Cust's recording calls
What are your guys' views on customers recording the conversations? I had a customer today inform me that she was recording. I just thanked her for letting me know and told her we could not continue if she was recording the conversation. We then got into an argument about how can AWS record her but she cant us. Eventually we went to a supervisor. So what do you guys say? Do you reps let customers record it but make it clear that you do not accept it so it cannot be used against AWS or do you disconnect the calls or do you just not care if they record? How many customers do you think record without telling us?
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i've had a cust inform me they were recording the convo (i was talking an escalation call) and informed the cust that if he continued this conversation was over. he said he wasn't so i thanked them, did my ending speil, and ended the call. atleast in my call center we don't have to deal with cust's who try to record us becuase they can manipulate the convo and try to use it against the company.
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I am on the Res desk-per AWS policy if a cust request your permission to record the conversation you are to give permission and proceed with the call as normal-as it stands most of the other res reps I know will not allow
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Odd. T-Mobile doesn't allow recording of calls. We're actually required to disconnect. Anything you say can and will be edited then used against you in the court of law.
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Reps have the legal right to know if they are being recorded. Any info recorded without their knowlage can NOT be used without legal consent by the recorded, or they can sue. 🙂
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Hmm, wonder what you guys are all afraid of???????? Could it be that you'd be caught extending a contract w/o the customer's permission? I can't tell you how many times I've changed customer's rate plans and specifically said to NOT extend the contract and the rep said that's fine, only to find out that the rep on the other end of the line took it upon themselves to extend it. When stores try to escalate, who do you suppose the customer care supervisors side with? Always with the reps. It could never be a reps fault. EVER. The store I work for sells for every major carrier and we never have the problem with verbal contract extensions with the other carriers.
Are you reps getting paid commission to extend contracts? Do you have to me...
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Are you reps getting paid commission to extend contracts? Do you have to me...
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Oh. My. God. A dealer is trying to diss customer care! LOL!!!!!
Everyone have their laugh before someone rips into this guy. I can tell you about TEN times just this WEEK I'v had to repair crap the dealers do to a customers account just to get THEIR commision. Actually sorry, TWELVE this week. THey usually end in the customer canceling. Don't even THINK about trying to diss us pal, you dealers need to do some training on what you sell and not add a comissionable 20 dollar 'wireless office services' feature to everyones account you see. LOL! This was a funny, funny post.
Everyone have their laugh before someone rips into this guy. I can tell you about TEN times just this WEEK I'v had to repair crap the dealers do to a customers account just to get THEIR commision. Actually sorry, TWELVE this week. THey usually end in the customer canceling. Don't even THINK about trying to diss us pal, you dealers need to do some training on what you sell and not add a comissionable 20 dollar 'wireless office services' feature to everyones account you see. LOL! This was a funny, funny post.
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giggle, giggle, let's see a dealer those are the ones who add mobile assist to the 9 year olds phone, or are they the ones who tell a cust "yep your phone is setup" just go home be ready in 20 mins, forgetting to program the phone, or telling them it can take 24 hours for everything to switch over, ya mr dealer why dont you start,
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I love it when the cust buys a phone in the store and calls me up and is like "uhhh ya the dealer told me you guys would wipe the charges off the acct" AND THE CUST HASNT EVEN BEEN BILLED YET!!!! Cust's dont like being told to go back to the store either. Always saying long lines and little help. Not all stores but some.
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Oh jesus, where do I start? First off, I'm not a "guy" or a "pal", I'm a female. 😛 I'm not trying to pick a fight, just stating my experiences. I'm not going to argue that other wireless dealers add features. In the store where I work, we are all FULLY trained. We do NOT receive additional commissions for adding features like mobile assist, data plans, etc.
My point is that I would have no problem with a customer recording me b/c I give out accurate information.
Frankly I don't care what the other dealers are doing. Although the stuff you guys are saying some dealers do is pretty freakin' bad. Can't you guys do anything about it? I mean, with T-Mobile I've heard the reps can put negative marks on the dealers. I think AT&T ...
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My point is that I would have no problem with a customer recording me b/c I give out accurate information.
Frankly I don't care what the other dealers are doing. Although the stuff you guys are saying some dealers do is pretty freakin' bad. Can't you guys do anything about it? I mean, with T-Mobile I've heard the reps can put negative marks on the dealers. I think AT&T ...
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I agree. however a lot of the time customers don't know what a feature is or what it does and why they have it, someone may have explained it to them but all they were thinking is what they are going to do with their new phone.
Adding features to a customers account generally does not extend a contract. It is law that any contract over 1 yr must be signed, but extendiing a contract is really just renewing from that date to the same date the following year.
I know myself that the reason its hard for me to offer promos to renew peoples contract is because generally these days, people don't want to commit to more than a year and if they do they expect a lot.
Adding features to a customers account generally does not extend a contract. It is law that any contract over 1 yr must be signed, but extendiing a contract is really just renewing from that date to the same date the following year.
