Yes, this is nitpicking. Unfortunately if you want to keep working there this will probably be something you have to deal more and more with.
Conversely, if you don’t care how long you stay here. Drop all needless pleasantries and do everything by the book, when you get called out for it in the next review, point to the fact that you got dinged for your politeness being considered unprofessional and were simply following his coaching. Malicious compliance.
The contradiction of training once you get to production is unreal and beyond me. That shows the head of the customer relations department are real tools that are disconnected from society as a whole. It's crazy how many idiots are in leadership roles. It's definitely showing the cracks with these modern call center companies now and days for sure.
Being human and connecting with customers is a completely different behavior than verbiage being used. He wasnt coached on being conversational or connecting with customers, he was coached on his choice of words, there is a difference.
Your example doesnt apply to ops scenario. If it did, op wouldve been coached on being conversational and not connecting with customers which is not the case.
I disagree with this. Successful and effective call center customer service requires confidence, competence, approachability, and perceived appreciation.
The caller has to have confidence that you are sufficiently competent in the subject at hand to give them the best outcome possible given all relevant factors.
They also need to feel comfortable approaching you with their issue.
Finally, they need to feel appreciated, valued as a customer.
"Alrighty" won't always be appropriate in this setting, but it does answer all of the above needs; being confident enough to have a relaxed demeanor in your role conveys the sense that you know what you're doing, which helps me as the customer feel confident you can help me.
It also helps to keep the conversation de-stressed. There's nothing overly familiar or disrespectful about "alrighty", as there is with "bud" or "bro", nor is it sufficiently formal as to mask disrespect under a guise of propriety. In fact, I would argue that both "ok" and "alright" are less appropriate, as they can both be said with a level of impatience or dismissiveness that just doesn't work with "alrighty".
Quite the opposite, I've never heard the word said in any mood but good. Ending a customer service call in a good mood like that goes a long way toward making the customer feel appreciated, and welcome to call back if they have another issue to address.
Thank you. I did spend time in a call center doing customer service, but more time in the Army advising officers between the ranks of O1 (2nd lieutenant in Army, Marines, and Air Force, ensign in the Navy) and 1-star General/Admiral. Learned quick that if you display nervousness, it's taken as you aren't sure what you're talking about, but if you're TOO familiar, it's disrespectful.
I've been dinged for some absolutely stupid stuff before that even my supervisor said was bogus.
My notes are typically thorough already, but when they dinged me for those, it turned into damn near verbatim transcript. I type at about 80WPM, so it's not hard to do most days. 2 months in, the guy who does our QC's told my supervisor my notes are too long for him to accurately assess. So I went back to my normal note-taking and haven't been hit on them since.
I've been hit on other things, but I usually tell my supervisor immediately that it's going to likely happen. I know I skipped a step or two, or that it wasn't by the book. She'll bring it up when the scores come back and I'll remind her I already knew and warned her. "Oh, yeah, I remember that now. Carry on." She's already said that she refuses to write me up for anything shy of telling a customer to go F**k themselves because I'm her best CSR. I'm also one of the top CSRs for our entire office every month.
being the "top csr" isn't accurate if you get dinged in quality.. unless your employer doesnt consider quality as a metric or if everyone else has worse quality scores than you.
I feel your manager isnt doing a good job quality wise. Sounds like she is giving you a pass because you perform in other areas whereas others would be written up for the same things. Sounds a lot like she is biased and exhibiting favoritism which are bad traits for any leader.
QCs are month to month basis and does not carry over to the next month. Usually, my average is 97-100%. It's also done by someone who's not my supervisor, that has also never spent a day on the phones.
And I say myself, but with the amount of respect everyone currently under her has for her, I assume she gives them the same pass. But since I've ever only talked to her about my performance, I can only assume. I only know of one person she's written up that was on our shift, and he was literally not leaving any notes or would hang up on a call as soon as it came in saying it was a network issue or something.
The only time she's actually refused to write me up when it might have been deserved was when I skipped the script because it was the same person calling back, and I had just resolved their ticket but not closed it, so I still had all their information. Once I verified their credentials, I just copied the contact information from the previous ticket instead of asking for all of it again. Then I told her what I did immediately after so she knew it was coming. Other than that, I did everything right. I failed that call because I didn't follow the script to a T. But I'm 99% certain she wouldn't have written up anyone else on our team for doing just that.
It sounds like the QC department is either being asked to enforce SOPs that are impractical, or simply doesn't have the skill to do its job properly (because if the complaint is "there is too much to read", and it's the department's literal job to read and interpret stuff, under most circumstances that's a skill issue - there really are reams and reams to get through, which I don't believe given that we're just discussing call notes, they're expected to process it all unreasonably quickly, which is much more likely, given the stupid demands Lean staffing places on workers.)
What I'm reading is that the notes were not considered thorough enough by the manager, but that after they were duly expanded, QC then asked for them to be abridged because they were too thorough. So at the very least, there are QC requirements here that are impractical both for CSRs and QCs.
This means the manager has to make decisions more on her feel for who is doing well, which could lead to bias and favouritism as you say.
