The dreaded robots having to follow a script to the letter. A couple of days ago I had to phone TalkTalk about my phone not working. During the call it started working again and I told the girl this about 5 times and she still wanted to carry on with the script. I ended up just hanging up and couldn't believe it when she phoned back to carry on with more pointless nonsense and insisted she finished the script.
A previous company I worked for had this check list of things you had to do before you could be counted as a 'good leaver'.
One of them was be up to date with all your health and safety training. This led to the ridiculous situation where I had to do fire extinguisher training on my final day there (and I was off at lunch to the pub for the rest of the day anyway) if I wanted to get the full amount of pay for the final month!
I find it quite staggering that the CEO is completely unfamiliar with the basic customer services protocol. By insisting that the customer should stay on the line as she requested, instead of being called back, he was likely to blow his cover in the first few minutes. His manner was very much trying to take charge, rather than observe.
Didn't see the last 30, had to run some errands, anything interesting learnt?
Did the Telford branch pay their drivers more or was it the rumour mill?
I haven't watched this show in ages, but I always wonder if these 'bosses' have never worked for 'there's the gate, you can use it' bosses?
Any complaint or even query, they motivate with threats of the sack or in the case of one firm that and replacing us with Polish employees.
Too often in all manner of telephony situations the "script" dictates the agent becomes an automaton rather than a human being and common sense simply doesn't exist-especially when you have a time limit.
I had a conversation with a similar muppet working for a rival delivery company last week.
In amongst a load of deliveries we found a package which was clearly labelled for a completely different company ... in Japan!
The idiot on the phone kept asking for the tracking number and checking their system which showed it as being deliverered to us and then telling me it was for us... despite me telling him that I had the package in front of me and it was labelled for another company with the senders address in Portugal.
I tried to get them to come and pick it up but he refused, saying it was for us so they'd delivered it and that was that.
He then went on to say if I wasn't sure then I should contact the sender and check with them!:rolleyes:
Anyway a week later we got a call saying a parcel had been mistakenly delivered to us and they now wanted to pick it up and redeliver it to the right person. Morons!
I find it quite staggering that the CEO is completely unfamiliar with the basic customer services protocol. By insisting that the customer should stay on the line as she requested, instead of being called back, he was likely to blow his cover in the first few minutes. His manner was very much trying to take charge, rather than observe.
He'd have got severely marked down in real life, he was down right argumentative.
Don't argue the toss with the punter on the line, take it up later with line manager etc.
I didn't find it shocking or surprising that he wasn't familiar with script/decision tree and how it works at the sharp end.
In paper form with the boxes and arrows it probably looks like a good model, which is probably as much as he knows about it.
That is, afterall what he pays various managers to manage.
He doesn't seem to know a lot about his company!!!!
I love how they throw all the parcels :rolleyes:
All couriers and royal mail throw parcels, it's normal throughout.
At sorting offices when I was there, people would play football with parcels, especially of it said fragile, if there were slight tears, they'd tear them more, throwing is the least of the worries.
I had a conversation with a similar muppet working for a rival delivery company last week.
In amongst a load of deliveries we found a package which was clearly labelled for a completely different company ... in Japan!
The idiot on the phone kept asking for the tracking number and checking their system which showed it as being deliverered to us and then telling me it was for us... despite me telling him that I had the package in front of me and it was labelled for another company with the senders address in Portugal.
I tried to get them to come and pick it up but he refused, saying it was for us so they'd delivered it and that was that.
He then went on to say if I wasn't sure then I should contact the sender and check with them!:rolleyes:
Anyway a week later we got a call saying a parcel had been mistakenly delivered to us and they now wanted to pick it up and redeliver it to the right person. Morons!
I had a conversation with a similar muppet working for a rival delivery company last week.
In amongst a load of deliveries we found a package which was clearly labelled for a completely different company ... in Japan!
The idiot on the phone kept asking for the tracking number and checking their system which showed it as being deliverered to us and then telling me it was for us... despite me telling him that I had the package in front of me and it was labelled for another company with the senders address in Portugal.
I tried to get them to come and pick it up but he refused, saying it was for us so they'd delivered it and that was that.
He then went on to say if I wasn't sure then I should contact the sender and check with them!:rolleyes:
Anyway a week later we got a call saying a parcel had been mistakenly delivered to us and they now wanted to pick it up and redeliver it to the right person. Morons!
This is the problem with modern systems which work on the basis that people can be dragged off the street , go through a few weeks training and then operate a system as though they had been employed in the same job for twenty years.
When I started work in the eighties it was the opposite, you weren't involved with the public until you knew exactly what you were on about. And when you answered a query you had the responsibility of seeing it through. These days its quite possible the person you talk to will never truly "own" your query and possible it just gets put back onto the team heap so to speak.
It is better they take 20mins to sort out the problem than 4 mins to not sort it out and either lose a customer or have another load of calls from them later.
Haven't watched it yet, but it beggars belief that people still fall for this, and secret millionaire. If some guy with a tv camera appeared at my desk at work, I know I would have to suck up to him in case I either get fired or get my mortgage paid!
