Call Center

Miranda sat down at her little table and let out a sigh. Another day of this crap, she thought. " Hey Jeff, what project are we working on today?" She logged into her computer and plugged in her headset.

"I hope your ready for this ... today were fielding calls from the suicide hotline. Calls are coming in from out west, were getting the overflow," Jeff responded, already on his 2 cup of of coffee.

You got to be kidding me, Miranda thought. A few more days of this , and I'll be calling the hotline she thought to herself. Once she got everything set up, she pushed the button that said "available" and waited for her first call. After a few moments, she heard a beep in her headset and she began reading the script that appeared on the screen in front of her.

"Hi, thank you for calling the suicide hotline. If this is an emergency, please hangup and dial 911. How can I be of assistance to you today?"

A man with a smooth, professional voice with just a little edge to it responded on the other end." Yes, hi. I wanted to make an appointment today if that was possible."

"An appointment?" Miranda sounded puzzled.

"Yeah. Three would be best for me, but we could push it to 4 if that's better. Just have to juggle a few things around."

"I'm sorry sir, I don't think I under-" she was cut off before she could finish.

"Well I've been in the market for a while now, weighing my options and everything. Been thinking about checking out for a while and then I saw your ad on TV a few minutes ago and I thought, Hey I should give them a call. I got a conference call around 2 so anything after 3 would work great. I'm not sure how this kind of thing works..do you guys do house calls or do I go to an office or something?"

"I'm sorry sir...are you trying to schedule an appointment for a suicide?" Miranda asked incredulously.

"Well..obviously. Why else would someone call the suicide hotline? Do you guys provide a variety of different options? I'd like to go out in the most bad-a$$ way possible."

"Sir, I don't think your using this line correctly."

He sounded agitated now." Listen, I saw your commercial, I'm calling the number. I swear you can't get good help these days. Can you pencil me in or not?"

She hesitated, not sure what to say. "Umm..listen.." But he cut her off mid sentence.

"No, you listen. My tax dollars are paying your salary. The least you can do is do your job. If you can't help me , you can transfer me to someone who can.

"Umm.. ok sir no problem. I'll transfer you to our customer service line. Just one moment please ." She put him on hold and turned towards Jeff." Hey your not gonna believe this guy. He's trying to schedule an appointment."

"What? It's got to be a joke." Jeff gave her a bewildering look.

"I don't think so. He sounds serious. "

"What did you say to him?" Jeff asked.

" I said I would transfer him to customer service." She turned in her chair with a smile.

The smile spread to Jeff's face. "Oh give me the phone I got this. This is gonna be great."


the end.....?

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Call centers...

Ever see the film, Mixed Nuts?

preview

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

That's a story that has legs

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Is it only people that have worked in a call-center, that know that old trick: tell the client you're deferring to a supervisor, but it's really just your buddy next to you?

Well written, and it does leave the door open to imagine many possible endings.