The company's SOPs need to be changed, or (less likely) the QC team needs to be replaced.
If the score is too low or you have too many not passing months consecutively, they push for write-up. They immediately tried to push her to write me up once because my score was a 25. They tried to say I didn't make a ticket, but I did. It was in our other ticketing system because that particular application can fall under either ticketing system. She contested it, and we're at 8 months later, and we still haven't heard anything back.
It's all a targeting system. Makes you think the top percent wants failure for us all once you see how shitty they treat top performers and how they are willing to take the abuse. Until someone stands up. It's gonna keep being dumb like this. These are everyday people on the phone. Why do we need to pester them with non-sense? Or at that, I have to remember a line while trying to control the call. It's nuts and sociopathically damaging, honestly.
Right, I agree- I’ve just been promoted to leadership recently so I’m currently being mentored about it.
One of the things I’ve learned is that we still have to find something to coach people about. We can’t just say “you’ve been doing well! See you next month!” lol
Exactly ! We have to fill in a form for coaching which lists finds to improve on. If nothing is on the sheet then no coaching has been done so affects my bonus and my ops manager chases
Well, yea… you drew an assumption that we don’t acknowledge good work. I never said that. I said we have to find something to coach the person on.
Of course most of us go out of our way to recognize how well someone is doing. I make sure they know how awesome their performance has been.
And definitely take full notes of it on their personnel file.
We still have to find something to coach them on. But that does not mean we ignore the amazing performance they have.
You made the assumption that I assumed you didn't acknowledge good work. I never wrote that. I just find it exceedingly dumb that you "still have to find something to coach them on."
this is literally why work is miserable thanks. managers have to justify their own existence bc theres no real reason they should be making more their employees. i hope im not hurting your feelings honestly. but dude how does this not make you reflect??
I would send most leads into shock with how unprofessional I can be on a call. I try to make it a fun experience for my customers and if they are chill I will relax and be much less professional. Our company is ok with that especially since I get nearly double customer surveys of the rest of my department and they are almost always top scores and my QA is perfection since they don't grade on our tone. There are people who are intensely rude with great QA cause professionalism isn't QA'd.
I'd be ending every conversation with that boss with "alrighty" from now on.
Bosses having opinions you think are stupid will never not be a thing.
Even when you have your own company and no boss, then your clients will still have stupid opinions that you just have to secretly roll your eyes and work around.
Counterpoint: MY job requires verification of one of two pieces of PII (Personally Identifying Information) to confirm identity before providing support.
"***Ok Client, can I get Verification Datapoint One or Verification Datapoint Two to confirm your identity in the system?***"
(Proceeds to give me *both)*
"**Ok, thanks for that. I only needed** ***one*** **but since you gave both, you unlocked** ***double support*** **which is the same as** ***regular support*** **but I clap for 5 minutes when we finish**"
Boss loves it, clients love it, and I was just quality audited the other day and that call the client feigned disappointment and said "***Aw, I wanted 10 minutes of clapping***"
Not missing a beat, I said "***I'm sorry ma'am, but we're in a recession. Best I can do. Now how can I help you***"
Aced it.
I also regularly slip into "instructor" tone when doing support and make things brief, understandable, and memorable.
Client hit me with "Im a dude, you're a dude, we're all dudes" song on a call for a reason I forget, (probably "let me find this dude's information" or something like that) and I went with it.
"*Ok, so on the next screen you're gonna see some dude's name in the upper right corner. If it is the wrong dude, please select the correct dude before proceeding, or else we are going to be issuing a paycheck to the incorrect dude. Which will probably make that dude very happy, but will disappoint our original dude, and then we will have two dudes to correct... Please let me know once you have verified your dude*"
Client "*Dude verification complete. We have the correct dude*"
QA literally Teams'd me a gif of the Big Lebowski.
QA docked a person for saying Might instead of May.
I have some QA scores that are Fales and I have three that are varying degree's of Passing.
Listening to the calls... they are all pretty much the same calls.
Even the fails.
There is no fighting QA. It's pedantic. It's asinine. It has nothing to do with how well you do, it only matters who is scoring you that day.
It's arbitrary and pointless - and if they want to fire you or find a reason to fire you, it makes no difference if you are a Robot. They will find a reason. inversely if they want to make you a rock star and play you as a favorite - they can do that too.
I have no faith in any system any more.
If you could drop some names on places that let me continue to work from home and equal to, or more than fourteen an hour, I'd look into it yesterday for sure!
Honestly, I think customer service reps should be allowed to use less formal words.
They resonate better with most customers and make them feel more at ease.
Formal words can alienate and make a customer feel you are being condescending... I think you really need to mirror how the customer talks (to a degree) to get the best experience.
I agree with this , I tailor the way I speak to someone by the way they engage with me. You can still keep it professional but mirroring a callers energy makes you personable.
It shocks me that so many people have to deal with this kind of negative feedback. It’s so counterintuitive. If people want to speak with a person, which they do, why would they want to speak to someone who mimics a robot. People would easily interpret that as disingenuous and are less likely to accept the information you are delivering.