The dreaded robots having to follow a script to the letter. A couple of days ago I had to phone TalkTalk about my phone not working. During the call it started working again and I told the girl this about 5 times and she still wanted to carry on with the script. I ended up just hanging up and couldn't believe it when she phoned back to carry on with more pointless nonsense and insisted she finished the script.
I used to have to call DHL several times a day to arrange shipping at a previous job and I always found their call centres to be pretty good. Actually, I found DHL to be one of the better courier companies in the corporate market, it was their home delivery business that let them down - and that was sold off to what is now Yodel.
It's amazing this series is still running. It was a good concept at first but surely now anytime a new person turns up at your workplace with a camera crew behind them it be must be obvious that they are either an undercover boss or a secret millionaire.
The show also suffers from the usual problem of too much repetition (how many times did the narrator have to say "X ahas no idea who Eddie is" or "If DHL don't perform customers will go to a competitor"), too many "previouslies" and too many "coming ups".
Personally, I preferred the old BBC2 Back to the Floor. That could have kept going longer as they never kept the boss's identity secret. The trouble is many bosses were never on the "floor" to start with so can't really go back there.
Haven't watched it yet, but it beggars belief that people still fall for this, and secret millionaire. If some guy with a tv camera appeared at my desk at work, I know I would have to suck up to him in case I either get fired or get my mortgage paid!
Exactly! I would be the same
Also it makes me laugh when I've seen some of the USA/Canada ones and the CEO is wearing the worst wig possible
I find it quite staggering that the CEO is completely unfamiliar with the basic customer services protocol. By insisting that the customer should stay on the line as she requested, instead of being called back, he was likely to blow his cover in the first few minutes. His manner was very much trying to take charge, rather than observe.
It's amazing this series is still running. It was a good concept at first but surely now anytime a new person turns up at your workplace with a camera crew behind them it be must be obvious that they are either an undercover boss or a secret millionaire.
Agree with you both. Best thing about this first episode was the always smiling face of the Brazilian guy. He only lost that smile when he was told about his trip to see his parents and new contract.
The guy who saw through the stunt wasn't seen at the end or mentioned again.
Presumably he is inside a misaddressed heavily sealed carton on a conveyor belt doing the rounds of the DHL depots ad infinitum.
That's why most people have the sense to play along. You can tell a lot of them know rightly what is going on but they play along because they will lose out on job benefits/promotion or a nice big cheque.
I've only ever watched a couple of episodes of both Undercover Boss & Secret Millionaire but even I know that if someone new starts a job they are totally unsuited to with a camera crew following them then it's obviously Undercover Boss and if it's someone new to an area, totally out of place and wanting to do volunteer work with a camera crew then obviously it's Secret Millionaire. I find it hard to believe that of the places these people go that not one person would suggest it during general tea break gossip.
That's why most people have the sense to play along. You can tell a lot of them know rightly what is going on but they play along because they will lose out on job benefits/promotion or a nice big cheque.
I've only ever watched a couple of episodes of both Undercover Boss & Secret Millionaire but even I know that if someone new starts a job they are totally unsuited to with a camera crew following them then it's obviously Undercover Boss and if it's someone new to an area, totally out of place and wanting to do volunteer work with a camera crew then obviously it's Secret Millionaire. I find it hard to believe that of the places these people go that not one person would suggest it during general tea break gossip.
Thats probably correct here, but in the Australia and Canada episodes of UB they have to travel vast distances and it seems the people are just believed when they turn up for "work".
It is better they take 20mins to sort out the problem than 4 mins to not sort it out and either lose a customer or have another load of calls from them later.
COMPLETELY AGREE!!! What the bosses at the top always fail to understand is the affect middle management can have. It's all very well going to the "front line" and handing out a trip to Arizona or Brazil to the lucky few. But all the front line workers said it's their policies and targets that are creating poor customer service and ultimately resulting in lost business.
If the undercover bosses go to work for middle managment he could then change all the policies so that the front line workers can do a job they can take pride in and in an efficient mannor. Seemed like the whole company was short staffed and instead of managing the large increase of customers by employing more staff it looks like they've employed crazy policies.
It was quite clear at the end that there will be no long term achievement from the boss going undercover. Looks like staff will still have limits for distributing and loading parcells and I don't think they will really listen to that woman who's gone to Arizona. Nor do I think they will assess their tempory staff or consider those who have worked with them for a long time and not moved up. Kind of like he sorted out a drop in the ocean. Seemed like a nice individual but not making some great changes needed as an MD.
Comments
A previous company I worked for had this check list of things you had to do before you could be counted as a 'good leaver'.
One of them was be up to date with all your health and safety training. This led to the ridiculous situation where I had to do fire extinguisher training on my final day there (and I was off at lunch to the pub for the rest of the day anyway) if I wanted to get the full amount of pay for the final month!
Did the Telford branch pay their drivers more or was it the rumour mill?
