Looking for book recommendations on call centers
December 24, 2020 1:02 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for book recommendations on call centers. It's there a Kitchen Confidential out there?
I'm starting to work with a call center team but I have no experience in the trenches and would like to understand more. Blogs and websites that really get into the details of any customer service are welcome too. Thank you!
I'm starting to work with a call center team but I have no experience in the trenches and would like to understand more. Blogs and websites that really get into the details of any customer service are welcome too. Thank you!
I worked inbound tech support for a few years, and I now work for a company that sells software to contact (call) centers. Here is what you probably want to know:
- These jobs are low paid, high stress, and high turnover. As parmanparm says, if you can last the first two weeks you'll probably be alright.
- The company will (or probably won't) train you on how they want you to do customer service. They don't expect you to last very long so they probably won't spend a lot of time/money on you.
- You'll spend all day with pissed off and rude people in your ear. See above, re: high stress and high turnover.
- The time it takes you to complete tasks, such as ending a call and taking another call, is measured in seconds, and all of this is tracked and monitored because those seconds cost the people you work for money.
Just from the description I'd guess that the Working the Phones book that einekleine linked to would be an accurate take on what it's like to work in one of these places.
posted by ralan at 6:17 AM on December 24, 2020
- These jobs are low paid, high stress, and high turnover. As parmanparm says, if you can last the first two weeks you'll probably be alright.
- The company will (or probably won't) train you on how they want you to do customer service. They don't expect you to last very long so they probably won't spend a lot of time/money on you.
- You'll spend all day with pissed off and rude people in your ear. See above, re: high stress and high turnover.
- The time it takes you to complete tasks, such as ending a call and taking another call, is measured in seconds, and all of this is tracked and monitored because those seconds cost the people you work for money.
Just from the description I'd guess that the Working the Phones book that einekleine linked to would be an accurate take on what it's like to work in one of these places.
posted by ralan at 6:17 AM on December 24, 2020
Best answer: Not a book or a blog, but I'd recommend these two metafilter threads and the linked articles. I worked in a call center for 5 years, and while Away and Arise seemed to be taking things above and beyond, my experience wasn't that dissimilar.
posted by little king trashmouth at 7:02 AM on December 24, 2020
posted by little king trashmouth at 7:02 AM on December 24, 2020
Response by poster: Articles are great too, thank you! The context is: I'm coming in from a service design point of view but I believe that this shouldn't just be customer-centric. (Of course will be interviewing the agents and stakeholders but Christmas reading...!)
posted by socky_puppy at 7:12 AM on December 24, 2020
posted by socky_puppy at 7:12 AM on December 24, 2020
Best answer: If you're coming in to a call center outside of the agent experience then you'll want to read Contact Center Management on Fast Forward.
posted by ralan at 7:32 AM on December 24, 2020
posted by ralan at 7:32 AM on December 24, 2020
Carla Freeman's ethnography of call center workers in Barbados is terrific, although by now outdated. If you're interested in non-print sources, I highly recommend Ashim Ahluwalia's quasi-documentary John and Jane, about call center workers in Mumbai. Also interesting: Kate Mulholland's account of employee resistance at an Irish call centre
posted by Morpeth at 8:40 AM on December 24, 2020
posted by Morpeth at 8:40 AM on December 24, 2020
On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily Guendelsberger
Covers McDonald's, Amazon, and a call center. I haven't managed to read it yet but reviews were good.
posted by mikek at 8:53 AM on December 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
Covers McDonald's, Amazon, and a call center. I haven't managed to read it yet but reviews were good.
posted by mikek at 8:53 AM on December 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
Emily is a friend of mine and I was coming here to recommend that one!
posted by melodykramer at 8:54 AM on December 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by melodykramer at 8:54 AM on December 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Your Call is (Not That) Important to Us covers customer service around the world and was an interesting read.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 9:02 AM on December 24, 2020
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 9:02 AM on December 24, 2020
Have done lots of call center work, including a current temp job for Christmas and managing a Helpdesk. From early Internet days, the BOFH, Bastard Operator From Hell, and The Chronicles of George. I worked with a George, and much of the BOFH rings true, esp. the arrogance of Sysadmins and the cluelessness of everyone else.
Will be reading recommended articles.
posted by theora55 at 9:35 AM on December 24, 2020
Will be reading recommended articles.
posted by theora55 at 9:35 AM on December 24, 2020
Sorry to Bother You was a great telemarketing-inspired dark comedy.
posted by oceanjesse at 6:13 PM on December 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by oceanjesse at 6:13 PM on December 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
Wait are you gonna be managing or consulting for management at a call center without ever having been an agent? If yes, I don't have a reading suggestion for you per se. My advice is when you get there ask to do the level1 job for a week or two. You will not have a proper understanding of the job unless you do it for awhile. Failure to properly appreciate the agent perspective (and it is different everywhere, no one text could encompass all the different kinds of call centres, agents, workflows, ticket and phone systems, etc) will mean you will never get buy-in on your decisions from agents. Do the work before you go mucking around trying to make the work go smoother. Really.
My modest credentials for this advice are:
Designed a custom in-house CRM for a company and supported it (and did all the general IT work) for 8 years - did phone and remote desktop support for them and designed new workflows and computerized existing paper-based ones.
After that job I worked at a start-up for 2 years doing NodeJS and JS code, experienced non-coding managers (a nightmare)
Currently I have worked 2 years as a senior analyst (tech support for tech support) at a network services provider, done a lot of work with frontline phone agents. It's not in my job description but I have helped them improve their workflows and tools as well. I followed my own advice in this role and asked to work side by side with the frontline agents for the first 2 weeks. The perspective it provided me with has made my ideas pretty much always get immediate buy-in from the team, contrast that with our official workflow/tools guy, who doesn't understand the agent job and has made a lot of missteps that had to be walked back.
Do the job before you try to improve the job.
Finally, once again let me apologize for this wall of text if I have misunderstood your situation. Your use of the word 'stakeholders' just screamed 'management' to me.
posted by signsofrain at 8:18 PM on December 25, 2020 [3 favorites]
My modest credentials for this advice are:
Designed a custom in-house CRM for a company and supported it (and did all the general IT work) for 8 years - did phone and remote desktop support for them and designed new workflows and computerized existing paper-based ones.
After that job I worked at a start-up for 2 years doing NodeJS and JS code, experienced non-coding managers (a nightmare)
Currently I have worked 2 years as a senior analyst (tech support for tech support) at a network services provider, done a lot of work with frontline phone agents. It's not in my job description but I have helped them improve their workflows and tools as well. I followed my own advice in this role and asked to work side by side with the frontline agents for the first 2 weeks. The perspective it provided me with has made my ideas pretty much always get immediate buy-in from the team, contrast that with our official workflow/tools guy, who doesn't understand the agent job and has made a lot of missteps that had to be walked back.
Do the job before you try to improve the job.
Finally, once again let me apologize for this wall of text if I have misunderstood your situation. Your use of the word 'stakeholders' just screamed 'management' to me.
posted by signsofrain at 8:18 PM on December 25, 2020 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Politely, yes you have misunderstood SignsofRain, but thank you for sharing your insights. Stakeholders in this case refers to all people who interact with a system or service, not just management.
posted by socky_puppy at 5:07 AM on December 28, 2020
posted by socky_puppy at 5:07 AM on December 28, 2020
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posted by einekleine at 4:30 AM on December 24, 2020 [2 favorites]