It is 7.30am and I am on my way to work in a call centre. I am not sure what to expect today, I have no idea what debt collectors do, or rather, how they do it. I am met at the door by a young lady who introduces herself and asks me to come through to the canteen. As I sat there I watched all the staff coming in ready for work. Apparently the early shift starts at 8am and they have to be logged in and ready to start at 8am not 8.01.
When I eventually walked onto the call centre floor I was amazed at how hectic it was. Dozens of people all sat at desks in banks of four, all wearing headsets and all talking ten to the dozen. I wondered how on earth they managed to concentrate on what they were doing.
My guide pointed at a board on the wall that was lit up with a series of numbers. That is the call waiting board she explained, it tells us how many calls are waiting and how long customers have to wait. There are currently over 100 calls waiting and they can expect to wait over half an hour she said. When they have to wait that long most of them are pretty irate when we finally answer.
I was introduced to a girl called Alice who would show me what it was all about. Alice is one of our top operators she said. I was gob smacked, she only looked about 15. I pulled up a chair and sat next to her, and pulling on a headset I was ready to listen to her next call.
The next hour was a revelation in many ways. This slip of a girl changed as soon as a call came through. Confident, assertive and in no mood to listen to excuses. She brought up the debt details on screen and explained it to the caller. In less than 2 minutes she had recorded a full means test on her computer and advised the caller that only payment in full would be accepted. Then came something I didn’t expect, a tirade of abuse from the caller. I must have looked shocked because she held a mute button on the phone, smiled and said that they get a lot of that, you just learn to ignore it.
When the caller finished she calmly asked if he had a credit card to make the payment now. After another bout of foul language the caller did indeed have a credit card and agreed to pay half the debt now and the balance next month. Card details were taken and the payment authorised. Alice quickly entered the balance payment date into her online diary and still blustering, the caller hung up. Alice put her phone into what she called, not ready, and asked what I thought. I asked why she didn’t just hang up with all the abuse. Well if you think about it I either deal with it or someone else will have to and that isn’t fair to my colleagues – and besides she said, I need the collection towards my bonus. Apparently they get a monthly bonus based on attaining a set target of money collected. If I hung up on every call that swore at me I would never collect anything she explained.
She also explained that some of the debts could be as much as 5 years old and the caller had probably forgotten all about it or assumed that they had got away with it, so it is a shock when we write to them asking for payment.
During the rest of the day we took numerous calls from people claiming to be unemployed and saying they could only pay £1 a week. Straight forward questions from Alice soon separated the genuine from those trying it on. If you are on benefit you certainly know where and when you sign on, and again, if you are on benefit it looks a little suspicious if you try to say you pay for digital tv, internet, a mobile, and cigarettes even before food and living expenses.
I was brain dead by 4pm when Alice finally logged off, and I had only been listening. Not too bad today said Alice, some days it is really busy. How many calls do you take then on a busy day I asked. I aim for over 25 an hour she said. All I can say is, rather her than me.