I haven't watched this show in ages, but I always wonder if these 'bosses' have never worked for 'there's the gate, you can use it' bosses?
Any complaint or even query, they motivate with threats of the sack or in the case of one firm that and replacing us with Polish employees.
I had a conversation with a similar muppet working for a rival delivery company last week.
In amongst a load of deliveries we found a package which was clearly labelled for a completely different company ... in Japan!
The idiot on the phone kept asking for the tracking number and checking their system which showed it as being deliverered to us and then telling me it was for us... despite me telling him that I had the package in front of me and it was labelled for another company with the senders address in Portugal.
I tried to get them to come and pick it up but he refused, saying it was for us so they'd delivered it and that was that.
He then went on to say if I wasn't sure then I should contact the sender and check with them!:rolleyes:
Anyway a week later we got a call saying a parcel had been mistakenly delivered to us and they now wanted to pick it up and redeliver it to the right person. Morons!
He'd have got severely marked down in real life, he was down right argumentative.
Don't argue the toss with the punter on the line, take it up later with line manager etc.
I didn't find it shocking or surprising that he wasn't familiar with script/decision tree and how it works at the sharp end.
In paper form with the boxes and arrows it probably looks like a good model, which is probably as much as he knows about it.
That is, afterall what he pays various managers to manage.
All couriers and royal mail throw parcels, it's normal throughout.
At sorting offices when I was there, people would play football with parcels, especially of it said fragile, if there were slight tears, they'd tear them more, throwing is the least of the worries.
This is the problem with modern systems which work on the basis that people can be dragged off the street , go through a few weeks training and then operate a system as though they had been employed in the same job for twenty years.
When I started work in the eighties it was the opposite, you weren't involved with the public until you knew exactly what you were on about. And when you answered a query you had the responsibility of seeing it through. These days its quite possible the person you talk to will never truly "own" your query and possible it just gets put back onto the team heap so to speak.
It is better they take 20mins to sort out the problem than 4 mins to not sort it out and either lose a customer or have another load of calls from them later.
It's a nicer place!
I used to have to call DHL several times a day to arrange shipping at a previous job and I always found their call centres to be pretty good. Actually, I found DHL to be one of the better courier companies in the corporate market, it was their home delivery business that let them down - and that was sold off to what is now Yodel.
Presumably he is inside a misaddressed heavily sealed carton on a conveyor belt doing the rounds of the DHL depots ad infinitum.
The show also suffers from the usual problem of too much repetition (how many times did the narrator have to say "X ahas no idea who Eddie is" or "If DHL don't perform customers will go to a competitor"), too many "previouslies" and too many "coming ups".
Personally, I preferred the old BBC2 Back to the Floor. That could have kept going longer as they never kept the boss's identity secret. The trouble is many bosses were never on the "floor" to start with so can't really go back there.
Exactly! I would be the same
Also it makes me laugh when I've seen some of the USA/Canada ones and the CEO is wearing the worst wig possible
You will always see:
A member of customer service who will be whisked away to some far flung training seminar.
A nice guy with a sob story who has gone through hardship and is treated to a holiday/trip to see his family he left behind.
A loyal, hard worker who has never been rewarded gets fast tracked to other job opportunities.
Just like last night's programme. :rolleyes:
That's why most people have the sense to play along. You can tell a lot of them know rightly what is going on but they play along because they will lose out on job benefits/promotion or a nice big cheque.
I've only ever watched a couple of episodes of both Undercover Boss & Secret Millionaire but even I know that if someone new starts a job they are totally unsuited to with a camera crew following them then it's obviously Undercover Boss and if it's someone new to an area, totally out of place and wanting to do volunteer work with a camera crew then obviously it's Secret Millionaire. I find it hard to believe that of the places these people go that not one person would suggest it during general tea break gossip.
In the last few weeks in the mornings I've seen at least 20 episodes of Undercover Boss Canada and Australia :eek:
Thats probably correct here, but in the Australia and Canada episodes of UB they have to travel vast distances and it seems the people are just believed when they turn up for "work".
COMPLETELY AGREE!!! What the bosses at the top always fail to understand is the affect middle management can have. It's all very well going to the "front line" and handing out a trip to Arizona or Brazil to the lucky few. But all the front line workers said it's their policies and targets that are creating poor customer service and ultimately resulting in lost business.
If the undercover bosses go to work for middle managment he could then change all the policies so that the front line workers can do a job they can take pride in and in an efficient mannor. Seemed like the whole company was short staffed and instead of managing the large increase of customers by employing more staff it looks like they've employed crazy policies.
It was quite clear at the end that there will be no long term achievement from the boss going undercover. Looks like staff will still have limits for distributing and loading parcells and I don't think they will really listen to that woman who's gone to Arizona. Nor do I think they will assess their tempory staff or consider those who have worked with them for a long time and not moved up. Kind of like he sorted out a drop in the ocean. Seemed like a nice individual but not making some great changes needed as an MD.
this is the first one I have watched that the boss has been rumbled