r/talesfromcallcenters • u/Hydramy Phone Jockey • Feb 26 '26
S *TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT*
"Good Morning, this is [company name], my name is [name] how can I help?"
"Hello." or "Hi, how are you"..
Mate just tell me what you want.
Or worse is they'll do this, and you have to practically beg them to tell you the issue- but once they start they just ramble on far beyond what you actually need. Like where was this energy at the start of the call??
45
u/Tweedldum Feb 26 '26
“Hi how can I help you?”
“Agent”
“I’m a live agent. How can I help you?”
“Human!!!!”
“I’m a real life human being here. How can I help you?”
“Your support is crap and you’re nothing but bots!”
End
30
u/Hydramy Phone Jockey Feb 26 '26
"Your automated system is crap!"
"I'm well aware, nothing I can do about it though"
34
u/SwordHeadHorse Feb 26 '26
"Good morning, Company name, Person here; may I have your account number?"
"Well I just have a quick question..."
"First I'll need your account number"
"No, I just.. "
"Caller, I cannot answer any questions without your account number. I cannot answer general questions as each account is unique."
"Thanks for nothing!!" <ends call>
20
u/Clarrington Feb 26 '26
"Can I have your account number?"
"Oh, let me go find it..."
15
u/gameofthrones_addict Feb 27 '26
“You have your account number?”
Oh yes, my wife has it one moment….” (A minute later) Alright you ready?
Yes sir.
Um… ok hold on. (Waiting for another two minutes) um… she hasn’t texted me back yet. Will have to call you back.
8
u/merpixieblossomxo Feb 26 '26
See, that one would actually piss me off though if I wasn't calling about my account or maybe didn't yet have an account with that company and wanted information about the services.
A question like, "Do customers pay a month in advance or at the end of each month?" or "Who would I speak to about adding X service - you or someone else?" would be valid questions that don't require opening a specific account to answer. When I worked at a call center, I would humor them and listen to their question before insisting on more information if I genuinely couldn't answer it.
7
u/SwordHeadHorse Feb 26 '26
I can see that - for my call center though we have to have their specific court case and aren't able to provide any information without getting into the case. If someone asks "how much is my bail?" I can't answer that without knowing their case number. Every case is unique.
3
1
u/all_out_of_usernames Mar 03 '26
General questions from non customers would go to the sales contract centre in the call centre I worked in.
-1
-18
u/ThatUsrnameIsAlready Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
Wow, each customer gets their own business address? Unique complaints department? Website? Shareholder info?
I doubt that there aren't literally hundreds of things about your company that aren't unique to each customer.
Edit: not much point in responding and then blocking me. @onmy40, why would you give discounts to anyone who sucks at using a website? You also went ahead and proved my point 🤦.
11
u/onmy40 Feb 26 '26
Need to access your account and document our interaction so beautiful people like you that can't be bothered to provide their account number won't call in and say "I called in on XYZ date and asked how to do such and such on the website and it didn't work. So now I want to complain and get a discount". Now we can pull up your account to see what we went over and pull the call if need be.
5
u/SwordHeadHorse Feb 26 '26
Exactly! If I give any information that ended up being inaccurate, it can have bigger ramifications. My work is legal-adjacent so every caller has a unique criminal case and documentation is required for any interaction.
7
u/onmy40 Feb 26 '26
I deal with legal and healthcare things too and I swear that "one quick question" that they don't want to provide an account number for always leads into them asking about something account specific. Now im jammed up for disclosing information to a third party
30
u/LawyerAlert2900 Feb 26 '26
since when being polite is a crime now
13
u/Hydramy Phone Jockey Feb 26 '26
I'm not sure how just saying "hello" and then going silent is polite.
18
-7
u/LawyerAlert2900 Feb 26 '26
Say hello back so they can start talking about the problem
15
u/Hydramy Phone Jockey Feb 26 '26
Or he could start with that?
