At the moment that first call came in all of the training … all the prep … all gone in a flash. “Hello?” I croaked…
After a few calls I settled down but it took about a week to get comfortable. I would spend the next two years answering in bound calls from American Thinkpad owners. Mostly individuals at first but if I proved myself I could be “promoted” to work with the business accounts. After that “Gold” customers who pay for special support levels and are fast tracked through certain parts of the support system at IBM. Promoted of course was just a word. You didn’t get extra pay for taking on the additional accounts. It was more of a prestige thing.
The experience taught me a lot. I liken to what ER doctors must go through on a daily basis although somewhat less life threatening. I worked 11 hours per day 4 days a week. You were expected to average about 40 calls per day with a fix rate better than 80%. Hitting those targets wasn’t too hard in an average day. A lot of the calls were simple. Setting up service calls. Tracking down part numbers. Some were vastly more difficult. Setting up accessories like docking stations with extra hardware like network cards… Ugh!
I distinctly remember one call that took my entire 10 hour shift resolve. In the end we solved the issue and the customer was exceedingly happy. He’d called a number of times before and was not able to resolve the issue. I received a pat on the back from management and get to leave a little early that day!
I learned a lot about Americans and geography as well. People on the east coast of America love to hate things and a store half a block away may be too far to go for help. People in the central states don’t often object to driving 150 miles to find a service center. People on the west coast truly are a mixed bag.
About one year into my tenure I was doing every job. I was even taking an escalation or two from some of the junior reps on the floor. My conversation skills and empathy were being used to their fullest potential. It was tiring but I was always glad to help.
It’s also when I started noticing that I was losing friends. Most of the people from my class had moved on or were thinking about it. It was becoming obvious that there weren’t going to be that many full time positions available when my contract was over.
I started to worry.
NoShade's 