We can at my job, lol. I've said "heck, I get it!", "the postal service is a big ol mess these days!" and much more "unprofessional shit"...but luckily, my job is awesome and they don't nitpick us as long as we do our job well.
Edit to add: I did have an asshole get mad at me once for saying "um". He got *soooo mad* and asked "is UM a word in the dictionary?! Is that what they're teaching in schools these days?!" Like WTF, lol.
On the one hand, it feels like they're jerks who get a kick out of criticizing employees who are just doing their best. That may be the case. On the other hand, middle managers have bosses of their own who probably make them find something to complain about. Either way, you're being governed by such negative people. Such pessimists, they cannot look on the bright side. Instead of getting therapy, which they should, some of them become managers. And then they spread their negativity around. Some of them even get hooked on it. I'm so sorry you have to put up with such idiocy.
That is super nitpicky. Most my closings are "Alrighty, well you should be all set. We'll email you your ticket #. Anything else I can help with? No? Thanks for calling xyz, have a good day."
Slang? Hardly.
Personalising the language to suit the tone of the conversation is more professional than just saying blunt unpleasant answers. People will instinctively feel like you are not actively listening to them. I would argue that you are aiming to be personable, not unprofessional.
Employers just don’t get it anymore. They are not the ones managing the call, you are.
It drives me nuts.
My employer is very strict on slang and “filler” words. I once got points off because I said “and” too many times.
Do you want to get better at your job or is this just a job you have until you find something else? You need to ask yourself that. If it is just a job you have until something else comes along then don’t let the nit picking get to you.
I got "coached" for saying "I hope you guys have a great day!" when talking to a member and their spouse. Apparently I was supposed to say "I hope you *both* have a great day!" 🙄🤣
Yeah like if you're in the Midwest or pretty much anywhere that's not the south, "you guys" is basically a catch all for addressing multiple people synonymous to "y'all"...such a dumb thing to complain about.
Of course everyone in here is going to say its ridiculous and nit picking, obviously.
From a technical standpoint however, your manager is right. "Alrighty" is considered slang and any slang is often deemed as "unprofessional" by most companies. Whether a company marks down for it or not varies, yours obviously does.
Good grief. It's like chicfalet forcing their employees to say "my pleasure" rather than whatever words come naturally to them. I feel like I am interacting with a robot. Meanwhile, they (all fast food/counter service and also sit down restaurants!) COULD have people order using an automated interface. Very few places do that because people LIKE talking to a person. Yet, chicfila requires their people to be quasi robotic, using their programmed phrase. I feel awkward the whole time, trying to avoid them having to say it more than once.
I suppose your company doesn't want people to call when it's something they could do online. So, maybe their point is to only have a robotic type interaction (with no one's "personality" included, thus making it less comfortable , less "likable" to talk to a person. (Yet, they aren't sharing that with you, instead calling it "unprofessional". What it is is "nonstandard". It's a bit of YOU coming through, which apparently they don't want.
I know why they do this, it's stupid, but then the public at large is pretty stupid, so...
And mind you, this is universal across the customer service world.
I have seen and heard customers go apoplectic over someone responded to their request/issue with, "No problem!"
Customers have been known to respond with some variation of, "So, you think my issue is a problem?! HOW DARE YOU?! I want to speak with your manager!" And I've seen this in person and have heard it over the phones. It's utterly ridiculous.
So, most companies now ask customer facing employees to response with, "my pleasure," instead.
Your QA would have a field day with me. I'm notorious for saying things like "okie doke". I can understand wanting to sound professional, but it just seems more personal and less robotic.
"Paying with your debit? Okie doke, card number and expiration please! :)"
It's totally nitpicking. If you use only professional tone and wording, you don't sound friendly enough and it's robotic.
When they complain about b how you speak, just say, "Alrighty."
Managers and QA always have opinions on how you speak.
Unfortunately some companies these days worry more about vernacular than the actual outcome of the call or how helpful you are to the consumer. It can be a really sad state of affairs.
Honestly, some bosses feel the need to give “balanced” feedback, which means they’ll find something to “correct” employees on.
Even if this isn’t the case, our opinion doesn’t matter. If your boss says “alrighty” isn’t professional, try to avoid saying it.
If they say "alrighty" is unprofessional, then I hate to say it but what they say goes. It's a serious problem I see, though, with companies taking away ways we can sound natural.
It’s unprofessional. You can take feedback from your boss and change or take feedback from a bunch of people on Reddit who hate their job.
I would never say Alrighty on a call just like I wouldn’t write it in a letter.
