I'm not really mad, mostly just relieved that I don't have to get cussed at 15 times today and be stressed out because I stayed on a phone call 5 min too long. However, now I'm left with wondering what to do and where to go from here. I assure you that I do not want to do Customer Service again and my nursing career was over 5+ years ago. That leaves me a mid 30's, overweight, moderately educated woman competing in an Über-fierce job market where image is paramount and youth is the key. I’m quite sure that I can compete both cognitively and technically. But do I want to stay in the corporate world where no one is a person and everyone is just a number? I'm an artist. I want to paint, sculpt, and design. I want to create pretty things either on paper, canvas, or screen. This is what I do. Not soothe the angry customer for a mere twelve bucks an hour. Not repeatedly advise ignorant people that had they only paid the entire bill last month then the bill would not be so high this month or their services would still be on today etc. These things I became quite good at. After all it is a matter of logic. I can look at an account and see instantly what is amiss. I can diagnose, isolate, and resolve most issues within the first couple of minutes all before the customer is finished cussing at me. In most cases the issue stems from the customer themselves either not paying enough on the previous month's bill, not paying on time, or using services that require extra charges. If people would just learn to pick up a calculator and the bill before they call Customer Care, well, then call centers would all shut down.
In technical troubleshooting I am at my strongest. This is the field that intrigues me the most. I love finding software or hardware issues and resolving them. But working with the general public is such a nightmare. How many times have I asked someone to turn the device off, which is a crucial step in order to force the software update to load, they say" yeah, it's off" but then I can hear it chiming in the background blatantly and obviously on. Or how many times after I sent the data packet to them and asked them to power it off and back on did they say to me, "I've already tried that before I called you". Ok, wasn't it in about first or second grade that they began to teach us all how to listen to and follow directions? This is why. I hated it when a patient received explicit instructions on how to manage their care and when seen again had not followed a single step as outlined for them. I hated at the hotel when I asked people to fill in the registration card and all they would do is sign their name to it. Not listing their car type, not listing the number of people in the room, not checking if they wanted a wake up call or not. The same person was sure to yell and scream when they did not get a wake up call, even though they did not bother to list it on the registration form as asked.
Here I am, looking for a job, wondering what life holds in store for me next. I sure hope it's colorful and fun!
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I could never work in customer service either. I'd have to tell some of them that they are dumbasses that shouldn't be allowed to use a phone, much less have what ever it is they are calling about. So it's 40 below and the heat is off. They won't suffer long. Good luck in your job hunt and thanks for stopping by.
amen to that! Customer service is by far the most difficult field to work in that I have experienced, if only for the simple fact that such a large number of people are complete morons and have unrealistic demands along with and inability to accept personal responsibility for their own actions while the company expects you to kowtow to the customer at all cost and take the personal verbal attacks and abuse. I'm actually relieved to be out of that job. Thanks for stopping by. :)