Happy to Help ????

It's been less than 24 hours since my last post yesterday evening and I'm overwhelmed with the response that my "debut" blog has received from fellow 'netizens'.

While I've been contemplating the exact reason as to why I felt so euphoric after the session at my school, I've been thinking about a few other things as well. Namely, my mobile phone.

Why my mobile phone? Good question. I've been trying to get an issue that I was facing with my operator resolved over the weekend without much success. So while I have hordes of ardent blog followers who want to get in touch with me (or so I'd like to believe) I've not been able to get "uninterrupted" service as promised by my operator. So here I am on the phone once again, bellowing at the hapless "Customer Service Executive" who apparently was "Happy to Help" - that is till she received my call!

Here are the 'explicit' details, firsthand!

10:30PM, Saturday night.

Welcome to Vodafone, my name is Suvidha, happy to help you...
I don't think you are, this is the 4th time I'm calling you today and my phone still isn't working....see I’m someone who needs my phone.... (interrupted)

Can you please verify your billing address???
I've done this before (so there I go with my billing address AND my date of birth because I know that would be the next question...)

Thank you for that information and sir can you please give me your date of birth?
I just did! Didn't you hear me???? Why do I need to give that you again????

Sir, you gave it to me when I did not ask you for it. For our verification, it is important that you give it to me again.
(Losing it, bit by bit) Why should I do that! You did not hear me that's your problem!

Sir, if you want me to help you, please cooperate!
(By now completely furious) I want to talk to your manager please.

Sorry sir, you can't talk to my manager!
Why not????

Sir, it's against our policies.
(Aghast) Against your policies??? I'm a customer and I'm pissed. I want to talk to someone who understands what I'm saying!

Sir, if you do not cooperate, I will have to disconnect the call.
What the %$#@! You can't do that.....

My phone flashes "Call Summary 00:09:23"

That's it I thought! I've had enough of this. And just as I was going to redial the number for customer service, I realized, it wasn't her fault. She wasn't trained well. Now these are limitations of being from the training and development fraternity. We tend to be highly critical of even the slightest of indifference / slackness in service and tend to pile the blame onto training. How true is that? I began to wonder. How much can training do? How much of a difference does training make?

With that thought I sign off. My next post would have more...

Keep reading :)