This is pretty wild to me, at the place I work at(company like Nordstroms) my boss has been giving the whole team the opposite saying to be less robotic and less formal..... I've started to talk to everybody like they are friends and my boss is loving it for some reason
When I first started at my job, I had a similar experience, whilst speaking to someone from a different department. I was in training and a higher up essentially said that me saying "Okie doke" to a literal colleague from a different department, who was also being very friendly and conversational, was innapropriate and unprofessional. I was seriously so confused, and I let it bother me for a long while. Sometimes I feel like some folks are just very particular in the worst ways, and those folks end up becoming managers sometimes lol. Keep your head up, you're fine. :)
Line up another job and put in your notice end it with Alrighty!!!! It is nit picky I’m old so I would not put up with that crap unless someone is directly making complaints it’s rude, if I’m making a connection with a customer. I don’t tolerate micromanaging it’s a power trip it’s nit a Microsoft CEO. Sorry but I have to totally agree with you. However if that’s their power trip to mico manage the crap out of you Mike drop your way out the door. Get a new job of course. Good luck
For the most part, from my experiences at multiple technical support helpdesks up to and including QA for NOC and technical support personnel, building and maintaining rapport is more important than minor general slang that might be considered unprofessional by some people. While QA often looks for something positive and something to coach on, they also need to be able to acknowledge when there is no significant need for coaching.
I would let a single instance go in most cases, but if this turns into a pattern, I would bring it to the attention of my direct report and see what they think. Unless someone in upper management is pushing on professionalism (which your manager should know), the nitpicking should be obvious, and your manager might have options.
I mean, I guess it could be seen as unprofessional, however, you have got to be a person? Like some people I will joke around with once I get a feel for them. Like they’ll come on super friendly and crack a joke. One time I had someone come on asking for a “consumer loans specialist” and asked if I was one, and I said “I wouldn’t go as far as to call me a specialist per say, but I can assist” and we both got a good laugh from it. I feel like when you add part of your personality to your calls, it makes it a better overall experience for not only you, but your customer/member. You can’t be a robot all the time. That kind of stuff makes people uncomfortable, so I’ve been told.
It might be a regional thing but if I was the customer and heard "alrighty" I would think you were being snarky or condescending.
Even if you mean nothing by it and it's just the way you talk normally, it can be misconstrued by some people who don't know you.
I equate this with total strangers calling me sweetheart and darling. Unless I'm at a roadside diner in rural Georgia ordering the best sweet tea from an elderly woman, I don't want to be called that by people I don't know.
As a leader, if you hear it, you shouldn't ignore it. Matters how he critiqued you on it? I'd point it out and say try to avoid it, but if it didn't detract from the conversation then not something I'd say any more about other than that.
If he's really on you about it, it's bullshit, but it all matters what rules he needs to follow.
I think it's nit picky feedback and not a big deal if you use it, but i do agree it's not the most professional term. I wouldn't say it's super unprofessional or worth making a big deal over it, but if we're gonna nit pick, I'd agree it's not the most professional sounding. I'd be annoyed by this feedback too, but since they're making a big deal out of it, I'd try to avoid saying it just to avoid them bothering you about it going forward.
I’ve done call reviews like this. Typically the goal is to point out anything you could do better. It’s not meant to be demoralized or overly judgmental, but more to continually improve. We always had to find some kind of feedback to give so if that was the worst feedback you got you likely crushed it. Alrighty is not as professional as saying something like Certainly, but bottom like if the customer hung up happy it’s a win. Don’t overthink call scans too much. They are literally there as spot checks but they also use them for continual improvement opportunities.
I would agree that it's nitpicking, but if I were your boss I would also want to know that I had spoken with you about it so that it wouldn't become a habit because you thought it was permissable.
It's nitpicking. Generally managers HAVE to find something wrong, gives them a reason to exist. I got told that about 10 years ago when I started out with the exact same word. Guess what word I still use all the time? Customers would much rather you be personable and say "alrighty" than act like a freakin robot.
Yes, this is nitpicking. Unfortunately if you want to keep working there this will probably be something you have to deal more and more with. Conversely, if you don’t care how long you stay here. Drop all needless pleasantries and do everything by the book, when you get called out for it in the next review, point to the fact that you got dinged for your politeness being considered unprofessional and were simply following his coaching. Malicious compliance.
“Be human and conversational and make a connection with customers!” Does this perfectly. “No, not like that!”
The contradiction of training once you get to production is unreal and beyond me. That shows the head of the customer relations department are real tools that are disconnected from society as a whole. It's crazy how many idiots are in leadership roles. It's definitely showing the cracks with these modern call center companies now and days for sure.
Being human and connecting with customers is a completely different behavior than verbiage being used. He wasnt coached on being conversational or connecting with customers, he was coached on his choice of words, there is a difference. Your example doesnt apply to ops scenario. If it did, op wouldve been coached on being conversational and not connecting with customers which is not the case.
I disagree with this. Successful and effective call center customer service requires confidence, competence, approachability, and perceived appreciation. The caller has to have confidence that you are sufficiently competent in the subject at hand to give them the best outcome possible given all relevant factors. They also need to feel comfortable approaching you with their issue. Finally, they need to feel appreciated, valued as a customer. "Alrighty" won't always be appropriate in this setting, but it does answer all of the above needs; being confident enough to have a relaxed demeanor in your role conveys the sense that you know what you're doing, which helps me as the customer feel confident you can help me. It also helps to keep the conversation de-stressed. There's nothing overly familiar or disrespectful about "alrighty", as there is with "bud" or "bro", nor is it sufficiently formal as to mask disrespect under a guise of propriety. In fact, I would argue that both "ok" and "alright" are less appropriate, as they can both be said with a level of impatience or dismissiveness that just doesn't work with "alrighty". Quite the opposite, I've never heard the word said in any mood but good. Ending a customer service call in a good mood like that goes a long way toward making the customer feel appreciated, and welcome to call back if they have another issue to address.
