Pizza Hut Closes Call Center | Customer Service Culture Ripped | Man Trolls Target's Disgruntled Customers

Contact center articles often attack topics from a theoretical, high-level perspective. They offer broad, universalized commentary based on common perceptions and aggregate experiences.

Such an approach is immensely valuable. There is absolutely a science to customer management, and articles that attempt to identify those clear-cut best practices serve to instantly empower all customer-facing organizations.

It is not, however, the only relevant approach. Issues that emerge within specific organizations or at specific points in time also shape the customer management arena and also carry immense ramifications for contact center professionals.

By dissecting some recent news stories and commentaries, this article attempts to tackle customer management from a timelier, more specific, more real-world perspective.

Pizza Hut Call Center Closes Amid Omni-Channel Revolution

The omni-channel revolution is often portrayed in a positive light.

This week, employees at a Pizza Hut call center encountered its negative side.

Citing a decline in call volume, Pizza Hut franchise owner NPC International abruptly closed a Springfield, MO call center that employed roughly 100 workers and processed orders for restaurants across the country.

According to a note posted in the window of the shuttered call center, the reduction in call volume is attributable to "an increase in internet orders" and the fact that the individual stores are "answering more and more of their own calls."

Both are direct consequences of the omni-channel revolution.

As businesses increasingly accommodate interactions in web and mobile channels, they will naturally defer calls from reaching the traditional, telephony-based call center. Call volume will decrease.

Since call volume is decreasing, the local stores have more bandwidth to answer calls. Since the central hub’s job is to answer calls when the local stores’ lines are busy, its relevance is also decreasing.

Web and mobile channels present their own challenges and opportunities; both require human staff assistance. It is therefore unfair to suggest that the rise of omni-channel is resulting in the death of customer service jobs.

It is absolutely fair, however, to suggest that the rise of omni-channel is reducing the need for live agents – particularly in transactional environments

Call Center Jobs are Stressful, Low-Paying

A recent Refinery 29 article focused on the extent to which recent college graduates are accepting contact center jobs.

Far more compelling than the demographic research, however, was the article’s damning portrayal of call center culture.

• The author’s interviews with call center employees collectively presented the environment as "high-stress, rigid workplaces that didn’t pay enough to be worth it."
  
• The article quotes Paul Stockford, who acknowledges the call center’s reputation for being a "white collar sweatshop."
  
  "In the past, we’ve referred to them as being white-collar sweatshops," says Stockford. "You’ve got people crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back."
  
• Citing immense pressure to hit performance goals, one call center employee laments the lack of job security: "If you’re not getting leads, you’re taking up space, and then you get let go."
• That same employee acknowledges immense workplace turnover; 300 workers have been replaced in fewer than eight months.
• While one former call center employee eventually found a rewarding job within the customer service realm, her initial call center experience was a bad one: "The number of phone calls per shift was overwhelming. Disgruntled customers were bounced around to different departments, and company taskmasters made sure all the calls were answered and the employees stayed focused, she says. Employees were not allowed more than two 15-minute breaks per day."
• A call center alumna, the author, herself, decided that the "$10 an hour I was earning wasn’t worth the humiliating phone conversations and invasive supervisors."

It is hard to sympathize with aversion to a performance-oriented culture. The call center plays a valuable role in the customer experience, and a business is not wrong for expecting its employees to engage customers with high degrees of efficiency and efficacy.

But insofar as "happy agents yield happy customers," businesses are absolutely accountable for the morale implications of their performance standards. If they place unrealistic expectations on their staff, they will drive frustration. That frustration – whether directly or due to the implication of attrition – will trickle down to customers.

Businesses are also accountable for the environment they create. Agents should not feel underpaid or underappreciated. They should not feel uncomfortable in the work environment. They should be well-trained in customer-centric philosophy and thus able to handle disgruntled callers without suffering emotional strife.

Man Trolls Disgruntled Target Customers

Target’s decision to remove gender labels from its toy section generated recent waves. Since it carries a clear political ramification, the decision also generated a fair share of ire.

Numerous customers expressed their disapproval – if not vitriol – on Target’s Facebook page.

Posing as a customer service representative, one man opted to troll those detractors.

Armed with a Target logo for his avatar and the handle "Ask ForHelp," Mike Melgaard issued sarcastic, dismissive replies to the complaints.

Screenshots of his replies are available here.

Humorous, Melgaard’s trolling session also offers truths regarding customer service in the social age:

* Do not blindly fear social media. While customers will, inevitably, complain about your business, there is no guarantee that other existing or prospective customers will take those complaints seriously.

Moreover, insofar as some customers hate other customers (particularly complaining ones), you may find individuals defending your brand against detractors. That will further minimize the potential harm of social customer discourse.

* Be vigilant in monitoring – and responding to – social customer inquiries. While Melgaard’s seemed obviously lighthearted and fake, he was still able to trick several complainers – and likely many observers – into believing he truly represented Target.

In a different, less humorous circumstance, his comments could have proven very damaging to the Target brand.

To combat the impact of trolls – and, frankly, to prove you value your customers as much as you value their money – you must keep a watchful eye on your social channels. Always know what customers are saying about you; always issue responses when their comments warrant them.