CSR = Customer Service Representative

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What a CSR does?

That is an excellent question. To put it in my own words. A CSR handles customer calls about their concerns and needs. Example: if you work handling things about Medicare. You have to answer questions about it, like how enroll, if eligible, can make changes, can drop it, enrolling customer, fixing issues, etc. Just to keep it simple. More simple definition will be: to attend the customers needs and meet their expectation.

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First weeks of training is very easy. When my group of new hires went LIVE, from 128, only 50 survived, and here's why:

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On the first day. 30 people already left voluntary, because they couldn't handle the pressure. Handling calls is not easy as it sounds, specially if you are new in this. I will explain this further. On the first day, people were angry, most were crying, and there were few even vomiting. I even wanted to quit so badly, but some colleagues were cheering me up, saying at least wait for the paycheck, then you decide. To be sincere, I still want to quit, because some supervisors during day time were ignoring me, and the customers on hold as you imagine are not happy listening to an annoying song. Specially they're being attended by a new hire. When they do help, the customer always hangs up. I was even told, I was disturbing because the customer is trusting their problems with me. 

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Do you remember internet bullying? Telephone bullying is ten times worst. I think the company is crazy, because only training me for 18 days when usually training is 30-31 days, at least in department/company I'm in. Let's say that you only have 18 days to learn how to be fluent in 3 languages. So imagine yourself learning 3 lenguages you never had heard in your life, and then in 18 days they just throw you to that country. Is not an easy task is it? I was forced to discover on my own, and if I actually did a lot of incorrect things. The fault would be the company, and not mines, because they didn't show me how it's done. They gave me a training, but when I went live everything that they taught me were not related to the calls I was receiving. I truly mean nothing, only two things from a thousand. 

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I currently explained why the job is not easy as it sounds. One example was it's like learning three new languages in just eighteen days. Here are more examples. I received calls from people screaming at me for no reason, I had received racist calls, I been called useless, been cursed at, and I been called disturbing. You don't know how many customers asked for a supervisor (only 11), because I was new or I wasn't born in the United States because of my accent. Other colleagues had worst calls also, most are escolated calls. I do admit, I had customers who were patience, and very understanding, which I'm grateful. Most of the calls made me realise they're a lot of rude people, who think are superior than others, who believe when they tell me their problems, the solution will magically appear in my screen like a genie. 

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To be sincere, I really wish the customer was right. That the program I use it was easy as facebook, Adobe Collection Suit, Java, Visual Basic, HTML, blogger, Wordpress, Microsoft Programs, etc. In reality it's really not, specially if it freezes during the calls. (Reason why I put you on holds) I get upset, because I really want to help the customer. I will say this, wish I was allowed to call the customer back if it wasn't against the rules, only time I can call back is when I open a work flow which means a case, and when the supervisor gives me permission to call them back. I'll be sincere, I actually wrote down a list of questions for my supervisors, and it's still pending. How can I do a good job if my questions never gets a chance to be answered? On Monday, it may be possible I get fired, because I'm still hanging in the air of doubts. I'm not being negative, just realistic, anyone can loose their job at anytime, unless they are their own boss. 

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Next time when you call a CSR, please be friendly, so the situation can be solved faster. You can even ask the CSR to put you on a silent hold so you can watch TV or cook while waiting. You can tell jokes or socialise with the CSR, because I'll tell you this; Trust me, CSR does worry about you, and also gets furious when the manager doesn't help them with tough situation, specially escalated calls. Also if you are in a hurry, you can ask for a manager call back, make sure to leave your availability so they call when you are available. 

Thank you for taking your time reading this. Have a lovely day.

Love: Sharly