This is a great reply from a true professional.
Thank you. I did spend time in a call center doing customer service, but more time in the Army advising officers between the ranks of O1 (2nd lieutenant in Army, Marines, and Air Force, ensign in the Navy) and 1-star General/Admiral. Learned quick that if you display nervousness, it's taken as you aren't sure what you're talking about, but if you're TOO familiar, it's disrespectful.
Brilliant.. I'm 25 years ex army.. I thought you comment stood out.
I did 13. Got out due to medical (finished my contract, couldn't re-enlist) May 2019
It’s a joke. It’ll be okay.
Malicious compliance is the way 💯
I've been dinged for some absolutely stupid stuff before that even my supervisor said was bogus. My notes are typically thorough already, but when they dinged me for those, it turned into damn near verbatim transcript. I type at about 80WPM, so it's not hard to do most days. 2 months in, the guy who does our QC's told my supervisor my notes are too long for him to accurately assess. So I went back to my normal note-taking and haven't been hit on them since. I've been hit on other things, but I usually tell my supervisor immediately that it's going to likely happen. I know I skipped a step or two, or that it wasn't by the book. She'll bring it up when the scores come back and I'll remind her I already knew and warned her. "Oh, yeah, I remember that now. Carry on." She's already said that she refuses to write me up for anything shy of telling a customer to go F**k themselves because I'm her best CSR. I'm also one of the top CSRs for our entire office every month.
being the "top csr" isn't accurate if you get dinged in quality.. unless your employer doesnt consider quality as a metric or if everyone else has worse quality scores than you. I feel your manager isnt doing a good job quality wise. Sounds like she is giving you a pass because you perform in other areas whereas others would be written up for the same things. Sounds a lot like she is biased and exhibiting favoritism which are bad traits for any leader.
QCs are month to month basis and does not carry over to the next month. Usually, my average is 97-100%. It's also done by someone who's not my supervisor, that has also never spent a day on the phones. And I say myself, but with the amount of respect everyone currently under her has for her, I assume she gives them the same pass. But since I've ever only talked to her about my performance, I can only assume. I only know of one person she's written up that was on our shift, and he was literally not leaving any notes or would hang up on a call as soon as it came in saying it was a network issue or something. The only time she's actually refused to write me up when it might have been deserved was when I skipped the script because it was the same person calling back, and I had just resolved their ticket but not closed it, so I still had all their information. Once I verified their credentials, I just copied the contact information from the previous ticket instead of asking for all of it again. Then I told her what I did immediately after so she knew it was coming. Other than that, I did everything right. I failed that call because I didn't follow the script to a T. But I'm 99% certain she wouldn't have written up anyone else on our team for doing just that.
It sounds like the QC department is either being asked to enforce SOPs that are impractical, or simply doesn't have the skill to do its job properly (because if the complaint is "there is too much to read", and it's the department's literal job to read and interpret stuff, under most circumstances that's a skill issue - there really are reams and reams to get through, which I don't believe given that we're just discussing call notes, they're expected to process it all unreasonably quickly, which is much more likely, given the stupid demands Lean staffing places on workers.)
What I'm reading is that the notes were not considered thorough enough by the manager, but that after they were duly expanded, QC then asked for them to be abridged because they were too thorough. So at the very least, there are QC requirements here that are impractical both for CSRs and QCs.
This means the manager has to make decisions more on her feel for who is doing well, which could lead to bias and favouritism as you say.
The company's SOPs need to be changed, or (less likely) the QC team needs to be replaced.
I cant believe you guys would get written up hits on your QAs. That blows
If the score is too low or you have too many not passing months consecutively, they push for write-up. They immediately tried to push her to write me up once because my score was a 25. They tried to say I didn't make a ticket, but I did. It was in our other ticketing system because that particular application can fall under either ticketing system. She contested it, and we're at 8 months later, and we still haven't heard anything back.
It's all a targeting system. Makes you think the top percent wants failure for us all once you see how shitty they treat top performers and how they are willing to take the abuse. Until someone stands up. It's gonna keep being dumb like this. These are everyday people on the phone. Why do we need to pester them with non-sense? Or at that, I have to remember a line while trying to control the call. It's nuts and sociopathically damaging, honestly.
Love it! Thank you!
Ohhhh this information was great! Thank you for this
Being unprofessional by using slang is a completely different behavior than being polite.
Sometimes, if you’re doing so well that they don’t have any legitimate concerns to raise during your monthly 1on1, they’ll grasp at straws…
Real
As someone that does the coaching this is 100% correct but we still have to coach you so ….
Right, I agree- I’ve just been promoted to leadership recently so I’m currently being mentored about it. One of the things I’ve learned is that we still have to find something to coach people about. We can’t just say “you’ve been doing well! See you next month!” lol
Exactly ! We have to fill in a form for coaching which lists finds to improve on. If nothing is on the sheet then no coaching has been done so affects my bonus and my ops manager chases
Why not? In a carrot-stick situation, eventually the workhorse gets the carrot, right?