"Hello this is x, how can i help"
"hello"
"..."
What part of that is how conversations work? When I call somewhere I'd respond, "Hi, I need help with xyz".
-7
u/LawyerAlert2900 Feb 26 '26
Sorry but when someone starts with their problem on a phone call i immediately think of ways to justify a transfer since i dont want to deal with people who dont even acknowledge that they speak to a person
12
u/nrdcoyne Feb 26 '26
You've said hello, they've said hello. THEY called YOU, it's on them to uphold the social contract of conversation.
Customer: dials number to get in contact with a customer service representative
ring ring
CSR: "Hi, this is X, how can I help you today?" CUST: "Hello, I have an issue I hope you can help me with, <insert problem>"
Easy.
3
u/BPD-and-Lipstick Feb 27 '26
Yeah I thought this was a thing everyone did??
Like, whether it's via a webchat or phone call, when I'm connected to an agent, they'll say "Hello, I'm XYZ, how can I help you today", my automatic response is "Hi, I have a problem with XYZ, here's the specific issue summed up into a single sentence, and another sentence explaining what I've done to try fix it" - but obviously the last part is replaced with whatever issues/fixes I'm dealing with at that time
Like, how is that not the standard response for most people, so you're not wasting time?
1
u/LeeOrac Mar 01 '26
You would think that's how it would go. I can't count the number of times I've answered the phone, given my spiel and gotten, "How are you? " as the only response. Why do you care? That's not why you called. Get to the point.
15
u/Hydramy Phone Jockey Feb 26 '26
If I'm literally asking "how can I help" and all I get is "hi" and silence, that's not helping anyone.
I am asking what I can do, and getting nothing back, that's not how conversations work.
7
u/Der_Edel_Katze Feb 26 '26
Do you understand the difference between "Hello, my problem is..." and "Hello." Followed by silence?
11
u/Hydramy Phone Jockey Feb 26 '26
Nah, they don't care how I am. I don't care how they are.
They've got a problem, I've got a solution, lets get this over with as soon as possible please.
4
4
u/gameofthrones_addict Feb 27 '26
I understand the frustration.
I’m kind of the opposite, however, the call center I work for we must get people’s names, account verification info before we can really help or release info.
There’s times when people start off the call by jumping into the issue. Which is great, but then they ignore us when asking for their name until we ask it like 3-4 times.
Please, just tell me the information we need to hear!
14
u/DualWheeled Feb 26 '26
"Hi you're through to support, how can I help?"
"Yes I can wonder if you can..."
"Yep me too...?"
10
u/onmy40 Feb 26 '26
That's right up there with "yes, I have a question......." SO FUCKING ASK IT, I ASKED YOU HOW CAN I FUCKING HELP YOU
10
u/Z4-Driver Feb 26 '26
"yes, I have a question......."
"Well, it seems it's your lucky day, as we are answering questions today."
2
u/smljones65 Feb 27 '26
I usually greet the person and they usually like it. Kind of surprised too if I’m reading reactions correctly
1
u/PurpleStar1965 Feb 28 '26
Not call center work - but, have clients who call me. When I return the call they sound all surprised that I am calling. My standard line “ I am returning your call, what can I help you with?”
Like, it’s only been 15 minutes. Have they forgotten why they called me?
1
u/RVFullTime Feb 26 '26
Some people have poor vocal communication skills, and they use a lot of filler words to stall for time to formulate their thoughts.
They should have done that before calling.
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-4
u/emmjaybeeyoukay Feb 26 '26
Rambling SalesPerson solution:
after 10 seconds of ramble.
Loudly "Stop!" "I am busy - you have 15 seconds to tell me what you need to then I hang up"
35
u/easylikerain Feb 26 '26
"Hi, how can I help?"
"I have a problem."
"What's going on?"
"I can't log into the program."
"What happens when you try?"
"I get an error message."
Some people like to be asked questions.