Holding tactics prompt consumer fury

By Julian Knight
BBC News Online consumer affairs reporter

Call centres are in the firing line

It's a familiar modern day mantra.

"Thank you for holding, our customer service team is aware you are waiting and will be with you shortly."

Such automated messages can prompt callers to lose their cool.

You may think that people feeling frustration when phoning a call centre ought to relax a bit, drink more herbal tea and chill.

Widespread discontent

But according to a report from Citizens Advice, anyone feeling stress when phoning a call centre is not alone, in fact, it seems they are in the majority.

Critical problems about money, debts and benefits, often affecting people on very low incomes, simply are not getting resolved as quickly as they should be David Harker, Citizens Advice

The Hanging on the Telephone report - from the UK's largest provider of free advice - catalogues widespread discontent with customer service standards offered by UK call centres.

A staggering 97% of people surveyed for the report said that they found at least one aspect of using a call centre annoying.

Citizens Advice claims that almost six million of the problems it deals with each year fail to be resolved over the telephone.

In particular, the charity says that call centres are failing people who are trying to resolve complex problems and also those with learning difficulties or who don't speak English as a first language.

HAVE YOUR SAY These day, I'm just relieved to get a UK-based call centre Luke Goodland, London Send us your comments

"Critical problems about money, debts and benefits, often affecting people on very low incomes, simply are not getting resolved as quickly as they should be," David Harker, Citizens advice chief executive said.

"Call centres should be an effective gateway to services and problem resolution not a barrier."

Disconnection

According to the report, the chief culprits are call centres operated by energy and water firms, the government and High Street banks.

Overall, the charity found that four out of 10 customers were dissatisfied with call centres operated by utility firms, while a third were unhappy with government and High Street bank lines.

"Our experience is that all too often information disappears into a black hole between call centres and back office staff," Georgina Walsh, a spokeswoman for consumer group Energywatch said.

Complaints over wrong billing often follow a similar pattern she added.

"A customer will be promised that they will receive an amended bill on half a dozen occasions only for the back office to continue to send out red reminders.

"This can end in threats of disconnection and the customer may even acquire a poor credit rating."

Firms promise round-the-clock service, through their call centre, but don't empower front line staff to sort out the problems they face Anne-Marie Forsyth, Call Centre Association

One high profile call centre failure occurred when the government's new tax credit scheme was launched in April last year.

The "disastrous" start - as government spending watchdogs called it - was marred by a series of well-publicised delays and computer problems, with thousands of UK families receiving the wrong payment.

Those issues were then compounded by a call centre system not capable of coping with many thousands of calls a day.

As the problems rumbled on, call centre workers, some of whom were receiving death threats from furious members of the public, staged a walkout to protest at their working conditions.

Great expectations

The Call Centre Association (CCA) readily admits that there is public discontent with the service offered by some of its members.

Are you nostalgic for bank queues?

"The problem is that a lot of company advertising raises peoples' expectations too high," Anne-Marie Forsyth, CCA spokeswoman, told BBC News Online.

"Firms promise round-the-clock service, through their call centre, but don't empower front line staff to sort out the problems they face."

However, Ms Forsyth said that customers had forgotten all too easily what it was like before the arrival of call centres.

"Queuing at the local bank or post office, when they were open, was an everyday experience."

Ms Forsyth added that automated services are increasingly allowing people to access information without having to talk to a person.

Unfortunately there is seldom any ownership of a problem. Staff are measured in terms of number of calls answered rather than how effectively they deal with the matter in hand David Hume, Registered Call

Callers can press a few buttons to access the information they need and get off the line, saving them time and the call centre operator money.

Revenge

David Hume decided to get his own back on the call centre culture when he was left on hold for long periods by his travel insurer when he and his girlfriend were involved in a near-fatal road accident in Africa.

"We were let down badly by my travel insurer. I had to pay for an air ambulance with a credit card when I should have been able to get through and gain authorisation for immediate medical assistance."

"Since then, the poor service being offered by call centres has become a bit of an obsession with me."

"Unfortunately there is seldom any ownership of a problem. Staff are measured in terms of number of calls answered rather than how effectively they deal with the matter in hand."

Mr Hume recently launched Registered Call, a service which offers to record and store users telephone conversations made to call centres.

The user calls a premium rate line and is then connected to the phone number of their choice; their conversation is then recorded and stored for up to six months.

A warning is given at the start of the conversation so that the recipient knows they are being recorded.

"The feedback we are getting is that when centre staff realise they are being recorded, they go out of their way to help the caller."

But the Registered Call service doesn't come cheap; costs are 25p per minute to a landline and 40p a minute to a mobile.

Some may think that's an awful lot to pay to record an automated message telling you: "Thank you for holding, our customer service team is aware you are waiting and will be with you shortly."

Your comments:

I spent 4 years working in a call centre, we were measured on how many calls were answered and were rewarded (bonuses) if our average call time was under 3 minutes. At one time one of our directors hired new management, who introduced a customer centric approach, and abolished call targets, and hired more staff to deal with the number of calls we were receiving, (and gave us all a pay rise). We (the staff) were happier (less pressured working environment) and the feedback we got from the callers was far more pleasant!, this director took retirement after 6 months and the new management was moved upwards and side ways into different departments and the call centre was changed back to call targets and timed calls and half of us were made redundant, this was to "save money" (not to increase customer service/satisfaction) I wasn't made redundant but after having seen how a "good" call centre should run I resigned and now work in a small office where the customer is the main factor and customer service actually means something.
Nav, London

Having worked in a call centre myself for a very well known corporation, I can vouch that many of the problems call centres are known for - long queues and being placed on hold are due to management simply not employing enough staff to cope with the volume of calls. The training is also very poor - essentially you are in at the deep end, and you have to ask around how to deal with certain problems because you are learning as you go.
Anon, Manchester, UK.

I was served by a call centre that was clearly overseas- from the accent and the time lag, and was very impressed with the service, and the lady went all out to sort the problem.
George Thomas, Crawley

At the start of every call, I ask the call centre worker if the phone call is being recorded by them. If they say 'no' I inform them that I am recording the conversation at my end. The change of attitude is often amazing to behold!
Sue, Knebworth

On hold now (and have been for 25 minutes) and I'm getting rather bored of being told "all our agents are still taking other calls, please continue to hold" and "your call is important to us" but not important enough to have enough staff on hand to deal with the call volume in an effective manner.
David Smith, London, UK