Customer Encounters

Working in the BPO industry gave me a lot of experience that I can never forget. As a newbie, at times meeting people over the phone is so overwhelming and I don’t know how to deal with it, sometimes I was too caught up in my own emotions that I take the customer’s mean comments personally, though they are against the company and not me. But over time, I was able to manage my emotions well, and dealt with every encounter in positive way.

While looking at the memories on Facebook, I suddenly felt nostalgic, and I can’t help myself from reminiscing the days when I was still working in the BPO industry. So, here I share my most unforgettable encounters with customers.

A dying man. Before working as a customer service representative, I worked at the order entry department first where the task is to answer calls from customers and assist them in placing their orders. The account is a Flower shop in the United States and customers can place orders by themselves through the company’s website, but there are some who doesn’t want to trouble themselves in placing the order on their end, so they call us to ask for assistance. It was my second week on the job when one time, a customer called in and asked me to assist him in placing a multiple order. I was overwhelmed because multiple orders is a good thing for me. It was for his wife, and I told praised his sweetness. Then ‘he told me that he wants to order flowers that will be sent to his wife every Valentine’s Day for the next ten years because he is in the hospital and the doctor said that he only has one month to live. He wants his wife to still receive flowers from him even if he already left this world. From his story, I felt how dearly the customer loves his wife and it breaks my heart to hear about the story. When I told him that we do not have the option to place an order for the next ten years, as we can only do it for six months the most, his voice started to break and sounds like he is crying. I badly want to help him that time so I put him on hold and asked for manager if we can make an exception for the customer, but they can’t do anything about it too, even the supervisor. So, I went back to the customer to tell him about it. He started to sob which made me cry hard too. To make up for him, I stayed with him longer and listened to his stories even though I will be scolded for talking on the phone for a long time. It happened two years ago but that phone call is still vivid in my memory.

An old lady who probably know all the curse words in the English language. This time, I was already in customer service department, one time an old lady called in and as soon as I answered her call, she bombarded me with curse words, she was hysterical. She cursed at me like everything is my fault and made me feel so dumb and insignificant. No matter how much I tried to hush her, she would not stop, so I just muted myself and listened to her for 30 minutes. It’s the first time that I heard so much curse words and I can’t really take it since I am not used to hearing bad words. When I can no longer take it, I asked the customer if she want me to transfer her to a manager, though we are prohibited to do that.

A pervert. There are times that I was assigned to work during daytime, instead of a graveyard shift, I work from 5:00 am to 2:00 pm and since most of the customers are from the United States, it means that it is nighttime in their area. One time, I received a call from a male customer, I can’t understand most of the stuffs he’s saying but it sounds like he is moaning or something, since I was a newbie that time, I asked my manager to barge in and listen to my call and he laughed to hard saying “Eeew, it’s a pervert! Sounds like he’s masturbating!” I think that is worse than the cursing lady.

A suicidal lady. This happened on the day I handed in my resignation letter. A lady called in, she is shouting that time while telling me that received a defective keyboard. She told me that it is the reason why she can’t create a letter which she will send to the government to ask for aid. I apologized to her for the inconvenience on behalf of the company, but she doesn’t want to accept my apology telling me that it is not my fault, though she insisted that she was inconvenienced because of it. She told me that it has been 3 years since she last went out of her house, and she only live from the government aid. And she only has stuffs delivered to her front door. She started to get hysterical and told me that she’s going to commit suicide right away! I felt nervous that time, but I tried my best to comfort her and told her not to do it, in my mind, I was thinking that my conscience will bug me if she really commits a suicide. While listening to her, I research my tools to see what I can do to help her. The call ended, but I didn’t know what happened to that lady. I just wish that she’s doing fine until now.

While writing this, I can’t help but to think that those are all weird encounters.