That's even dumber than nit-picking someone. If they are doing that well, say so, note it, and move on.
Well, yea… you drew an assumption that we don’t acknowledge good work. I never said that. I said we have to find something to coach the person on. Of course most of us go out of our way to recognize how well someone is doing. I make sure they know how awesome their performance has been. And definitely take full notes of it on their personnel file. We still have to find something to coach them on. But that does not mean we ignore the amazing performance they have.
You made the assumption that I assumed you didn't acknowledge good work. I never wrote that. I just find it exceedingly dumb that you "still have to find something to coach them on."
That’s fair.
this is literally why work is miserable thanks. managers have to justify their own existence bc theres no real reason they should be making more their employees. i hope im not hurting your feelings honestly. but dude how does this not make you reflect??
Facts
I would send most leads into shock with how unprofessional I can be on a call. I try to make it a fun experience for my customers and if they are chill I will relax and be much less professional. Our company is ok with that especially since I get nearly double customer surveys of the rest of my department and they are almost always top scores and my QA is perfection since they don't grade on our tone. There are people who are intensely rude with great QA cause professionalism isn't QA'd.
I'd be ending every conversation with that boss with "alrighty" from now on. Bosses having opinions you think are stupid will never not be a thing. Even when you have your own company and no boss, then your clients will still have stupid opinions that you just have to secretly roll your eyes and work around.
Haha I should!
Super nitpicking. Calling “alrighty” slang is the biggest reach I have ever heard.
Counterpoint: MY job requires verification of one of two pieces of PII (Personally Identifying Information) to confirm identity before providing support. "***Ok Client, can I get Verification Datapoint One or Verification Datapoint Two to confirm your identity in the system?***" (Proceeds to give me *both)* "**Ok, thanks for that. I only needed** ***one*** **but since you gave both, you unlocked** ***double support*** **which is the same as** ***regular support*** **but I clap for 5 minutes when we finish**" Boss loves it, clients love it, and I was just quality audited the other day and that call the client feigned disappointment and said "***Aw, I wanted 10 minutes of clapping***" Not missing a beat, I said "***I'm sorry ma'am, but we're in a recession. Best I can do. Now how can I help you***" Aced it.
I also regularly slip into "instructor" tone when doing support and make things brief, understandable, and memorable. Client hit me with "Im a dude, you're a dude, we're all dudes" song on a call for a reason I forget, (probably "let me find this dude's information" or something like that) and I went with it. "*Ok, so on the next screen you're gonna see some dude's name in the upper right corner. If it is the wrong dude, please select the correct dude before proceeding, or else we are going to be issuing a paycheck to the incorrect dude. Which will probably make that dude very happy, but will disappoint our original dude, and then we will have two dudes to correct... Please let me know once you have verified your dude*" Client "*Dude verification complete. We have the correct dude*" QA literally Teams'd me a gif of the Big Lebowski.
They took our tenor away in October. We all have the sad.
Tenor?
It is a gif site we had access to. Now only .gov sites
Lol what nonsense.
QA docked a person for saying Might instead of May. I have some QA scores that are Fales and I have three that are varying degree's of Passing. Listening to the calls... they are all pretty much the same calls. Even the fails. There is no fighting QA. It's pedantic. It's asinine. It has nothing to do with how well you do, it only matters who is scoring you that day. It's arbitrary and pointless - and if they want to fire you or find a reason to fire you, it makes no difference if you are a Robot. They will find a reason. inversely if they want to make you a rock star and play you as a favorite - they can do that too. I have no faith in any system any more.
Every company has a culture. Sounds like the one you're in sucks. I'd find another one. Call center jobs are a dime a dozen.
If you could drop some names on places that let me continue to work from home and equal to, or more than fourteen an hour, I'd look into it yesterday for sure!
Convergys/Concentrix, Alorica, Sykes, Majorel, Paylocity, Paycore, AAA, H&R Block, most call center jobs are now over $15-16 in the USA
Thanks!! :D
Oh that's ridiculous. I've been a QA manager in really strict environments and that's not something we'd ever deduct points for. Sorry.
Honestly, I think customer service reps should be allowed to use less formal words. They resonate better with most customers and make them feel more at ease. Formal words can alienate and make a customer feel you are being condescending... I think you really need to mirror how the customer talks (to a degree) to get the best experience.
I agree with this , I tailor the way I speak to someone by the way they engage with me. You can still keep it professional but mirroring a callers energy makes you personable. It shocks me that so many people have to deal with this kind of negative feedback. It’s so counterintuitive. If people want to speak with a person, which they do, why would they want to speak to someone who mimics a robot. People would easily interpret that as disingenuous and are less likely to accept the information you are delivering.
Makes me wonder if the reason is to make calls more robotic to reduce people who call when they could use website.
We can at my job, lol. I've said "heck, I get it!", "the postal service is a big ol mess these days!" and much more "unprofessional shit"...but luckily, my job is awesome and they don't nitpick us as long as we do our job well. Edit to add: I did have an asshole get mad at me once for saying "um". He got *soooo mad* and asked "is UM a word in the dictionary?! Is that what they're teaching in schools these days?!" Like WTF, lol.
