, we were to tell them about a new shopper's club AOL was offering. For $2 a month, they would get amazing discounts on thousands of wonderful products.
Silly me, I thought the way to keep satisfied customers was to help them with their needs -- especially when they were calling with a problem. Take care of their problems quickly and with a friendly manner and they would stay customers.
After about a week of "selling" the shopping club, my numbers weren't quite where they should be (yeah, I guess zero referrals to the club would be less than what management wanted). So they assigned the top seller to sit in my cubical and show me how it was done. Basically, he refused to help them until they committed to the club thing. I walked out that day. I'm sure he got a huge bonus that month.