This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
Excepts taken from meeting notes 240409
Those present Shaun Hoult. Peter Cooper Davis, Michelle Young, Myself
As part of this process I was brought to task for two customer complaints
One involved a call from a young adult who was quite severely intellectually handicapped, her speech was mumbled, she was distraught and upset .
She was very hard to understand and each time I tried to explain what was happening ,because of her distress and her urgency to get the problem sorted out , she keep talking over me.
Each time I tried to calm her down she would start over again
Having had experience with people with this disability, I knew you had to treat them firmly ,so I said to her “can you just be quiet for a while , I will ask you questions to see if I have the problem sorted , you just answer yes or no spoken firmly but nicely
I gained agreement and started again being very patient with her
I asked a question and she started again oh dear
Most reps would have flagged it by now
This is what transpired in their words
Escalations – 2 customers laid complaint regarding your customer service
Escalations throughout the period 02/02 and 03/02 related to poor tone and manner described by the customer as “condescending and rude”. On call recorded 17/03 you were recorded saying to your customer “will go back to the original premise where you be quiet and you listen, Ok? All I ask of you is yes or no answer and not a story OK?” (Play call in nice)
How could these comments make your customer feel?
Reassured she knew I was focusing on her, got her back to the point, otherwise she could go on and on. I had a polite manner, trying to get to the bottom of it, be firm and direct, yes or no, took time. I have no issue with IHC, I know how to deal with them and show compassion.
Peter – To be fair that customer was challenging, whilst the company could enforce and deal with it in an appropriate manner, she would have been happy with that conversation, she had a better understanding and understood what was being asked.
Michelle – Paul how could those comments have been construed by our customer?
Paul – I have worked with intellectually challenged people, she would have felt reassured. It could have been construed as patronising or condescending, I’m not that kind of person. I listen to the customers and to be blunt they seem happy.
Now remembering that telecoms code of ethics states in part that they should be honest, they have just lied to me both are complicit in doing it
Note Michelle’s comment, not really interested ,just noting things down but not really engaging in what I had to say
Michelle, you dummy
the young lass is intellectually handicapped she lacks the ability to construe anything.
you have just telegraphed your intent with regards to what is going to happen to me
Now I realize that I’m not going to get a fair hearing in any of this, it could not have been made clearer, the whole thing is a farce.
I resign myself to answering the questions the best that I can.
I think to myself how the hell can these people have any credibility when they are deliberately setting me up and lying to me
I am happy to be judged amongst my peers and will admit that I, m not 100% perfect on every call but for the most part I am doing my best
Having been in Shaun’s team for approximately eight years I perceive he has abandoned me aquesient to Michelles or Brigettes orders to save his own job.
Shaun you have been found wanting, after all the help I have given you over the years , to say I was disappointed would be a understatement, work politics who needs it when it requires you to act without honour.
So I left the meeting pretty pissed off, as you can well imagine his people are our managers and are supposed to operate honestly.
yeah right
Nothing to do now but waited for the outcome of the meeting
I end up with a written warning 300509
Written Warning– Failure to meet defined KRA performance standards required in your role as a Customer Service Representative and compliance with Telecom Policies.
One thing the hypocrites accuse me of is my actions
“It also brings into doubt the necessary relationship of trust and confidence between Telecom and you. “
Consideration of your explanations
Having carefully considered your explanations we do not accept that your explanations satisfactorily justify your actions for the following reasons;
I do not accept that language that could be construed as patronising or condescending is appropriate in your attempts to control a call or were you deem the customer to be intellectually challenged. All customers have the right to expect a polite and professional service standard.
I thinking ,you idiots, you lie to me, you are not carefully considering any of my explanations. your actions and your body language indicate there is little or no respect shown in Michelle’s eyes or actions she reads like an open book
The entire procedure , indicates to me that you are following, a predetermined path, with a predetermined outcome and you are fast becoming irritated by my presence ( they tried but they just couldn’t hide it )as I’m not making it easy for you because I’m frustrating you at every turn
You people should have a written warning for failure to meet telecoms code of ethics with regard to dealing with people honestly
you bunch of hypercritics
These are the actions of people that we should look up to ,they have been found woefully wanting their own words and actions have caught them out
They have been caught acting dishonestly and with premeditation as to the outcome ,why because neither of them have the personal integrity that Bridgette Dalzell stated confidentially that she had in them
Acting dishonestly thus taints the whole process ,if they fail to act with integrity here, what hope is there for the integrity of the whole process?
My cause is lost it’s a just a witch hunt done at either Bridgette’s request or Micheles, either way I’m out the door it just a matter of how long I can delay the process
So back to the complaint and the young lady. what happened ?
She was in trouble, because she was staying at her uncle’s place and had been ringing her boyfriend in another neighboring toll area.
Many times a day this had run up a large bill .
Her uncle was not happy and had given her a sound telling off, so she was doubly upset, one for the telling off as people with this disability are very sensitive and two because she wouldn’t be allowed to call her boyfriend .
I got it all sorted out by adding "talk it up nearest neighbor "
Now have you spotted the lie yet
they stated in writing that two customers had laid complaints one of them
described by the customer as “condescending and rude”.
Well here it is
There is no way this intellectually handicapped girl had the intelligence to make a complaint I’m not denigrating her it just a statement of fact her disability just doesn’t allow her thought process’s to work that way
There is no way she would use a word like “condescending” she is not capable of understanding the concept let alone the meaning.
Someone please show me her COMPLAINT letter
yeah right
This statement alerted me to a number of things
1 someone (Shaun) had been instructed to spend a lot of time going over, every call on every day to find any mistakes I had made and use them to beat me up with
2 if the above was happening it was proof I was being micromanaged
3 someone was determined to have me out the door they where operating from a position of power so they held all the cards
So I leave it for a while thinking I will seek confirmation at a later date
On June 15 09 at 4.15 Shaun challenged me regarding three calls that I had made the previous day where I had missed ownership statements on all.
Further proof that he was spending all day looking for my mistakes
I challenged Shaun re what was happening I ask him how long this nonsense was going to go on.
His answer was I had to be 100 per cent on all calls all the time
I was angry, as no one in the site was achieving that impossible target!!!!
I informed him I considered it work place bullying by micromanagement disguised as performance management
He was a little bit pissed off with me as I was getting aggressive in my tone and I was doing in front of the team, his fault, he should have taken me into an office to talk to me
His defenses where down so I asked about the complaint made by the intellectually handicapped girl
He finally admitted it was an “observation”
So why didn’t he just state that at the outset?
Why the need to put it forward as a complaint?
why lie?
The team heard his omission...
So the agenda they had in regards to me, was finally confirmed all be it in a oblique way
I drove home a little bit gutted by the shallow hopeless people I had thought had more moral fiber than they were showing.
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
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