Has anyone ever heard of a phone name?

[TinyLittleLion]

I’ve worked in contact centres for years, took a bit of a break and now I’m in another contact centre.

I’ve spent three days on the phone and the manager approached me and told me I’m going to have to change my name on the phone as they have another Sally and it’s not good for the customer journey because they’ll think they’ve spoken to her before if they speak to me etc

it’s fine and I’m not bothered about using a different name, it is gonna be awkward when I’m sending them an email and they expect one from Sally but get one from Jessica as that’s what my email says but whatever.

I was just wondering is this a new thing? I’ve a common name so always shared it with someone in the office haha and never experienced this before.

Very common. A lot of centres do this, both for the reason you give and to protect employees.

Surely if you use another name on calls they'll have to give you an email address for that name? All sounds likely to create confusion rather than avoid it.

Can you not be known as Sal? Or Sally-Jane? And incorporate your middle name. Seems odd to pretend your called Jessica when you’re not.

I’ve worked in a few call centres in a few different agencies and we’ve never done that. We’ve never used last names to protect identities and privacy (not that it always works but we’ve always just said “sally”)

I understand about the customer journey I suppose but also the emails might be confusing and is it really that bad that two people have the same name that someone would be really confused about it?

I guess if it’s common then fair enough, I’ll just have to try and remember my new identity haha

I've never worked in a contact centre yet somehow knew this was a thing!

This is what I asked because my name is basically like that so her name is “Sally” and my name is actually “Sally-Jane” but apparently that’s too similar so I can’t do that.

They do it a lot. The easiest thing is to pick a name that's somewhat related to your name without being the same as someone else, so instead of Sally, have Sal or Sarah if possible. Or make something from your surname. I think it would be quite hard to remember to use that instead if your actual name without getting muddled up though. Maybe that's just me.

I've worked in seven difference offices (not different employers haha although sometimes) before this job and it’s never been a thing haha that’s why I thought I’d ask - it’s not a big deal but I thought it was a bit weird.

My last name is a man’s name haha so I can’t use that one

I’ve actually gone with my daughters middle name because I’ll remember that but it’s really strange and I think I’m gonna slip up every now and then just because saying you’re own name is natural haha

Yes,I've worked in three calls centres and fad a phone name. At one of them someone's phone name was my real name so I had to change, in another we had numbers Laura 1, Laura 2 etc

I worked in a department where we had to use a fake first name and surname, which also went out on letters. It was to protect us from possible repercussions. I picked a much more glam one than my real name 😂

Strange how things change, I worked in and managed in contact centres for 20 years, we HAD to give our surname so that customers could be sure they were dealing with the same person....however, with the rise of the internet and social media I can see why that wasn't such a good idea.

strangely I only got death threats about car insurance claims not house insurance!

Consuela Bananahammock is that you? I need to raise a complaint!

I’ve worked in or around call centres albeit for a huge company all my adult life and never known anyone to use a different name except for our Indian colleagues who sometimes anglicise their names
id be forever saying my real name id never remember to say the fake one
only thing we’ve ever done is not give surnames. It would be confusing to get an email from you with a different name!

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if they routinely also asked every employee to use a different name - just in case of weirdos who might try to stalk you or doxx you if they feel aggrieved in some way.

Then again, that could get confusing if your fake name happens to be the actual name of somebody who joins the company later!

Plus a lot of companies based in Asia ask their employees to use fake Western-sounding names in an attempt to make it sound like their call centre is in the UK - or maybe they think Brits might struggle with long Asian names that are unfamiliar to them. Very sad imho.

I just don’t get it haha like if a customer said oh I was speaking to you before I’d be like “ that was the other Sally but let’s see how I can help you “ but like if someone said to someone else “ I was speaking to Sally” our full names show on the account so colleagues would know which one they were speaking to - I mean it is what it is but it’s just gonna take some getting used to.

I’ve had that to be fair where the company had a centre in the Philippines and they used different names but they’d use names like “ Angel, Princess, Prince” so you always knew it was someone from that office who emailed them etc.

It just seems a bit of a faff - “I’m going to send you an email but it has a different name” 🤣

I’ve had to do this before and it does feel weird! Also wasn’t allowed to use any variant on my name as the ‘original’ already used those. I was going to go with my sisters name as my mum always gets us confused so we both acknowledge either name (cheers mum) but that was already taken so I took some of the letters from my name and made a new one. Still get people calling me it 20 years later!

Id probably force myself into a mindset that youre playing a work character almost... imagine yourself acting as the role of jessica? Its a fun option anyway lol

I might give her a fake work history/back story for the plot haha I’ll get used to it I suppose, I’m just worried I’ll be like good morning Jessica speaking and later on in the call they’ll be like what’s your name and I’ll say Sally 🤣

I can't see how it's going to enhance the 'customer journey' when they know you as Betsy on the phone but get your emails signed Sally.

If your manager thinks customers will be thrown off by talking to different Sallies, what does s/he think will happen when they find the person they're talking to has two different names? That's going to undermine their trust, isn't it.

It's got to be all or nothing, I reckon.

I said this because I asked what I’m supposed to do with my emails but the response was “yes it’ll lead to
very interesting conversations” like what do you mean? What’s the point of it all then?