As his current employment is engineering related I enquired why he had decided upon a change. His response was jaw dropping.
In his own words he had become thoroughly disillusioned at being set unrealistic targets (most of us could relate to that at some stage of our career I thought) which, he went on to explain had nothing to do with business generated or satisfied customers but the number of incoming calls that were placed on hold.
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All incoming calls were on premium rate numbers and staff were trained to keep callers on hold for as long as possible. Staff were instructed to hold all callers on the line for as long as possible no matter whether the callers query could be dealt with straight away or not. Staff had even been instructed to leave their work stations for a cup of coffee or a toilet break with the caller holding on the line for an answer with the threat of a disciplinary procedure if the targets were not met.
Now I have to stress that this is purely anecdotal evidence although I cannot help wondering whether this could form part of an industry standard on premium rate numbers.
Any call centre managers care to comment?
Ian Hall Vintage Business Limited
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