Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us by Emily Yellin

Author:Emily Yellin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2009-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

In the basement of TeleTech’s Buenos Aires call center, approximately sixty customer service agents are stationed at their computers in four rows of gray cubicles. A steady hum of conversation—the sound of everyday, intercontinental commerce taking place—resonates through the large, pleasant room as they sit in red office chairs, under fluorescent lights, with their headsets on, talking to Office Depot customers in the United States. This is just one account among the many familiar American brands whose calls are answered in these clusters of agents throughout the four floors of the call center. Argentineans pride themselves on their warmth, a quality that Martin Sucari says makes them especially good at customer service work. Indeed, as Sucari walks around the call center, his employees—both male and female—greet him with a hug and kisses on both cheeks, as they do with each other and with all visitors, even those they have never met before. In Argentina, though, the greetings are somehow more effusive than in other countries with the same custom.

Hernan, one of the top-performing agents on the Office Depot account, sits at his work station talking to customers. Supervisors like Pablo wear suits, but Hernan and most of his colleagues working the phones are dressed casually, though it is Argentinean casual—with more of an affinity for relaxed Italian chic than for, say, casual Fridays in corporate America. Hernan is a lanky twenty-five-year-old with tousled light-brown hair, a well-trimmed goatee, tasteful green plastic-rimmed glasses, and a silver ring on his middle finger. He wears jeans with the cuffs rolled up once, a short-sleeved plaid shirt unbuttoned three-quarters of the way down, a white tank shirt underneath, and beige Converse sneakers.

As he deftly maneuvers callers through the process of ordering supplies or lodging complaints about delivery problems, Hernan always starts by saying, “Hi. Thank you for calling Office Depot. My name is Mark. How may I help you today?” He and all his colleagues use pseudonyms, though supervisors like Pablo do not. Most people in the United States would not be able to understand Hernan’s name over the phone, with its silent H at the beginning. A more American name helps keep things moving. Hernan is finishing his degree in communications at the University of Buenos Aires. He has been at TeleTech for about eight months and hopes to go into corporate public relations when he graduates. He took the name Mark from a character in a French film he saw the night before he started the job, but can’t remember the film’s name.

Mary from Orlando, Florida, calls to say that she faxed an order for pens recently but has not received them yet. Hernan says, “I’ll be more than happy to assist you, Mary. Would you provide me please with the confirmation number?” As he talks, he is pulling up screens on his computer that show her account history. Mary doesn’t have a confirmation number. Hernan’s computer shows no pen order. So even though Mary might think she had completed her order, she probably did not.

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