a day in the life of a customer service intern

(Writing this at the close of the day, while watching the last U.S. presidential debate - so forgive me if I'm spacey...also, I like how the diagonal stripes on the Senator from Illinois and the Senator from Arizona's ties are slanted in the same direction. And that's all the political talk that you'll be getting from the girl who got a BA in Political Science...)

Since moving to Ann Arbor and starting my new job, I haven't really sat down to write about the nitty gritty of the day and have written emo-colored posts. Still in training because it's only week two, but things are starting to become more regular at work in terms of schedule. I work for the company formerly known as Creative Solutions, which was acquired by Thomson in 1979, which merged with Reuters on April 17 earlier this year. It's located in the Avis Farms corporate park where State Street turns into State Road, south of I-94. My commute ranges from 9-12 minutes depending on traffic in the mornings, during which I listen to NPR on 91.7.

Upon approaching the two sets of floor-to-ceiling double doors, one can see a tiny sticker strategically placed on the left door of each set: PLEASE USE THE OTHER DOOR. Week two, and I still forget this, sometimes. Once inside, I show my makeshift badge (because the interns haven't gotten the sweet new ones with Thomson Reuters orange) at the front desk and veer to the left towards the Customer Service Department and make my way over to home sweet cube #402 to check my schedule for the day.

Once the clock strikes 8:30 am EST, one of two things happen - either a half an hour meeting, or starting straight to work. Most mornings, like today, start with general meetings (some of which get me started in the day with a deer-in-headlights look, just based on all of the new information. Now picture me looking like that through most of the training sessions, every day!) When the meeting concludes, everyone is released to their work. Every now and then I hear laughter throughout our small department. And even though we have a real water cooler, we have an imaginary one where people gather and talk on the way to actually getting water. My favorite is the hot water, tea, and coffee area - which greatly aids in keeping me awake for meetings! And now for the good stuff...

Today, the interns started on a calling campaign, to check in with firms about product renewals for the professional software that Thomson Reuters sells. Today was also the deadline for businesses to file their 1040s, which makes for very stressed CPAs. Correction: which makes for very stressed CPAs at some of the firms that the interns were calling about product renewals today because according to our electronic schedules, that was the task at hand. Bad idea.

Having made some of these calls yesterday, I was feeling relatively confident about the task for the morning. I had no expectations when I made my first phone call, in which I ended up getting put through to a CPA at a small accounting firm. "It's 1040 deadline day, so this better be important," the voice on the other end of the phone warned me. Within moments, what should have been a short conversation became very escalated, with the client taking his frustrations regarding today out on me, his sales representative, the products, the company...I can't remember how I ended it, but I'm pretty sure my fingers were shaking as I finished typing up notes from the call. Probably something like, "I'm very sorry sir, have a great day..."

Okay so actually (and fortunately), not all calls are like that. But after hanging up with Mr. "I become unreasonable sometimes" (he said that, true story), I have to admit, I was shaken. Acknowledged: it was a bad day to call about something minor, like a product renewal. It was also not a good day for this overly emotional and hormonal girl to hear the words "if you're calling today, then you're weird" on the other end of the line. (So I took a walk and cried for a little bit - definitely the hormones, leave me alone!)

The rest of the workday went on uneventfully - except for getting lots of genuine apologies for what had happened on that campaign call, and reassurances from my new colleagues. I work with the nicest people - but that's to be expected with customer service. (I think...) And tomorrow? Different from today because I get to sleep in a tiny bit.

While walking towards home today, I reflected on a few things after having been on the other end of the line where the customer is always right. For instance, when you're really steamed about something and you have the opportunity to call some 800 number and complain, don't take it out on the little person. That voice on the other end of the line - whether calling from an election phone bank or some telemarketing center in India, regardless of the thickness of their skin - is someone's child, spouse, relative friend...a valuable person. Hearing that CPA react under pressure made me think about my crummy treatment of telemarketers, who are just doing their job; made me think about how I react and how I treat others when I am stressed out. I'm not a telemarketer. But today made me think about how I only think about things like this when I myself have experienced it. Naturally. But I wish that I could care more about things without necessarily having experienced them myself.

I'll post more on life at the office as I get to know it better...