How To Deal With Call Centers

[Friday]

Step 1) Make sure to click the "Do you want to answer a brief survey" after the call. Even if you don't (although better if you do)... Because it usually shunts me to a more senior group of workers.

Step 2) If I'm cranky, I ask for the cranky-call team (yep. Most call centers have a team whose only job is to deal with irate, ticked off callers. A lot of new reps don't know this. Just like the more senior team knows the ins and outs a little better... The cranky-caller team generally has more latitude in what they are able to offer or do to soothe the furious. A lot of the time I get the "Why don't we see if I can help you first?" So I flat out ask them what the requirements are to be transferred, because swearing is usually on the list (but can be an automatic call-disconnect), and if I've waited for 40 minutes to get a person, don't want to start over), and I'm more than happy to stretch my vocabulary. <grin> And with the rep "in on it", they usually get a laugh. Win/win.

Step 3) Don't suffer fools. If I get an idiot, I hang up, and call back. I make sure to tell the next rep that I've already faced one idiot today, and am sooooo happy to have gotten them. Because, clearly, they will either help me or know who to transfer me to. Flattery.

Step 4) When all else fails, I have fun. Change my accent around (I have several, product of moving around). Offer to sell them their cubical at a reduced rate. Ask for Barbara or Diane from the management team (there's always a Barbara, or Diane. Always.) Seriously use them for my own amusement. Until they click me through to someone useful.

 

[perstam]

What I had hoped to find was psychological support for recovering from an ordeal with call centers. I guess I did not word my original post very well. I have tried most of the techniques above. I will try to find another forum that may be able to help me.

 

[bell]

"Psychological support" for call centers? Are they related to a PTSD trigger or stressor? Or just an annoyance? Could you be placing your frustrations with something/someone else on call centers?

Perhaps you might want to look at your own attitude, which from your own posts sounds negative, first.

I'm honestly not sure that "emotional vampires" are related to "people doing their job." Emotional vampires are people who drain you of energy based on their own psychological needs, not people who are just doing their job. How do you feel that the two are related when one is psychologically motivated and the other motivated for a paycheck with no psychological attachment?

 

[perstam]

Since there appears to be no mechanism in this forum to close a topic and since people are still posting I thought I'd try one more time. Obviously, I incorrectly assumed that this was a forum for PTSD and I incorrectly assumed that the posters had read or at least were familiar with personality disorders such as narcissism.

Occasionally I get people at a call center who are actually interested in solving problems and who are intelligent, but usually this is not the case. One way I can protect my emotional health is to remove myself from the situation. This is not possible in the case of health insurance. I am forced to deal with these people. What I am still looking for from this forum is how to deal with the FOG (Fear, Obligation, and Guilt) from dealing with call centers after the call has ended. It takes many hours and sometimes days before I am sane again.

Can someone please acknowledge that call centers are designed to create FOG?

The first thing that happens when I call Blue Cross is I have to talk to a computer instead of a human. Naturally, it does not understand. I finally get to human who asks for my member ID. I give it to her. Sometimes I am connected to the right person, sometimes not. If I am connected to the right person this second person asks for my member ID again! Then they ask for my name, address, date of birth, etc. We all know that this is not a foolproof method of identifying me. I could have grabbed a stranger off the street and given him this information and they would never know. Of course, the National Security Agency also has all this information. When I called the other day the clerk didn't understand that Blue Cross outsources it's mental health claims processing to Magellan. I talked to her for an hour and was never able to convince her.

Does the above state my case a bit better???

 

[bell]

No, because call-center operators are not narcissists. There is no narcissist requirement when you apply for the job. Therefore, call centers have nothing to so with narcissism or personality disorders, perhaps, except your own.

Therefore, I'd proverbially check yourself before you wreck yourself and figure out why you're being triggered here, because I doubt call centers gave you PTSD (and if they did, I would question that diagnosis). So the call centers are not your main problem here, why you're getting so upset is. Chances are excessively high that your attitudes about call centers are making everything worse.

Also, who the crap cares who they outsource to? Fixing your health situation is what you want to do, fixing the system is useless and doesn't help you, which it is ultimately designed to do. Again, I'd figure out what is actually triggering you about this, because the whole "emotional vampire"/narc argument holds very little water here, which is why you're not getting the support you think you need.

 

[catjudo]

FOG (Fear, Obligation, and Guilt)

Can someone please acknowledge that call centers are designed to create FOG?

I agree with most of what @bell has said. I just wanted to add that I do not think you'll find anyone who will acknowledge that call centers are designed to create fear, obligation or guilt. They are designed to provide a service to you. If they were only designed to create fear, obligation or guilt why would anyone ever call one?

I think you have some very distorted thinking going on. I think that whatever truly has you upset or frustrated, you are transferring the anger and frustration to the call center. If you call with a negative attitude you will be met with a negative attitude back from the call center rep. They're only human. If you're nice, they're nice. If you're mean and cranky it rubs off on them and then not only do you have a negative interaction but the rep needs to find a way to quickly shake it off before they take a call from their next, poor, innocent caller.

 

[KwanYingirl]

I already explained what ombudsmen do. Likewise, you can probably get more support from a mental health advocacy group such as NAMI. This forum is not a healthcare provider. It is for people with PTSD not narcissists. Perhaps you can google that and find what you're looking for. Good luck.