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 Feature Article: Maintaining Superior Service |
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Complaint Is a Gift Complaints within Complaint Call Centers A British newspaper, the Independent, recently ran a story about the abuse that call center employees take—and not just from upset customers. Many call center employees, hired as young as 17, work under conditions that reporter Hester Lacey called, "Sweatshop Slaves of the Virtual Age." Information for this article was taken from a special line set up to take complaints from call center employees. Here are some of the working conditions they reported: •
Long shifts, as much as 12 hours per day. The UK has dominated call centers in Europe for the last ten years. Hester Lacey reports that that situation is rapidly changing. Growth is not happening in the call center industry in the UK, while it is booming in France and Germany. Undoubtedly the English language advantage that the UK market has is being lost. Obviously,
while not every call center in the UK operates under
those conditions, it seems reasonable to ask how people
working under the described conditions can be motivated
to help customers who call these lines. The biggest
problem seems to be in the small call centers that are
able to begin operation with a minimum of cash. And,
these are the ones that seem to be failing in high
numbers. Undoubtedly, these are also the ones who are
failing to create a work environment where staff look
forward to talking with customers. Unfortunately, a few
call centers operated poorly can taint the impression of
all other call centers. Janelle
Barlow, Coauthor
Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow |
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