Hi, my name is Sydney and I’m a student calling on behalf of the University of Utah. I’m calling for a couple of reasons today, but first I’d like to tell you how much I’ve learned about manners from this job. Mainly, other people’s manners.
Sure, working in a call center has definitely taught me a lot about how I should present myself over the phone, but it has also given me plenty of prime examples of what not to do. It’s amazing how not being able to see the person you are conversing with, can lead so many people to think they can be rude for no reason. PSA, the person on the other side of the phone still has feelings. Shocker, I know.
The type of call center I work in is for my University, and I get to call alumni and parents. We provide updates on the U, information on particular events and resources here, as well as ask for small donations. Occasionally, conversation won’t flow as easily and the prospects (specific people on our call lists) become annoyed or angry. From this vast experience, I’ve learned a few things that I intend to apply when I someday end up on the other end of the call.
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Please don’t be the person who immediately hangs up during my intro, I beg of you. Good job, you effectively avoided talking to me, but you know what? I’ll still end up calling you again. And I will until I’m done calling your specific college or group.
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What’s worse than immediately hanging up though, is asking to be taken off the calling list while refusing to confirm who you are. At least at my job, our policy is that we have to directly speak to the prospect, confirm who they are, and then we may take them off the calling list if that is what they wish. If you don’t let us explain, I’ll still have to call you.
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Remember I’m just doing my job. Of course I wouldn’t willingly call people who have zero interest in speaking to me if I wasn’t being paid for it. Please don’t get mad at me or my fellow student callers for things we have no control over as **students**.
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A little kindness goes a long way. If you’re nice at all, whether we go through the entire call or it’s ended early politely, you made my day a little better, I promise you.
I get that no one really wants to talk to some random stranger on the phone, and we all have so many better things to be doing with our time, but at least have some decency. Us callers are not out to get you, we’re just trying to do our job. Don’t worry, we don’t want to talk to you either!