I've been working the queue of customer cases for about an hour now, and the team has demolished it down to zero - so I have some free time.
Yesterday was a little rusty coming back from the weekend in SD, but the morning went surprisingly well on the phones. Little did I know the afternoon would be tremendously more difficult. I'm learning to IM/chat with fellow support agents for assistance, at the same time as guiding the phone conversation with the customer. It's like learning to walk and chew at the same time. Eventually it will become second nature, but for now it is challenging!
I'm learning to eat a lot of "humble pie" and not take it personally when the customer gets frustrated with me. I've been able to have this perspective mostly from putting myself in there shoes: I would be frustrated just like them if I was having an issue with a product!
Getting to rotate with CCRP has allowed me to walk a mile in the shoes of both the customer support agents as well as the customer. I have a completely new appreciation for both stakeholders!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Can you hear me now?
I'm sitting at the airport getting ready to fly home to San Diego for the weekend, and the guy sitting next to me is doing the best Verizon guy imitation on a conference call: "Can you hear me now?"
The Chargers' opening game is Sunday against the Panthers, and of course I will be cheering for the home team at Qualcomm stadium. Apparently the Chargers will be wearing the white jerseys instead of their blues due to the expected sunny San Diego weather.
This afternoon the CCRP-ers had a laser tag offsite. My code name was "Cheetah," and I was anything BUT the name-sake. By the third game my last-resort strategy became running into the opposing team's base and just yelling crazy enough to make them laugh so hard I could shoot at them and actually hit their vest targets. In the first game I only scored an embarassing 59 points, but not as bad as my good friend Megan's dismal 30 points!
Yesterday was our first official day speaking with customers on the phone taking support cases. I was definitely feeling some stress/anxiety at the idea of getting a pained customer on the phone, only to make them wait long while I desperately tried to resolve their issue! Yesterday was pretty rough, but I have to say today's cases were either significantly easier, or I was handling the calls a lot better because I didn't feel as frustrated. Next week I will continue to handle support cases over the phone, and the following week I will begin "talking" to customers over online chat.
Well I think we're probably boarding the plane soon, so now is as good as time as ever to sign off. Over and out!
The Chargers' opening game is Sunday against the Panthers, and of course I will be cheering for the home team at Qualcomm stadium. Apparently the Chargers will be wearing the white jerseys instead of their blues due to the expected sunny San Diego weather.
This afternoon the CCRP-ers had a laser tag offsite. My code name was "Cheetah," and I was anything BUT the name-sake. By the third game my last-resort strategy became running into the opposing team's base and just yelling crazy enough to make them laugh so hard I could shoot at them and actually hit their vest targets. In the first game I only scored an embarassing 59 points, but not as bad as my good friend Megan's dismal 30 points!
Yesterday was our first official day speaking with customers on the phone taking support cases. I was definitely feeling some stress/anxiety at the idea of getting a pained customer on the phone, only to make them wait long while I desperately tried to resolve their issue! Yesterday was pretty rough, but I have to say today's cases were either significantly easier, or I was handling the calls a lot better because I didn't feel as frustrated. Next week I will continue to handle support cases over the phone, and the following week I will begin "talking" to customers over online chat.
Well I think we're probably boarding the plane soon, so now is as good as time as ever to sign off. Over and out!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Learning
"It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked" - Warren Buffett
So we have just begun week 3 in CCRP.....and the clear theme of this program is to never stop learning. Last week the GM of Quicken met with CCRP and left that very message. She said the two key things to being successful are: (1) always continue to learn, no matter what role you are in, no matter how much you already know, just always keep trying to discover something new & (2) to be thankful for the things others have taught/done for you along the way and to show that appreciation.
Yesterday we took our first official customer cases, and I was a little nervous! We worked in a large group of about 20 to research the answer in the knowledge base before calling back the customer.
It has been a little slow going through the training process, but in the words of some really smart person many years ago, "you have to go slow, to go fast."
Sneak peak on next post: Kelly goes to San Fran!
So we have just begun week 3 in CCRP.....and the clear theme of this program is to never stop learning. Last week the GM of Quicken met with CCRP and left that very message. She said the two key things to being successful are: (1) always continue to learn, no matter what role you are in, no matter how much you already know, just always keep trying to discover something new & (2) to be thankful for the things others have taught/done for you along the way and to show that appreciation.
