It's My Life

Customer Service Reps are People Too

2015-05-23T20:05:26Z

I have worked for Communication Services for the Deaf, (CSD), for almost eighteen months now. I’ve learned many things, both good and bad. What I’ve learned most though, is how much we, as a whole, tend to treat customer service reps, and even telemarketers, very badly. I wanted to attempt to put together my top list of things to keep in mind when dealing with a relay operator, or any person in customer service for that matter. These aren’t in any particular order, just things that I’ve had on my mind for a while.

1. We’re human. Don’t forget that just because you can’t see us doesn’t mean that we don’t exist. We’re not just some electronic system inside of a computer.

2. You called me, I didn’t call you. It’s not my fault if you didn’t mean to get me on the phone. If you misdialed, be gracious. Don’t yell at me because you can’t read a number or dial a phone. Your colorful language doesn’t raise your intelligence level.

3. A few nice words really go a long way. Just a simple “thank you” or “have a nice day”, can make a bad day just a little bit better.

4. Listen to us before cutting us off. Especially in my position, I am not a telemarketer. When I call, I’m the voice for a person who is deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled. This is an actual customer, not someone out to mess with your head, try to sell you a product, or ruin your day. If you want that, listen to Coast to Coast.

5. Be a part of the call. If you’re calling into any sort of service, whether it be relay or your local phone company, stay with the call. Don’t call when you’re distracted by things happening around you, screaming kids, washing dishes, or going to the bathroom. We don’t need to hear that, and when we spend several hours a day with a headset that we can’t take off, your background noises can really be hard to deal with.

6. Don’t waste my time. Calling into a service purely with the intent to harass or abuse the service by trying to get us to do things that you don’t want to do yourself is a waste of my time and yours, not to mention your money as a tax payer. Go read a book to find some amusement.

7. Educate. I can’t stress this one enough, especially for relay. Teach your kids that 711 is no different from 911. There are fines for falsely calling 911 if there is no emergency. Although there are no fines for calling 711 when you don’t need the service, when your child calls up asking to speak to the president, or trying to convince us that they work for public relations for Michael Jordon and want to donate money to keep the service going, they’re taking an operator away from a person who truly does need the service. Oh, and don’t let your very young kids play with your phone, either, even if the temptation is strong. Having a call automatically drop into our headsets and hearing loud piercing screams, random touch-tones, and other such noises also tends to fall into the category of overwhelming noise pollution. It’s never too early to teach your kids good phone etiquette.

8. Be polite. This is similar to other things I’ve said, but is worth repeating. If you’ve had one bad experience, treat that as just that. It’s one bad experience. Don’t treat us all badly and please give us the opportunity to give you a more positive experience.

9. Remember to treat us like you’d want to be treated. I think this pretty much sums up all of my previous comments, but it’s amazing to me just how many people really do seem to forget this really simple thing. You don’t like it when someone slams the phone down on you, so don’t do it to us. You don’t like it when someone yells at you, so don’t do it to us. Just think before you react and you’ll make it a happier environment for everyone.

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My Twitter Pet Peeves

2013-01-22T02:24:25Z

Twitter has a lot of good stuff, but it also has some totally pointless
and/or annoying things. Of course everyone has the right to say what they
want, and I get that. I'm also sure I post some things that others find
annoying. So, on that note, have a list of the things that I personally find
most annoying. These aren't directed at anyone in particular, and I'm not
intending to cause any offense.

1. Retweets. The occasional retweet to share something, or to endorse
a business that you want to support is okay with me. However, sending ten to
twenty retweets in a row is just spamming the Twitter timeline. If we want
to see all those tweets, most of us will already be following that account
anyway.

2. Also on the topic of retweets. Twitter has developed a style of
retweets that make it so that if multiple people on your timeline are
retweeting the same thing, you only have to see it once. Unfortunately, so
many people either don't use the new style of retweeting, or want to send a
comment with everything they retweet. This clutters up the timeline.

3. Daily routine tweets. "I'm awake now." I'm going to bed now." "I'm
eating now." Once in a while, okay. But, is it necessary to tell the world
exactly what you're doing every little step of the day and every single day?

4. Auto tweets. Things like twitterscopes, weather, and virtual games
that you're playing, where you aren't actually sending out the tweet
yourself, but have a service to send out tweets on your behalf at a specific
time each day. Spam, plain and simple.

5. Ranters. The occasional rant is going to happen. Sometimes
someone's had a bad day, and they just need to vent. But, some people make
Twitter their place for constant long-winded rants. Twitter isn't a blogging
platform. Ranting is just fine, but use a service like Twitlonger if you know you've got a lot to
say, and have a lot to say very often.

6. "I'm important and you can't live without me." You know the
tweets. "I'm going current. If you had something important to say, tell me
about it." Or those who always say something like "I'm going to be away from
Twitter for a while because I have to do something." Okay, you're a great
person and all that or I probably wouldn't be following you. But, do you
think the Twitterverse is going to collapse if you go away for a couple of
hours?

