To wonder if any call centre is not "busier than normal at the moment"??

[CollieFIower]

Or "experiencing a higher number of calls" or whatever chirpy message they play on repeat. I actually cannot remember the last time I had to ring any customer helpline for any business or govt department and didn't get told some version of the above!

If you're always that busy then no you're not busier than fucking normal, this IS YOUR NORMAL and you might as well just stop trying to gaslight your customers into thinking otherwise.

And breeeeeeaaathe. May as well settle in for some yoga with Adrienne while I wait for Royal Mail to answer

I completely agree with how frustrating this experience is and wanted to offer some context on the challenges in the call centre industry at the moment.

After 20 years in the industry running 300 seat plus operations I've never known the candidate pool of job seekers be so small in the UK. This is even in a 100% wfh job scenario with good opening hours and flexible shifts available. If you are calling a uk based in office or hybrid working call centre they genuinely cannot get the staff even with above inflation pay increases over the last two years.

The only way to staff a call centre fully at the moment is to move it offshore which may or may not be the right thing to do from a customer experience lens.

Ultimately all the negative social, political, economic factors are at the root cause of this. One example of this is that I have never seen so many genuinely unwell employees on long term sick awaiting treatment on the NHS. We need fresh political thinking to change our stagnant UK labour market that is impeding growth.

I agree, it's total bullshit and lots of companies are using covid to justify lower staff volumes I think. I'm fed up of being on hold and being told my call is important when clearly it fucking isn't or else they'd answer it.

We are crazily busy. We have staff but there can be 20 min queues, usually only 3-5 mins though
Don't ring anywhere on a Monday morning is my tip
Everyone rings, complains it's busy and then still rings on a Monday when it's something that isn't urgent (last hour before we close and Saturdays are always quiet)

We can't realistically hire staff for 3hrs on a Monday and that's it so there will always be a queue

This morning I also had "in the unlikely event of your being abusive we will terminate the call"

I really want to say "in the unlikely event of your answering the phone I will terminate my relationship with you. You cunts"

It’s not just on-line. Do you remember when you used to go into a ‘grown up’ store (the type that sell everything over several floors) and people would offer to help you look for/find something and generally assist you? They don’t employ them anymore, and the only place to find an assistant is at the till. Customer care really does not exist any more.

Oh and we don't have a busy message, just hold music and it tells you your position in the queue so you know roughly what the wait is!

I rang Ikea the other day and nearly fell of my chair (and was pretty much speechless I was so surprised) when a human answered after about 2 seconds - I had got myself ready for a 30 min wait as is usual with every other company in this country. Bloody love Ikea since then!

@ReadersD1gest not that it's convenient - we can only do one call at a time so please don't take it out on the people that answer the phone
I often take 200 calls a day and I physically can't get through them any faster
We don't choose to answer the phone, the call appears and there is no way of not answering it or skiving off for ten mins

Currently not working as I have no voice surprisingly(!)

Yes I tried to do something through a website earlier, I use it regularly and so I quickly realised that it wasn't working properly but still spent a good hour of my time refreshing, logging out and in again etc - still buggered. So I pick up the phone and end up waiting 35 mins being told at least twice a minute that I should go to the website instead.

1. oh really 2) where do you think I found your phone number you absolute noo noos.

😂

I wonder if some of the public bodies who claim this could be required to produce evidence under FOI? Or those who come within the scope of regulators such as Ofcom/Ofwat etc?

That's really interesting @Esmetempscire

I do feel sorry for the people answering the calls because of course the longer the wait the more annoyed/stressed the customer is, which isn't the answerer's fault. Sometimes I admit I do get frustrated but I always make sure to say that I realise it's not their fault. I've been told more than once that I'm the first nice conversation the person has had all day (and I'm not that nice) so I can imagine the challenge for the staff even without contending with people who've been on furious hold for ages.

@Rebel2 it's not you. It's the organisations. People at the top of the tree are making a shedload of money (banks/utilities/internet providers/IT support - I'm looking at you). They are spending fortunes on glossy branding and advertising, but once they 'have' you - they can't be arsed to pick up the phone to you.

And if you are lucky enough to get through, it's scripted waffle - if you ask a question that isn't on the list, the whole conversation falls apart (or they cut you off) or alternatively offer you blatant lies (VIrgin, I'm looking at you now). Anything to tick the box and say the call is resolved.

And then, to add insult to injury, they want you to fill in a questionnaire and 'rate your experience'.

OP! I totally agree. Drives me insane. This is not a high number of calls. This is a normal number of calls and a failure to adequately staff your call centres.

Definitely not us but then we aren't a "standard" call centre
There is 15 staff so small, and we don't have a script. I mean yes stuff we have to ask for data protection but I'm free to say what I want (within reason) providing it's not offensive!

I had a minor car accident a few weeks ago. I had to call my roadside recovery from the side of a rural road in the middle of nowhere, in the pissing rain.
Their hold message suggested it would be more efficient if I downloaded their App. Errrr no. I was already standing as high as I could to get a single bar on my phone, never mind fannying about downloading an App.

I've since had to deal with insurance (both the one I was with and the new one - cos I hate the one I was with now), loan car company, car sales and all the other admin that comes with a total loss claim and getting myself on the road again. Even just ordering a paying in book for my bank because the cheque from the insurance wouldn't scan to deposit took endless calls and a complaint (which did get me some compensation).

I am broken I tell you. Broken.

If I didn't have such a supportive manager who was able to accommodate me I would have had to take quite a lot of time off work.

It shouldn't be this hard.

I worked for a call centre bank just last year. Left after having a baby.

After Covid they weren’t replacing any staff that left so phones lines were rammed constantly. And as usual Covid was blamed. Lot of pish.

And in so many households it’s women doing the majority of the Life Admin tasks that require all these lengthy phone calls.

Couldn't fucking agree more. They are basically managing our expectations for a shit service.

Default excuse for not employing enough staff 😳😳🙀

You need to raise a complaint every time when you get an answer you say I need to raise a complaint about substandard service and I have been on this line for x minutes it’s not acceptable. They then will offer you £ to close the complaint

From a different angle, I had to ring my new bank (first direct) with an issue I was having on the app. Answered straight away and all sorted within 10 mins by a lovely woman. I think they get high ratings for their customer service.

I used to work in a call centre and it almost drove me to suicide. I was paid minimum wage, with timed toilet breaks, 10 seconds between each call (calls which you cannot stop coming through, you have no control over it), penalized by management for going over a break by 30 seconds (everything is timed and logged), penalized for going off script at all. Rude, angry customers who think you are being a deliberately unhelpful script-reading zombie, perhaps not realizing that you will get fired if you go off script and that your calls are listened to. Not allowed to hang up on abusive customers. I needed the money, to pay rent and buy food, so I wasn't looking to get fired 🤷‍♀️

I bank with Halifax and they once answered straight away and addressed me by name. It was such a surprise I questioned how he knew who I was as I thought i must have walked into a scam 😂

I did the same. My ears used to ring by the end of the day and I had to work overtime to actually do the stuff I’d promised people I’d do. I liked my colleagues but it was miserable. People used to dial out to other numbers with long hold times to get out of answering calls.