A customer service representative's lot is not a happy one...

I must confess, Brian's post truly inspired me. Then again, he inspires me almost every day...that's why I label him "The Principal I Wish I Had".

When I read the post that's referenced above, I really sympathized with his sentiments.

Why? Because I was a customer service rep for a major insurance company for two and 1/2 years. I'm not sure if it's proper to give you the name, but if you take a look at the picture on the left, I think you'll figure out who I worked for.

I started with them in the fall of 1998. I already had a jones for insurance (I worked for a claims office and really enjoyed it), so it seemed like a match made in heaven.

However, even though we were "customer service reps", we had to advise our customers of extra services/products that may prove useful to them. We couldn't be passive about it either.

If they bought a new car, we HAD to tell them about our bumper-to-bumper insurance that worked along with the warranty they already had.

We also had to tell them about our towing service, our rental reimbursement service, etc.

We had to mention the website.

We had to mention our homeowners/renters insurance.

We had to counsel them on their coverage, and encourage them to increase their coverage if possible.

We had to tell them about our umbrella policies, our motorcycle policies, and any other product that might serve as useful to them.

Did I mention that we had to do all this in under five minutes? I didn't? Well, we did. It really upset a lot of people that the time constraint was so rigid, and with good reason. I mean, if our responsibility was to serve the customer, how are we supposed to cover every subject in five minutes or less? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Toward the end of my time in the call center, they threw one more monkey wrench into it...we had to ask the customer if we "delighted" them. (This little gem was decided upon by the headquarters, by the way, who didn't deal with customers as a general rule.)

I ask you...is "delight" the first word YOU think of when it comes to insurance? I'll be honest...when I hear the word "delight", I think of fairies and wood sprites frolicking through the woods; butterflies and daffodils surround them with happy goodness. I HATE that word. I HATE it more now that I was forced to say it. Moreover, we were penalized if we didn't use it.

When I used it once, my customer asked me to repeat myself...and then she asked me if I said, "I hope you feel LIED TO today". Oh Lord...I apologized all over the place for that one. Of course, you always have a few pervs around that live for a woman asking them if they were "delighted" today. I always felt so dirty.

OH, and GOD help you if you had a customer that wanted to cancel. Like Brian, I get frustrated too when someone keeps hammering away at you as to why you shouldn't cancel something or other.

But I do know why...at least where I worked, if a customer cancelled, it dug in to our company profits. We were whipped into a frenzy about it and were rewarded if we "saved" a policy. To be honest, sometimes people didn't know all the things our company could do, and it really was in their best interest to stay with our company. But sometimes, the customer was right to go to another company. We always gave them the option to come back if they wanted to, but we had to jump through all the hoops first.

Unfortunately, every good apple that wasn't aggressive and understood why a customer wanted to cancel was spoiled by the bad apple that takes life WAY too seriously. We had contests that pitted "teams" against each other as to who could save the most policies, who could sell the most extra services, etc. It was motivation, but the wrong kind of motivation. I'm not justifying the actions of that AOL customer rep at all, but with all the layoffs going on over there, I can certainly smell the desperation from here.

Mr. Ferrari did do the right thing in recording the call and bringing it to management's attention. It's just a shame that management can't figure out that stress in the workplace (due to contests, potential layoffs, etc) can make people do REALLY STUPID things.

So as a former CSR, I say this...you have a right to say no to a service you don't want. But don't judge all of the CSRs at a company the same way just because one is a twerp from hell. Hang in there, and sooner or later you'll get what you want.

From a former CSR,
Sudiegirl

PS: I hope I delighted you today! :0)