Yesterday we took our first official customer cases, and I was a little nervous! We worked in a large group of about 20 to research the answer in the knowledge base before calling back the customer.
It has been a little slow going through the training process, but in the words of some really smart person many years ago, "you have to go slow, to go fast."
Sneak peak on next post: Kelly goes to San Fran!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Ugly Green Tool
I completed day 2 of QuickBooks Online (QBO) training! Although we've already used the product in a few different business simulations, today was a little different because we practiced taking customer "cases" (issues submitted online via email/chat) and trying to solve them. We are working in a test environment of UGT (Ugly Green Tool - named by the developers who created it!) which is the tool that the support agents use to process cases.
Basically when a customer case is submitted, it is routed to UGT. Support agents with varying levels of experience/expertise have specific "rights" in UGT that allow them to see cases with a level of difficulty/urgency that matches their experience level. When we get a case, we research the answer in the knowledge base as well as chat with other agents who may already know the answer to that case. Depending on whether the answer is technical in nature, requires a long explanation/instruction, etc., the support agent either calls or emails the customer with a response.
The lack of accounting knowledge is really killing me, but I'm hoping I'll rapidly pick up the debits/credits in the next couple days. We begin interfacing with customers next week, but we will have an experienced agent shadowing us so I'm not too scared about messing up!
The Growth Leader of QBO spoke to CCRP today. I loved her message because it was refreshing to hear how she measures the success of her team. She told a story about a Sales Agent who in his first month, made 70 sales. In the second month he mades 100 sales, then 120 sales in the third month. When this agent had a 1:1 with her, he said his goal in month 4 was to make 150 sales. She told this agent not to make 150 sales. She said "I want you to only make 100 sales, and bring your team up with you to also make 100 sales." She said she valued a team member instilling their success in others a lot more than increasing their own success alone.
Ok, signing out for today but more to come on QBO!
Basically when a customer case is submitted, it is routed to UGT. Support agents with varying levels of experience/expertise have specific "rights" in UGT that allow them to see cases with a level of difficulty/urgency that matches their experience level. When we get a case, we research the answer in the knowledge base as well as chat with other agents who may already know the answer to that case. Depending on whether the answer is technical in nature, requires a long explanation/instruction, etc., the support agent either calls or emails the customer with a response.
The lack of accounting knowledge is really killing me, but I'm hoping I'll rapidly pick up the debits/credits in the next couple days. We begin interfacing with customers next week, but we will have an experienced agent shadowing us so I'm not too scared about messing up!
The Growth Leader of QBO spoke to CCRP today. I loved her message because it was refreshing to hear how she measures the success of her team. She told a story about a Sales Agent who in his first month, made 70 sales. In the second month he mades 100 sales, then 120 sales in the third month. When this agent had a 1:1 with her, he said his goal in month 4 was to make 150 sales. She told this agent not to make 150 sales. She said "I want you to only make 100 sales, and bring your team up with you to also make 100 sales." She said she valued a team member instilling their success in others a lot more than increasing their own success alone.
Ok, signing out for today but more to come on QBO!
Monday, August 25, 2008
First blog post ever, here goes nothing!
(Drum roll please....) Welcome to my blog! I decided to start a blog in order to capture ideas, random thoughts, funny memories, cool videos - really anything! I just started working in the Customer Connection Rotation Program (CCRP) at Intuit and have a lot of memories already in my first week:
- Brad Smith (Intuit CEO) met with CCRP participants. Brad shared a lot about Intuit's vision to go "social, mobile, global" to transform the lives of our customers.
- I visited 3 retail stores to view Intuit product displays (Target, Costco, Office Max)
- I went on a "Follow-me-home" to meet a QuickBooks user, who showed us how she uses QB in her 3-person business for servicing restaurant equipment.
- The QuickBooks Online Challenge presented each CCRP participant with a fake business to setup on QuickBooks. It's been 5 years since my last accounting course - and boy did it show! Those darn long-term-liabilities...
- CCRP Hoe-Down! (I'll leave it at that - let's just say there were cowboy hats, bandanas, and ribs).
- Rounded out the week with the Business Challenge - where we pretended to be land developers building "Somerset Village" - a student family housing project for Intuit University. Teams worked cross-functionally with a marketer, developer, finance analyst, customer support agent, and project manager. I was the project manager!
This week we kicked off our training on QuickBooks Online to prepare for customer call-backs, the online community, live chat, and email interaction with the customer. Stay tuned for more to come!
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