We were now known as, Incubees. Only seven of us made it after our simulation calls with the Manila-based Quality Assurance people. Some trainees had mysterously disappeared during the five-day training period while others did not please the judges of quality agents.
Those of us who passed were informed via SMS a few hours after our shift. We were told to be at the office by 9:00 pm that day. I also received queries thru my cellphone from my co-trainees, asking if I made it. In our group of four, only I was allowed to continue.
Ten minutes before nine, I strolled up to the office entrance and saw Chris, Greg and Ken smoking near the door. They waved smoke away from their faces as they congratulated me. Fely, Megan and Neil were seated on the benches. When I stepped into the lobby, Argie was peering at the announcements on the bulletin board.
At around 9:30 pm, we were herded by our trainors to the training room. We were told that we were in Incubation, then we will be in Apprenticeship, then on Probation and ,finally, we will be Regular. The Incubation and the Apprenticeship will be for two weeks each and we will be under a bond of P3,800 for a month just in case we get kicked out or resign from either of the programs. We were allowed only two days of leave and we were introduced to a new account, Storage Magazine. During training, we only did, Food Engineering.
The call center we were in is an outbound call center. We were doing the publishing accounts, which required us to call people listed on our database, offer them a free twelve-month subscription and ask them to do a survey. We were to follow a script on our computer screens, may rephrase or rearrange the questions if so specified, but must not mislead the customer or say anything not on the script.
We can be sanctioned for not saying the opening spiel, for failing to ask the verifier question, for typing the wrong address or zip code, talking to a person other than the direct contact, his replacement, his spouse, his secretary or direct assistant,or ,for failing to state the enumerated parts of the question even if the client was already screaming at us or threatening to put down the phone. Punishments range from written reprimands to suspension to outright dismissal.
At around 11:00 pm, we were already given our log-in passwords to the intranet and the IDEFISK. I was one of the four people assigned to do, Storage Magazine, a renewal account. We basically call the subscribers and ask them sixteen survey questions in order for them to renew their free subscription.
I eagerly put on my headset and started dialling It rang. And rang. I dialled another number. Same. After an hour of listening to the ringing, somebody answered. I was about to launch into my opening spiel when I realized that it was just voicemail. I dialled another number and an answering machine spoke. For the next thirty minutes, ringing, voicemails and answering machines were all I got.
One of our trainors summoned the four of us to her station."Tell me what's wrong" she asked us in Tagalog."Why aren't you talking to anybody? You need to talk to somebody because you need to have at least three completes per hour." Unperturbed by the glaring of her large and slightly bulging eyes supported by large cheekbones, giving her a faint resemblance to a frog, I replied "It's because nobody is answering. All we get are voicemails and answering machines." She sent us back to the floor with the mandate to keep on dialling and to step on it.
About fifteen minutes later, another trainor tapped me on my shoulder and told me to switch to Food Engineering. Now, we're talkin!
My drive immediately fettered out after fifteen minutes when all I got were more ringing, voicemails and answering machines. After lunch(12:30 am to 1:30 am), it got better. I was able to talk to receptionists but still got forwarded to their boss's voicemail. At least, I'm talking to real people.
After our shift, i only managed to get two completes. We were told to go to the training room and Frog Princess delivered a lecture on performance and efficiency."You pulled down everybody's performance ratings!" So much for motivational chitchat. Somebody got six completes but still was told to make more calls because he only did 18 calls per hour. Others ranged from 15 to 25 calls per hour and were individually subjected to Her Highness's glare. Nobody said anything about my two completes and I guess I made enough calls to keep them happy."You must make at least eight completes tomorrow or else..." were her parting words before we were dismissed for the day.
Eight?! I got worried. I only made two completes in four hours. I sent an SMS to my mom warning her that I might get kicked out."Well, just go to Ozamiz by Tuesday. I'll be there by Wednesday from Cebu." She is very supportive. Kates, who is doing a sales account in Convergys, exclaimed in an SMS,"You're just new! Rage,rage, rage against the system for giving you high metrics."
And rage I did.
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