Go the extra mile and make everyone smile

How many times have we all called a company and been greeted with the most miserable person of the year?

How many times do you call and the operator cannot speak your language or understand you properly?

How many times have you rung a company to ask a question and been greeted with "no - sorry - can't help you" when you KNOW that they have to know the answer?

In my experience - too many times have I had the 'pleasure' of these calls - not the operators fault though - I blame it on the company they work for - and the trainers.

In 2006 all that I hear and see are companies who want the quick and easy way out of a phone call:

Call centres flashing up how many people are waiting to talk
Phones showing how many calls are waiting on that line
Telesales operators being timed on their calls, and getting warnings about being on the phone too long

Everything that makes the caretaker of your phone call try and get rid of you as quickly as possible. But all that they end up getting rid of is ultimately a customer!

Cheap call centres are all good and well, but at what cost to your company in the long run? Saves you pennies now costs you pounds later when you find that you have lost most of your clients to the few companies out there who care. Sooner or later, the consumer realises that if you buy cheap you pay twice. The large corporate should sit up and take notice.

When dealing with overseas call centres, it is not good enough simply making sure that the employee knows our language they have to know our weather our culture our accents! They are not the only ones with different dialects especially in the UK. When trying to get a phone number, it is simply unacceptable to have to repeat the town spelling SEVEN times as I did recently, and I have an accent that unfortunately has been compared to that of the Queen several times!

Just because a call centre is only 20 staff, does not mean that it cannot cope with National calls. Many smaller companies across the UK are now bouncing back, and you find that multinational companies are realising that the cost savings compared to the Customer Service loss is non comparable.

Many of these little pods simply link up with fantastic technology to other similar size call centres and share the calls.

Online databases ensure that all partners are singing from the same hymn sheet - no-one realises when you pick up the call that they are not talking to the company themselves but to a partner.

Watch out you big impersonal call centres little ones are ready to take over the world!