Have I just been mocked?

[StealthPolarBear]

Was on a call about our broadband. I was told twice what a wonderful lady I was and how it had been such a pleasure to talk to such a wonderful lady as myself and if the rest of his customers were like me he'd be very pleased. I was also asked twice to forgive him for sounding awkward as he had a cold.

No. There's a middle ground. Do you understand that?

Honestly what is going on today?

And do you genuinely only care about things you'll remember on your death bed? I'm kinda living life now.

And no it is not my first and won't be my last. Again, are they the only ones I can comment on

Stealth are you seriously annoyed about it?

Yes of course there's a middle ground and no you weren't mocked.

I can sweet talk you if you wannit though, baybee and wouldn't mind if you swore in response.

Stealth, yes, it's common in telecoms call centres, especially if they are outsourced. They are scripted and they must be effusive at all times. No matter how unlikely it is that they are going to be able to help you, you will be told that they will fix your problem in just a moment, and that they will do so with much pleasure. No matter how stressed you are, they will tell you that they are enjoying dealing with you. It is demanded of them.

It's really sad, because the more effusive they are, the less sincere it becomes. It must be an awful position to be put in.

Yes tbh I'm feeing a but crap. Frustrated and shit. The posters who just want to come and have a go aren't helping (not you=. Think I need out.

I find it uncomfortable too , so over the top. I wonder if it's a 'lost in translation' thing , I don't think uk call centres are quite so bum licky.

Oh I wasn't having a go, sorry. And sorry you're feeling down.

Lots of call centres do tend to talk this way though, it's not having a dig at you.

WTF Vinotime, that’s such an odd view to take. Plenty of things annoy me that I won’t remember next week let alone on my deathbed. Melodrama much?!

I know what you mean Stealth I had a very odd conversation with a call centre worker where almost every other word was madam, to the point it was ridiculous. I did wonder whether they were playing a game to see who could get it in the most times in one conversation to make the day go faster!

I think it is expected of them, God knows why because it must make them feel awkward and customers don't like it. It's the same as when they ask how you are at the start of the call - why do that? You know it isn't someone you know who genuinely cares, just a stranger so it comes across as a bit creepy.

It’s frustrating, intrusive and unprofessional for call centre workers to try to banter with you.
I don’t want to be mates I just want them to listen to my issue and then do your best to fix it. I will treat them with the respect that everyone is entitled to but it don’t want a chat.

I know it’s not their fault but I wonder why call centres make their staff do this when it’s so forced and unnatural.

No you weren't being mocked, for all of the reasons already stated. Those type of calls remind me of obsequious waiters in posh restaurants.

Unless you were rude to him I'm not sure why you're feeling crap?

. I did wonder whether they were playing a game to see who could get it in the most times in one conversation to make the day go faster!

Years ago I had a job that involved answering inbound calls, and we did pick a word to try and work into the conversation to make things more interesting. It was never madam though, usually something random like cheese or tenaciousness.

I know what you mean - I was once on a call centre line and I just knew the guy was messing around with a mate, I could hear the laughter in his voice. Even though I don't think it had anything to do with me, I put the phone down feeling a bit uncomfortable, like there was a joke going on that I wasn't part of.

I do think it's a bit patronising and possibly quite sexist to speak to women in that way. It's OTT, and inappropriate. It wasn't Virgin was it? I've had odd experiences on the line to them.

What I don't understand is why the people who write these scripts think it's a good idea. OK, I can sort of see the logic of 'How are you today Mr. Sisyphus." They think that by building a personal relationship you're more likely to buy whatever crap they're selling. But even that's hugely off-putting for me and a very useful cue to just put the phone down.

My favourite thing to do is to ask the people who phone 'about my life insurance renewal' to pass data protection and give me the details of 'my plan'. They assure me they are working with the 'big insurance firms' but can't be given the details of my plan for 'data protection reasons'. I say 'but you phoned me....'. 'Yes...so you need to give me the information so I can progress the call.' 'But you phoned me, so you need to give me the information for me to progress the call.'

One guy got so irritated with me and said 'so basically, you've wasted like 4 minutes of my time, when you could have just said you weren't interested. Why did you do that??' I replied 'Because you wasted 4 minutes of my time, pretending that you were working with big insurance companies, when really you've bought my name and number and are fishing for information.'

I've never had life insurance. Ever.

I work in commercial maintenance and even we have to make the calls sickly sweet.
I get marked down in my reviews if I’m straight to the point, which is what the customers generally want.

The management are all about making it sound nice but never focus on the issues that really need resolving.

They try to get us to say the callers name throughout the call (which is unnatural and IMO sounds like a telling off), lots of mmms and aaaahs to ‘show we are listening’.
But they don’t implement solutions to real problems.
I’ve tried telling them that at 3am the customer wants to know where the engineer is they’ve been expecting since 11pm not that I’m a nice fluffy person.

Honestly, he was probably cringing himself the whole time.

Back on phone as speed dropped again. No crap from this guy so either he'll be sacked or it's not required

Trust me, it makes us call centre workers uncomfortable to (at least it does for me anyway). I don't like having to ask customers how they are as I feel it sounds really, I dunno, false. We bloody get marked down for QA if we don't ask though.

I can totally believe that it is all about the script isn't it ?

But clearly it isn't. I've not had it before and it's not on this call

I think it's the broadband issue stressing you out more than anything else

It's both tbh. We now have an engineer coming out for which we will mot be charged. We were last time and had to fight for the money back

As an aside OP.... My first inItials are LA, and somehow on a BT call this got translated to 'Lady'. All the way through the call I was called Lady Oldraver...I thought it odd but didnt take much notice.

All my correspondence from BT is now addressed to Lady Oldraver...and I dont correct them on a call just try not to giggle all the way through