Phone Jobs

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Anyone have trouble with jobs that involve answering phones and customers questions?

I didn't mind answering phones. That was fine, and I got good at it. Although I didn't have to do it all day long. Making calls, on the other hand, was absolutely horrible.

I was anxious all day long. I would call not knowing who would answer, and I'd have to leave many voicemail messages. I hate leaving messages even when making calls for myself. I never know what to say.

I will never again work a job where my primary activity is being on the phone. Not worth the constant anxiety.

I had difficulty processing the information and staying on top of the other responsibilities. Probably due to my auditory processing deficit. I'm a lousy multi tasker.

I wasn't too bad with making phone calls since I had a script to day which I made. I hate leaving voicemail.

I do have auditory processing problems as well. I know that I tend to have more difficulty in understanding people on the phone than most, especially with background noise.

I can usually focus when talking on the phone, even though I have trouble focusing in person. There are no distracting faces to look at when I'm on the phone.

With me a script could be worse. It's like acting. I'm not good at faking anything, and that's what it's like for me with those kinds of things. Maybe I'd get used to it. I had to call people who had contacted the company, to follow up. I hated it.

Customer service in person was easy for me, because I knew the rules. I knew the answers to questions, and if I didn't, where to get them. I knew what I was allowed to say and how I should behave.

The only problem was I didn't often look at people enough to remember what they looked like. If I came across the person five minutes later, I'd often be confused. It made me panic quite a few times. Usually I'd have to pretend that I knew who they were or risk looking like an idiot.

My script was the particular technical stuff I had to call vendors for.

Walk up customers got me on edge sometimes. They expected me to know everything about construction.

Yes, that sounds difficult. I think I'd probably just tell them I don't know and offer to find out the information. I never had a problem when telling the truth in that way.

I don't know what kind of people you have to deal with, though. Some people can't be pleased no matter what.

What I hated was when I wasn't correctly trained, and then was expected to know all sorts of things and do things which I had no training for.

I'm not there anymore. It was sensory overload. No hard feelings as we parted ways either which is good. ☺

That's good. I don't often have those kinds of experiences when leaving a job. Probably because I piss people off unintentionally or fail miserably at not being weird.

That guy was one of a kind. Truly sweet and generous. I even sent him a card when I heard he was in the hospital. He's one of positive cheerful types and accepting of everyone. Reminds me a Disney type character in his ways.

I need to meet some people like that. We need more of them in this world, in my opinion.

That's always the kind of person I wanted to be, but I'm not really the cheerful type.

Disney Guy sure helped me.

I'm not really either. Very hard for me to swing with pleasantries and small talk.

I was "between opportunities" in 2003. Saw one of those paper pullaway ads in local food store for a mortgage place. Ended up cold calling people with crappy credit scores. I took it because six months of job search in my field got me no where. Basically telemarketing. Debt consolidation. Get a bigger loan on existing house, get money out to pay credit cards. They also did new houses too.

Miserable six or seven weeks. I noticed that my co-workers had "something" that I didn't, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out. Ha ha ha ha. Owner was a dick, immediate boss was a great guy. Co-workers were cool too. One guy was a retired from a fire department and was filling in before hitting 65.

And then I did something total dickheaded, some Filipino female co-worker, ~27 and I was 40, we would chat at break, she said she was so lonely, only hangs with her brother, wanted to hang out, but I said it isn't going to happen, I am married. Feel so bad about that, but I don't know what else I could do, I already had enough problems being (near) unemployed with three kids.

Got fired after I raised my voice over something. Ha ha ha ha. Now I know.

Michael, you did the right thing.

When I had phone jobs, I could never stick to the script. I always just started talking like myself. Funny thing is that the customers like when I as just me and I think I did a lot better than when I tried to stick to the script. But then I would get really honest and say things that I probably should not say. Those jobs did not last long.

I wrote my own script since I knew I'd freeze up trying to freestyle. I did however personalize the pleasantries. One time I made sure the receptionist on the other end had their supervisors notified about exceptional service. I was great at calming irate customers too.