Work Predicaments

[CrystalTears]

My coworker (we'll call him Sam) and I tend to be the better part of customer support (they've told me so :D). There are other good people here, but we are the ones that actually give a shit about our job, what we do, and how to handle our customers, while still fixing the problem and not telling them what they want to hear just to get them off the phone.

Once in a while we stumble upon calls our fellow coworkers have had and cringe at their answers and mistakes they've made. Now we're not saying we're perfect. Hell when they send out an email to all of us not to do such and such, we're the first ones to ask "was that me?!" We're actually paranoid that we're always screwing up. I'd like to be told when I do or say something wrong. It's the best way to learn.

So when we come across something glaringly bad, should we say something to them or our boss? I don't like feeling like basically a tattletale or snitch when it comes to telling my boss that someone screwed up, but someone has to know, especially since we find these mistakes when the customers call us and we go through the previous calls to make sure it's not a repeat problem. Now I don't do it anymore even though Sam says I really should. I don't like how it makes me feel that I think I'm better than the others when I really don't feel that way. All the time. :D

Seriously, I'm at a loss. Not sure what to do about things like that.

[StrayRogue]

Well would you suffer if you didn't "tell" on them? Would your buisness suffer so much so that your boss would get on your ass about this? If no, then leave him to natural selection. If yes, feel no guilt in protecting your own and your companies interests and rat the fool out.

[CrystalTears]

Well I personally wouldn't suffer over any of it except when the customers call back pissed off because of an answer they received, and that's when I say something. However when it's something that they've told them and it's over and done with, I don't see why I should say anything. I hate to say it, but to each their own. I'm not here to protect anyone's job other my own. If it winds up biting them on the ass, I say that's their problem for not asking for the right answer in the first place. I just don't like feeling so cutthroat like that is all.

The main problem I'm trying to avoid is our customers feeling they can't come to us or have to ask two different people and end up with two answers. There are some people who don't support the rest of us and just say what they feel despite what others may have said. They don't seem to like consorting with anyone about something. They think they know it all. It's quite annoying. AND they give the new guys their bad habits. Last thing I wanna hear from our customers is to "get our shit together".

[Edited on 5/2/2005 by CrystalTears]

[StrayRogue]

Yep, thats pretty much how I'd see it too. There's always going to be a weak link in the chain. Only when it starts effecting you or the company in more noticable ways should you really make the effort to do something. We were all noobs once, remember.

[CrystalTears]

I'm not blaming the noobs, I'm speaking of people who have been here for a while now. I may be the oldest one in the group (going on three years), but after you work for a year or two, dumb shit like that isn't really going to fly.

[StrayRogue]

Hmmm. Well its a crux then. Damned if you, damned if you don't. I presume these people wouldn't take being spoken to about their problems (after all most of us don't like being told how to do our jobs). And even then if he doesn't take it to heart and your boss gets wind of it, he'll think you told on him. In the immortal words of Socrates: "Gay".

[Latrinsorm]

Tell them what they're doing wrong. Be really nice about it, even if they get pissy. If/when they screw it up again, go to the boss. Why would you want to be on a lousy team?

[Asha]

My nightmare scenario :

3 days of intensive training then having a police attack dog take me down. Was fun.
( I wasn't the guy running wth drugs either, it was actually part of my training. )

The other scenario was 3 days of customer service training ( jinx ) then letting angry customers through on my earpiece. Way before I was ready.

[ElanthianSiren]

I don't understand why you're advocating going to your boss before speaking directly to the person with the problem.

Often, people form habits and don't even consciously aknowledge them. When I worked in customer service, I found it was better to point the flaws of others out to them as unabrasively as possible... like

"Hey Sam, I noticed on customer care call #3242456 you said" blah blah blah or "Hey Sam, Sexybigbutt textiles called and mentioned that you quoted them a price of $30.00 on" blah blah blah. Then, "Why did you do that?"

Going to the boss is just going to get the person bitched out/in trouble and make you seem like a snitch. Pointing out the mistake and where to find the proper information corrects the problem.

-Melissa

[Kia]

Originally posted by CrystalTears
So when we come across something glaringly bad, should we say something to them or our boss?

I think the appropriate thing to do would be to confront the coworker about it first. If you don't feel like you can talk to them about it on a professional level, then go to your boss. If your boss doesn't even care then you just have to deal with it, I guess.

For every negative thing you bring to your boss or coworker's attention, always supplement with two good things. Then you don't end up sounding like a tattletale pain in the ass. Instead, you'll sound like someone who is trying to better the work environment.

That kind of optimism and carrying generally catches on :)

Kia

[CrystalTears]

Originally posted by ElanthianSiren
I don't understand why you're advocating going to your boss before speaking directly to the person with the problem.

Often, people form habits and don't even consciously aknowledge them. When I worked in customer service, I found it was better to point the flaws of others out to them as unabrasively as possible... like

"Hey Sam, I noticed on customer care call #3242456 you said" blah blah blah or "Hey Sam, Sexybigbutt textiles called and mentioned that you quoted them a price of $30.00 on" blah blah blah. Then, "Why did you do that?"

Going to the boss is just going to get the person bitched out/in trouble and make you seem like a snitch. Pointing out the mistake and where to find the proper information corrects the problem.

-Melissa

I know what you're saying, and you make really valid points, which is why I don't like going to my boss for things like this and would rather tell them myself, and have done so already. This department is just funny how it's run, so it's rather hard to explain how things need to be handled around here.

However the problem lies in my conflict of winding up being the main person who says something to them all the time. I'm not their boss, people don't like to be told by a coworker that they're screwing up all the time, so I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, which is why I came for advice. I feel comfortable telling my buddy Sam when he does something wrong, or vice versa because we're able to talk about things like this with each other and not take it personally. Not everyone is built this way here.

Ah well. I thank everyone for the input. I may just suck it up and either tell them what the problem is or not say anything at all. No sense in being a pain in the ass if it's not hurting anything other than for my headaches. :)