I know myself that the reason its hard for me to offer promos to renew peoples contract is because generally these days, people don't want to commit to more than a year and if they do they expect a lot.
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its not that reps mind being recorded, its that there are certain policies within the company about being recorded. aws has said we are not allowed to let ourselves be recorded, and we were just disscussing what we do in that situation...its not cause we are planning to do something unlawful. and most of the time when people call in that want to record you, its cause something bad has already happened and they expect you to have all the answers as soon as you pick up the phone...and you cant without looking over the account...so they want to record you to try and get you caught on something you know nothing about.
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Yeah, I understand. I'm sure that a huge percentage of aws dealer/customer care reps are very competent but you have to understand that it happens time and time again (the contract extension thing). I mean, at first I was always siding with at&t. I know how customers are and how they normally try to get out of contracts and try to talk their way out of very expensive phone bills (b/c they went over their minutes). But, then I began to realize that these customers were not lying. They actually hadn't agreed to extend their contracts. The problem is that I have clear cut examples with customers where I was the one that called in to change the plan.
For example, the girl that works next door to our cell store was planning on leaving th...
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For example, the girl that works next door to our cell store was planning on leaving th...
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I have to agree with Moobak as most dealers and some store reps have the IQ of a retarded monkey, when it comes to what can and can't be added to accounts and services
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Yeah, fine. But how do you justify all of the cust. service reps. extending contracts w/o the customer's knowledge? That has NOTHING to do with the sales rep in a store.
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All right, customer care. Let's just own up and say that there are people who are equally bad at both jobs, end of story, ok? I've talked to awesome dealers and reps, and I've talked to crappy dealers and reps. Both sides cover. I imagine there are dealers that have to cover customer care's mistakes too. It's your job to not be the one they're complaining about, hey?
As to the recording issue.. yes, they are allowed to record the conversation, but AWS has to record it as well. They cannot record it while we are not. In addition, a simple statement of "I do not consent to being recorded, sir/madam" suffices. Though you'd probably get coaching for that one since AWS records you anyways. Knotty. Anyhow, if you're worried about editing, the o...
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As to the recording issue.. yes, they are allowed to record the conversation, but AWS has to record it as well. They cannot record it while we are not. In addition, a simple statement of "I do not consent to being recorded, sir/madam" suffices. Though you'd probably get coaching for that one since AWS records you anyways. Knotty. Anyhow, if you're worried about editing, the o...
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Well, first off, we do have quotas now. Even the centers that aren't sales, we have sales quotas. Our ResDesk has quotas, for the luvva Jeebus. And while the centers try to offer things for it, I'd hardly call the pittance my center gives "commission"...hell, I'd barely call the pittance they hand out a "living wage", but that's neither here nor there. Short statement, some 3rd party centers are goddamn criminal in what they offer.
Now, this doesn't excuse some of the incompetence you see from reps who just randomly apply features, credits, or contracts to accounts, but it pales to transparent compared to the random application of commision related items I see from dealers.
Let's see what I can recall off-hand...
- Account for college...
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Now, this doesn't excuse some of the incompetence you see from reps who just randomly apply features, credits, or contracts to accounts, but it pales to transparent compared to the random application of commision related items I see from dealers.
Let's see what I can recall off-hand...
- Account for college...
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I think aws employees should have an internal channel to discuss these sort of concerns instead of these public forums.
its starting to feal like retail and care is a couple who fights only when friends come over.
😳
its starting to feal like retail and care is a couple who fights only when friends come over.
😳
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Now that is a good idea... too bad it'll never happen. AWS wouldn't want to give us too many(any) venues to express our concerns about how the company is run... so we take it out on the public.
BTW, couples who fight in public fight just as much, if not more behind closed doors. You just don't hear about it ;)
BTW, couples who fight in public fight just as much, if not more behind closed doors. You just don't hear about it ;)
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lol i hear that, i just dont think its right, i dont think anyone should take anything out on the public. Especially while theyre representing the company they work for.
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that's any care vs. sales channel.
my dept. got switched back to ths sales support group and we fight with the f'tards in sales for the same crap (adding stupid stuff on trying to think the cust wouldn't notice so they'd up their commission, promising everything under the world for free). and with them pushing us hard to sale accessories and bolt ons to customer's who don't want them, yeah real fun. let alone we will all probably be out of a job by the end of the year, i am definately looking for a new job.
my dept. got switched back to ths sales support group and we fight with the f'tards in sales for the same crap (adding stupid stuff on trying to think the cust wouldn't notice so they'd up their commission, promising everything under the world for free). and with them pushing us hard to sale accessories and bolt ons to customer's who don't want them, yeah real fun. let alone we will all probably be out of a job by the end of the year, i am definately looking for a new job.
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hi I work for cingular and there is a good chane cingular will use alot of the sales team froms AT&T and the AT&T stores will also be still around but it will just convert to cingular.
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Per P&P all AWS employees are required to accept the recording by a customer at any time during the call, as long as it is asked first. Not following P&P could result in a not met on your quality score.
