“You aren’t supposed to like it. It’s work."
A quote from my step-dad, when I was 24 and constantly complaining about how much I hated my employment situation.
So, if you missed the memo or you’re late to the table, I’m currently employed as a Customer Service Representative. A job I’ve been doing in one iteration or another for almost my entire 25 year career-path. I’ve been a Manager, an Inside Sales Coordinator, a Senior Rep, a Junior Rep, a Retail Sales Manager… you name it, I’ve done it. And, unbelievably, I actually enjoy it.  Most of the time. And I really love the way I’m doing it now. I’m a contractor, for a very large company, and even though I am a contractor I finally feel valued and respected as a Customer Service Representative. Oh, I still have my days when I wonder whether the Garbage Company is hiring Sorters or Dumpers. But even those days I still feel like this might be one of the most challenging positions I’ve ever had and I really look forward to going to work and learning more. And I do – learn more that is – every day. Even when the lesson of the day is how to manage the stress that is created when I have to subdue the overwhelming urge to reach thru the phone and slap the heck out of somebody who appears to be too mentally impaired to be able to come in out of the rain without guidance and an attendant. Because you can be sure that at least 5 times a day I have to resist the urge to ask whether the caller has considered an easier employment path – like maybe fingerpainting? But those 5 callers? They’re part of the job. That I’m being paid to do. By this company who makes it clear that they value my experience and skills that I’m bringing to the table. This company that recognizes that those two things have a value in today’s disposable world.

This company may be crazy.

Because I can tell you that typically doing Call Center Customer Service is one of the hardest jobs in corporate America. Seriously, it is. No, it’s not cleaning toilets or pulling crab traps in the Baltic Sea. No, it’s not digging holes and filling them back in like DOT seems to delight in. But for you there in corporate America, it’s one of the hardest roles you’ll find in your organization chart. Don’t believe me? Job share with one of your CS folks for just 1 hour. You’ll quickly see what I mean. And while you’re doing that job share, keep in mind that the person who usually does that job is typically making a fraction of your salary and is expected to know quickly exactly how each and every part of your company operates in order to be able to answer the myriad of questions that come at them during the course of their average day. Yeah, every function, every process, because they have to be able to explain the failure. To people who are extremely angry about the fact that there was a failure at all.

Yeah.

If you still don’t believe me on this after all that info then you should have a chat with your HR Manager who hires for Customer Service. If they’re telling the truth, they’ll confirm that the Call Center team typically represents some of the lowest paid staff members in any company, and that those positions possibly suffer from the highest turnover in your organization. And I’ve just got to tell you that those two factors are going to drive your customer satisfaction ratings for your product more than just about anything you will do, make, or say. It doesn’t matter how good your product is. You can have the best sales team in the world. But if your CS Team isn’t good, then your customers will not be happy. Not at all. And having managed Customer Service teams before, I know full well the business reality that Customer Service is nothing but a cost center on the balance sheet. Customer Service can do nothing that will ever directly create a profit. But I would suggest that you need to rethink your strategy based on this radical idea. That if those people in customer service weren’t taking those calls, caring about those customers, and fixing those problems, your balance sheet might be a much worse picture indeed. In fact, without them, you might not have a company. Because if you don’t take care of customers, you don’t keep business. That’s why I think it’s important to remember that those people in that group are the frontline defense for your company’s reputation. If they aren’t those aren’t the best faces you can hire, then what sort of impression is your customer getting of you? If you value that position very little, and your hiring decisions reflect that, why should your customer value your product? If that position is regarded as expendable, is your reputation regarded the same way? Those folks in that call center are frequently the only face or voice that your company has presents to your most important asset – the customer. And this is the face that frequently is being paid practically nothing, but is expected to listen to and solve major and minor problems that have been created by people who make 3 or 4 times as much as they do, and is expected to absorb verbal abuse and denigration from people inside and outside your company – because they’re Customer Service and that’s their job.

So that’s why I think I work for crazy people. They give us both a decent wage and respect for a job well done, for a job that corporations rarely recognize. And because of that, they are able to get the best to do the worst. I’m glad I found them. I’m glad they found me. And whenever I have to call a Customer Service team at some company that doesn’t value their people the way my company does, I try to remember that they aren’t me. They aren’t as lucky as I am to work for who I work for. And I try really hard to understand.

And then I calm down.

Sometimes.

Or not. But I still remember that I’m not them. That I’m lucky.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 7:23 am and is filed under Work.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.