And, there you have it. Six of the things that I find most annoying about
Twitter. Again, these are just my opinions, and nobody should take anything
that I've said here personally. This is just something I've been wanting to
write about for a while, and I finally did it. And now, I'm done.

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Tuesday Trivia

2012-10-17T01:14:56Z

For some reason, not all my messages have been posting. If there's a day
when this trivia message doesn't make it, you can always use a previous
link, so if you click on the link in this message and bookmark it, you'll
always have the latest trivia questions. Having said that, I should have
just skipped trivia today. 5/10. I did not like these questions!
Here are the questions.

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Tuesday Trivia

2012-10-09T11:16:23Z

A really early morning for me today, so thought I'd post right away. Yet
another 7/10 today! I didn't like these questions!
Here are the questions.

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Monday Trivia

2012-10-09T00:59:41Z

I've been really bad about posting these lately! I've said it before, but
for new people, if I don't post every day, you can always use an old link
and it'll give you the current day's questions. That's one nice thing about
the way this whole thing works.

Anyway though, 7/10 to start off the week, so not necessarily the best, but
I intend to do better the rest of the week.
Here are the questions.

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Thursday Trivia

2012-10-05T00:26:18Z

9/10 again today! Definitely better than the traditional 8/10.
Here are the questions.

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Trivia for Tuesday

2012-10-03T00:29:21Z

A beautiful, and most surprising 10/10 today! Woohoo!
Here are the questions.

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Thursday Trivia

2012-09-27T11:37:50Z

Back to my traditional 8/10 today, but that's okay, at least for now.
Here are the questions.

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Wednesday Trivia

2012-09-26T14:26:08Z

I'd like to be able to say how many questions I got wrong today, but I
can't. Some very lucky guesses on my part got me an amazing 10/10!
Here are the questions.

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Tuesday trivia

2012-09-25T22:40:17Z

9/10 for me today. If I hadn't second-guessed myself on one I would have had
them all correct.
Here are the questions.

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Monday Trivia

2012-09-24T11:26:44Z

Up early this morning for an appointment, so got this done nice and early.
Just sitting here with a nice cup of hot chocolate and my keyboard. I'm back
to my good old 8/10, but that's what I was predicting I'd get today.
Here are the questions.

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Friday Trivia

2012-09-22T13:26:28Z

I was predicting that I'd get 2/10 after going through these questions, so
the 7/10 that I actually got was a nice welcome surprise.
Here are the questions.

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Trivia for Thursday

2012-09-21T00:21:08Z

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got a 10/10 today! Woohoo!!!!!!

Here are the questions.

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Trivia for Wednesday

2012-09-19T22:02:48Z

Yet another 8/10! I really do have a very strong dislike for the French
language.
Here are the questions

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Yet another 8/10! I really do have a very strong dislike for the French
language. <a
href="http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=331021&tmp=1348020307">
Here are the questions<K/a>.

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Trivia for Tuesday

2012-09-18T22:34:31Z

Yes, I'm still here. I completely forgot to post on Friday, and yesterday I
did things so late that all I wanted to do was go to bed. I ended up getting
my traditional 8/10 though today.
Here are the questions.

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Thursday Trivia

2012-09-13T19:18:00Z

9/10! 9/10! Woohoo! I can live with this!
Here are the questions.

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Tuesday Trivia

2012-09-11T15:06:08Z

Well, I said I wanted to get away from the 8/10, and I did. But, 5/10 isn't
exactly what I'd hoped for.
Here are the questions.

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Trivia for Monday

2012-09-10T18:48:51Z

8/10 yet again! I just can't get out of that rut for long!
Here are the questions.

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Friday Trivia

2012-09-07T17:17:18Z

I wanted to get out of the 8/10 rut, but I wasn't exactly hoping for the
5/10 that I ended up getting today. Ouch!
Here are the questions.

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Thursday Trivia

2012-09-06T15:20:04Z

Is it really Thursday already? Well, I got what I wished for today. 9/10!
Here are the questions.

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Wednesday Trivia

2012-09-05T17:36:29Z

At least one day this week, I'd really love to get something other than
8/10, preferably higher?
Here are the questions.

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Tuesday Trivia

2012-09-04T19:01:04Z

Once again, another 8/10 for me today.
Here are the questions.

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Trivia for Monday

2012-09-03T15:23:16Z

I'm back to the good old score of 8/10 today.
Here are the questions.

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Friday Trivia

2012-08-31T14:20:45Z

I truly ended up getting lucky today. Some of these questions I just didn't
have a clue about, but I managed to do some good guessing and ended up with
a 10/10!
Here are the questions.

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Thursday Trivia

2012-08-30T18:15:24Z

Here's a surprise. 8/10, yet again!
Here are the questions.

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