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F%$K quality. F#%K sales. Which will bring me to a post im about to make. But doesnt it say anything about the recording being altered. Cause if that person has the knowledge they could alter it to work against AWS like previous posts have said. And what if your asked and say no? Cust hangs up or just let em keep recording? My cust gave in and turned it off cause i wouldnt go on with it on. again nice enough to tell me but my choice none the less.
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True it can be altered,most likely would be, i find some reps dont like being recorded because they are insecure or unsure of the info there providing, as long as your not "winging it" and your following policy word for word ,i dont really see how you can have a problem with it,but if you personnaly have a problem with it for whatever reasons in p and p ,,for your qualitys sake id advise you to state why you personnally dont want it to be recorded, and do not state that aws does not want it to be recorded.
i think of it as a good thing though.
i think of it as a good thing though.
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wether or not a rep doesn't mind being recorded or not.. how do they know that the customer accually stoped recording if they said "stop recording otherwise I can't continue the call"? the customer could just say they did turn it off... and lie?
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Roamdog you are an idiot, if the customer doesn't have the reps's permission, than it isn't allowable in court, not to mention an invasion of privacy which could carry a stiff fine....
RaVeN
RaVeN
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Customers should also have the right to deny recording. We all know quality assurance monitoring happens, sometimes at random, sometimes not.
Also many times, if a recording is edited, that can be detected anyway.
Also many times, if a recording is edited, that can be detected anyway.
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I almost wish that custs would record their calls just so that it would come back and bite them in the ass 6 months later when they call because they never extended the contract and then they play the tape and dicover that they did. Honestly I dont think that there are that many reps out there who would deliberately renew a contract w/o a custs permission. At least not if they get monitored as much as we do in our center. I'm third party and one month our team of 18 people was monitored 47 times by AWS quality never mind monitors done by our TL and our company's quality dept. The odds of getting caught doing something this stupid are just too high. So let them record away, it will drop the calls to care significantly and when they play ...
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🙂 I have an idea why dont you check policy which clearly states that cust may record our calls and we are to allow them to do so, and thank them for asking/informing us. that is ATTWS policy why dont you read it some time if you are a rep like you say,
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I think for me it keeps coming back to if the cust has the knowledge they can adjust the conversation accordingly. Even making the hold time 1 hr to hurt the carrier that way. Yes, MOST people wont go through that trouble but some might. Yes our system says to let cust record it but we are told by the supervisors its up to us. I did learn something, if the cust does not want to be recorded we can call them back on a landline. Apparently it does not record then.
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Hello all,
I'm going to throw out my 2 cents now. I work for a Cingular exclusive agent, and I must say that those items mentioned earlier in the BB will not be tollerated by Cingular. Agents will lose there contracts on the whim of Cingular, if Cingular believes they are defrauding customers. The way our contracts are, the customer has a copy of all their charges right on the contract for new and family talk customers. Therefore if they see some charge they do not recognize, then they can ask ( and they have to initial each and every item on the contract). Upgrades are hand written by the CSR, and if they write anything on the contract that the customer does not have on the customer copy, the customer will be refunded the price, and it wil...
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I'm going to throw out my 2 cents now. I work for a Cingular exclusive agent, and I must say that those items mentioned earlier in the BB will not be tollerated by Cingular. Agents will lose there contracts on the whim of Cingular, if Cingular believes they are defrauding customers. The way our contracts are, the customer has a copy of all their charges right on the contract for new and family talk customers. Therefore if they see some charge they do not recognize, then they can ask ( and they have to initial each and every item on the contract). Upgrades are hand written by the CSR, and if they write anything on the contract that the customer does not have on the customer copy, the customer will be refunded the price, and it wil...
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Sounds good. I have a question for you. Are there indirect Cingular stores? I work in an area that does not have Cingular currently but we do have AT&T. I keep hearing rumors that Cingular only has direct stores and then exclusive agents, no indirect dealers. I was just wondering if those rumors are true.
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i work for cingular and that is not true. but it is mostly true most of cingulars new activation happen through outside sales channels.
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actually aws policy is to inform the customer you do not wish to be recorded, making it unlawful for them to continue and they cannot use it in a court of law, if they choose to continue recording you are supposed to continue with the conversation as it is a waste of tape for them to record as it is illegal...under no circumstances are you to say it is okay that they record the conversation, anyone on res especially should know that...you may end the call if you are not comfortable with it, although that is not in the policy and you would get introuble for releasing a call as that is against policy for anyone below res.
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You should read up on your P&P as it clearly states that we are to advise the cust that we would be glad to have them record and to thank them for asking.
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Wow, someone is obviously not right about the policies. Just from a "common sense" point of view (since I don't work in the call centers and don't know the policies) I think that theDMan's answer makes the most sense. I mean, it seems like that's what a company would do in this case: tell the customer that they can record the conversation.
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I havent been to work for like a week so I dont know if they have changed P&P but I was standing next to McG when he took the call that started this post and I looked it up later that day and it matched my prev answer. It only makes sense that cust can record call. If we are doing our jobs right there should be nothing to worry about anyways.
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