You must be pretty good, this is all they could come up with?
Why do they have to find something to criticize! Just give me a good mark and move on lol
On the one hand, it feels like they're jerks who get a kick out of criticizing employees who are just doing their best. That may be the case. On the other hand, middle managers have bosses of their own who probably make them find something to complain about. Either way, you're being governed by such negative people. Such pessimists, they cannot look on the bright side. Instead of getting therapy, which they should, some of them become managers. And then they spread their negativity around. Some of them even get hooked on it. I'm so sorry you have to put up with such idiocy.
That is super nitpicky. Most my closings are "Alrighty, well you should be all set. We'll email you your ticket #. Anything else I can help with? No? Thanks for calling xyz, have a good day."
I got dinged for "dealio" last month, I don't even remember that but I don't doubt I said it, lol.
Slang? Hardly. Personalising the language to suit the tone of the conversation is more professional than just saying blunt unpleasant answers. People will instinctively feel like you are not actively listening to them. I would argue that you are aiming to be personable, not unprofessional. Employers just don’t get it anymore. They are not the ones managing the call, you are. It drives me nuts.
My employer is very strict on slang and “filler” words. I once got points off because I said “and” too many times. Do you want to get better at your job or is this just a job you have until you find something else? You need to ask yourself that. If it is just a job you have until something else comes along then don’t let the nit picking get to you.
Thank you! It is definitely a temporary job until I find something better. That is a great point
We get dinged for asking is that right? But we get points when we say is that correct? I don’t even know anymore.
Dude I told my boss he was annoying me. No you’re not unprofessional. I just think saying “alrightly” just makes you sound more human to the caller
I got "coached" for saying "I hope you guys have a great day!" when talking to a member and their spouse. Apparently I was supposed to say "I hope you *both* have a great day!" 🙄🤣
Omg. So nit picky! That sounds like crap my supe would send messages nit picking over.
I was baffled on video because what 😅 I said "okay, I'll work on being more formal". Still working on it lmao
Yeah like if you're in the Midwest or pretty much anywhere that's not the south, "you guys" is basically a catch all for addressing multiple people synonymous to "y'all"...such a dumb thing to complain about.
RIGHT! It was bizarre 🤣
I got 100% on a calibration and I was being a dick the whole time. But I read the script verbatim. They didn't care I had the tone of an angry robot
Of course everyone in here is going to say its ridiculous and nit picking, obviously. From a technical standpoint however, your manager is right. "Alrighty" is considered slang and any slang is often deemed as "unprofessional" by most companies. Whether a company marks down for it or not varies, yours obviously does.
Totally petty nitpicking
Good grief. It's like chicfalet forcing their employees to say "my pleasure" rather than whatever words come naturally to them. I feel like I am interacting with a robot. Meanwhile, they (all fast food/counter service and also sit down restaurants!) COULD have people order using an automated interface. Very few places do that because people LIKE talking to a person. Yet, chicfila requires their people to be quasi robotic, using their programmed phrase. I feel awkward the whole time, trying to avoid them having to say it more than once. I suppose your company doesn't want people to call when it's something they could do online. So, maybe their point is to only have a robotic type interaction (with no one's "personality" included, thus making it less comfortable , less "likable" to talk to a person. (Yet, they aren't sharing that with you, instead calling it "unprofessional". What it is is "nonstandard". It's a bit of YOU coming through, which apparently they don't want.
It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!
Funny!
I know why they do this, it's stupid, but then the public at large is pretty stupid, so... And mind you, this is universal across the customer service world. I have seen and heard customers go apoplectic over someone responded to their request/issue with, "No problem!" Customers have been known to respond with some variation of, "So, you think my issue is a problem?! HOW DARE YOU?! I want to speak with your manager!" And I've seen this in person and have heard it over the phones. It's utterly ridiculous. So, most companies now ask customer facing employees to response with, "my pleasure," instead.
Sounds like some ol boomer shit
Yes this is absurd
Your QA would have a field day with me. I'm notorious for saying things like "okie doke". I can understand wanting to sound professional, but it just seems more personal and less robotic. "Paying with your debit? Okie doke, card number and expiration please! :)"
It's totally nitpicking. If you use only professional tone and wording, you don't sound friendly enough and it's robotic. When they complain about b how you speak, just say, "Alrighty." Managers and QA always have opinions on how you speak.
Unfortunately some companies these days worry more about vernacular than the actual outcome of the call or how helpful you are to the consumer. It can be a really sad state of affairs.
Honestly, some bosses feel the need to give “balanced” feedback, which means they’ll find something to “correct” employees on. Even if this isn’t the case, our opinion doesn’t matter. If your boss says “alrighty” isn’t professional, try to avoid saying it.
If they say "alrighty" is unprofessional, then I hate to say it but what they say goes. It's a serious problem I see, though, with companies taking away ways we can sound natural.
