Being made to cover call centre at work.

[RedIvy18]

I'm employed in a senior client based role which has peaks and troughs (sometimes we are crazy busy but there may be the odd day where work is less.) Over the past number of months I have been asked to cover work on our call centre on ad hoc days. There is a reason why I didnt apply to work in a call centre role, and while I respect the work that our CC do it has nothing to do with my role at all. I have worked hard to get this role including gaining postgraduate qualifications, I perform well and enjoy it most of the time.

I have encountered abusive customers on the CC which has upset me and have asked not to be put on the CC but my employers attitude is 'don't take it so personally'. AIBU or are they?

I would absolutely hate having to do CC work. It's not beneath me, it's just a job I have absolutely no interest in & don't like talking on phones much. However give me a project to get stuck into and I'll have it singing and whistling in no time. It's not "entitled" to know your own strengths and want to work with them. I left a job years ago as they wanted me to start to process shipping files to help out an area rather than hire someone to do the job as a proper backup solution. The job bored me silly & demotivated me. I could see what was happening was that they were waiting for me to be competent in the role and it would have been more regular work. I requested not to do the role, they kept making noise about sorting out the situation but did nothing. I got another job and left. You don't have to do a job just because it suits the company

I used to work in a company where everybody, from low level employee to high level Manager had to spend a week working the call center lines. There is no better way to learn about your business needs then talking directly with the customer. Also skills like resilience, conflict resolution, etc. are certainly important for every part of business. It also seems that your manager sees being available for customer requests as more urgent than other work that you do.
(and honestly it often is).

Have you ever worked in a customer facing role OP?

If you are smart you take every feedback you get from customers and transform it into business proposals. That way you show initiative and also show that you don't see other work as beneath you.

Every time you return from a stint in the CC, come up with a written business proposal/your observations/useful feedback for discussion. They’ll soon get fed up with your overeagerness and stop sending you there.

We have the same at our company now and again. The CC gets really busy and it’s all hands on deck. I hate it as I’m not trained to do it but you have to do what’s required I guess

I imagine the CC has a high level of staff turnover and are struggling to cope with the volume of calls.At our place the management team never understand the impact of new systems and procedures upon the CC.The service is at breaking point.Its only temporary though and you’ll soon be back in your normal job role.Needs of the business covers a multitude of sins.

Can you remind people that all calls are recorded and if they continue to be abusive you will terminate the conversation and do it?

If it’s anything like my work, most people sit on the side of being just abusive enough to be annoying but not enough to be cut off

Lots of sarcasm “thanks SO much for not helping, I need your name so I can make it clear on the Google review about how incompetent you are” (translation you asked me for an appointment and I don’t have one for 3 days therefore I am useless)
Stuff about how useless/incompetent you are/the company is/
Speaking to you as if you are thick
Sighing/huffing at everything you say
being pissed off if you ask them to repeat something despite them sounding like they’re on a Nokia stood under a railway bridge
Demanding management for a simple query
Refusing to speak to me because I’m female and they need a man to deal with their query
Ringing to ask something then when given the answer saying “are you sure?’

I could go on!

Ah okay fair enough!
In one of my old workplaces, it was always women who had to cover the reception/ phones despite men being available too.

I’ve had to do this before and ended up enjoying it! I made sure I was properly trained first though. It was nice to speak to customers and be thanked for helping them. It was an ‘easy’ break from my day-to-day job. I hardly got any difficult calls, maybe because I had the knowledge to help?

I work for a Building Society so shouldn’t be too different to bank customers. Why are they being abusive? I certainly wouldn’t let them upset you. Can’t you terminate calls - we’re allowed to terminate if they’re being abusive/sweary.