Eight hours on the hot seat with all the arrows flying at you. This is how most people imagine working in a call centre, where you have to be on the phone with customers all the time and often, they aren’t calling to give you praise. According to Jolanta a lot depends on the mindset of the customer service profession. She sees the role as an eventful job, in which there is no time to get bored, and she always focuses the most important aspect of the position—finding solutions to help the customer and make their day better.
No room for boredom
Although Jolanta has over 20 years of customer service experience and is now the head of Venipak’s customer service team, her degree is in engineering. ‘My background in formal sciences means that I’m very detail-oriented; I don’t let even the smallest detail slip by me’, she says. ‘My career has been horizontal: first I was a sales team leader and then I was asked to manage a call centre. Companies changed but I’ve always been in a position to solve problems.’
The customer service team leader, who has been with the international parcel company for two years, finds that the principles of customer service in all business areas are pretty much the same, but for her, the most interesting part of the job is the variety.
‘You always feel the heartbeat of the day. You have to figure out what can be done better and help the customer if they have any uncertainties or challenges. This job encompasses a wide palette of colours and shades, so it’s simply impossible to get bored’, says Rimkevičienė.
She notes that it is inappropriate for a customer service professional to be emotional: ‘As in any other job, there are all kinds of days. In difficult moments, you just inhale, exhale and repeat if you need to. But it’s not great when you feel that your emotions are running the show; this can never happen when you’re working with customers.’
Customer service – the art of dealing with incidents
Sharing what goes behind the scenes of her work at an international parcel company, she notes that impatient customers usually express negative emotions towards circumstances that are not in the hands of customer service professionals. For example, when there are no vacant compartments in the parcel lockers because someone doesn’t pick up their package on time, or when there are problems caused by weather conditions, impassable roads, lack of resources or if employees are sick or on holiday.
‘As I like to say, we work with incidents’, Jolanta states. ‘Sometimes they happen on our side, sometimes on the client’s, but we always try to find the best possible solution for the situation.’
Even something as minor as an incorrect digit in the postal code can disrupt the smooth delivery of a parcel: ‘The postal code is the main element by which parcels are sorted, so one wrong digit can take a parcel to Telšiai instead of Utena’, says Rimkevičienė. ‘Even if these nuances are explained to the customer, not everyone is reassured, because the person was handling a birthday or a Christmas present. For them, it is a stressful situation, and we understand that very well, but all we can do is give advice on how to avoid such a situation in the future.’
There are also cases where customers complain about things that are not the responsibility of the parcel company. For example, they need clarification on what is inside their parcel, but instead of contacting the seller, they call to complain that the goods arrived in poor quality or did not meet their expectations.
‘If the sender does not communicate with the buyer, which is often the case, our courier is the only direct human contact. That’s why we often receive complaints that a sweater was the wrong colour, a leather handbag was of poor quality, a jacket was the wrong size, or the wrong product was sent entirely. There are times when unhappy people come to the office and bring us handbags, sweaters and underwear, demanding their money back. In such cases, we always do our best to hear people out, explain and guide them where they need to go. Although it’s not actually about the delivery, we care about customer experience’, says Rimkevičienė.
Artificial intelligence will not replace our humanity
Rimkevičienė says that it is also important for a customer service professional to develop the skills to work with large amounts of information: ‘When you see parcel information, you see a lot of notes and check marks, and it’s not easy to keep track of all of that, which is why longer-term professionals have the advantage of being able to process information quickly.’ But the most important qualities of a customer service professional, she says, are empathy, attention to detail, quick thinking and even creativity when dealing with non-standard situations.
Although various automated solutions are becoming more and more common in the customer service field, and many businesses are outsourcing communication with their customers to artificial intelligence, Jolanta believes that this will not replace the human touch.
‘Automation tools are certainly gaining popularity in customer service, but we still get calls asking where their parcel is, even though people have the option to check it online using their parcel number. I think the proportions of live interaction will change in the future, but I have no doubt that human contact will not be replaced by any robots. Sometimes people just want to have a conversation, feel that their problems are relevant to someone, know that they can get advice and find a solution together’, she says.
Writing and reading are like therapy
According to Rimkevičienė, the key to any stressful job is disengagement, and extracurricular activities are the best way to achieve that. ‘My hobbies are writing and reading. When I read books, I’m a stickler for detail—I choose quotes and write them down’, she shares. ‘This helps me at work too: if someone doesn’t understand you, you have to repeat it to them in different words. Having a vast range of vocabulary makes it easier to control the situation.’
She advises people seeking help from customer service professionals to weigh up whether an outburst can get you anywhere: ‘For example, when I put myself in a customer’s shoes, I am demanding, but my demands are restrained. I always try to understand how much the processes really depend on the person I’m talking to on the phone and how much depends on the totality of the circumstances.’