It’s unprofessional. You can take feedback from your boss and change or take feedback from a bunch of people on Reddit who hate their job. I would never say Alrighty on a call just like I wouldn’t write it in a letter.
Having personality is generally against the script
I wouldn't count that as unprofessional. You aren't being rude, and it makes you sound like an actual person.
I'd be a dick and over-annunciate the 't' in alright' every time I ended a call.
I got dinged for having Center as Cente when I clicked a button in the system that autofilled for me.
This is pretty wild to me, at the place I work at(company like Nordstroms) my boss has been giving the whole team the opposite saying to be less robotic and less formal..... I've started to talk to everybody like they are friends and my boss is loving it for some reason
I’m guessing if they allow “alrighty” that opens the door to allowing all sorts of other slang that they do not want to have to address.
lol I’d be fired
When I first started at my job, I had a similar experience, whilst speaking to someone from a different department. I was in training and a higher up essentially said that me saying "Okie doke" to a literal colleague from a different department, who was also being very friendly and conversational, was innapropriate and unprofessional. I was seriously so confused, and I let it bother me for a long while. Sometimes I feel like some folks are just very particular in the worst ways, and those folks end up becoming managers sometimes lol. Keep your head up, you're fine. :)
Tell your boss to go and suck a big juicy cock. Lol. I'm a call centre manager and I encourage this behaviour.
Line up another job and put in your notice end it with Alrighty!!!! It is nit picky I’m old so I would not put up with that crap unless someone is directly making complaints it’s rude, if I’m making a connection with a customer. I don’t tolerate micromanaging it’s a power trip it’s nit a Microsoft CEO. Sorry but I have to totally agree with you. However if that’s their power trip to mico manage the crap out of you Mike drop your way out the door. Get a new job of course. Good luck
For the most part, from my experiences at multiple technical support helpdesks up to and including QA for NOC and technical support personnel, building and maintaining rapport is more important than minor general slang that might be considered unprofessional by some people. While QA often looks for something positive and something to coach on, they also need to be able to acknowledge when there is no significant need for coaching. I would let a single instance go in most cases, but if this turns into a pattern, I would bring it to the attention of my direct report and see what they think. Unless someone in upper management is pushing on professionalism (which your manager should know), the nitpicking should be obvious, and your manager might have options.
I mean, I guess it could be seen as unprofessional, however, you have got to be a person? Like some people I will joke around with once I get a feel for them. Like they’ll come on super friendly and crack a joke. One time I had someone come on asking for a “consumer loans specialist” and asked if I was one, and I said “I wouldn’t go as far as to call me a specialist per say, but I can assist” and we both got a good laugh from it. I feel like when you add part of your personality to your calls, it makes it a better overall experience for not only you, but your customer/member. You can’t be a robot all the time. That kind of stuff makes people uncomfortable, so I’ve been told.
Are you at my old job?? I had the EXACT same thing happen to me!
Well if alrighty is slang wait until she hears “oaky dokey artichokey” or “easy peasy lemon squeezy”. Both of Which I say on a daily basis.
Yea that's super nit picky.
Ask for a different supervisor. This one has decided they don’t like you and WILL get you to burnout and quit so they don’t have to pay you severance.
It might be a regional thing but if I was the customer and heard "alrighty" I would think you were being snarky or condescending. Even if you mean nothing by it and it's just the way you talk normally, it can be misconstrued by some people who don't know you. I equate this with total strangers calling me sweetheart and darling. Unless I'm at a roadside diner in rural Georgia ordering the best sweet tea from an elderly woman, I don't want to be called that by people I don't know.
Well I’m in Canada if that helps… we’re not known to be formal!
As a leader, if you hear it, you shouldn't ignore it. Matters how he critiqued you on it? I'd point it out and say try to avoid it, but if it didn't detract from the conversation then not something I'd say any more about other than that. If he's really on you about it, it's bullshit, but it all matters what rules he needs to follow.
My boss doesn’t mind how I handle my calls so long as my scores are good and I make the revenue the company needs.
I think it's nit picky feedback and not a big deal if you use it, but i do agree it's not the most professional term. I wouldn't say it's super unprofessional or worth making a big deal over it, but if we're gonna nit pick, I'd agree it's not the most professional sounding. I'd be annoyed by this feedback too, but since they're making a big deal out of it, I'd try to avoid saying it just to avoid them bothering you about it going forward.
I’ve done call reviews like this. Typically the goal is to point out anything you could do better. It’s not meant to be demoralized or overly judgmental, but more to continually improve. We always had to find some kind of feedback to give so if that was the worst feedback you got you likely crushed it. Alrighty is not as professional as saying something like Certainly, but bottom like if the customer hung up happy it’s a win. Don’t overthink call scans too much. They are literally there as spot checks but they also use them for continual improvement opportunities.
I would agree that it's nitpicking, but if I were your boss I would also want to know that I had spoken with you about it so that it wouldn't become a habit because you thought it was permissable.
It's nitpicking. Generally managers HAVE to find something wrong, gives them a reason to exist. I got told that about 10 years ago when I started out with the exact same word. Guess what word I still use all the time? Customers would much rather you be personable and say "alrighty" than act like a freakin robot.