FauxPseudo

All that cellphone stuff and the defense contractor were all service/tech/helpdesk.

Much less script based. Maybe you get a script for day one of some launch but otherwise you are on your own in most competent operations once you are out of training and shadowing.

But in sales the script is god until you break free and hit those KPI.

“You go to war with the autism you have, not the autism you want.” – Not Donald Rumsfeld

Funny thing about that. One of my jobs was with the absolutely most rigid follow the script places to have ever existed. The radio ratings. Not only could you never not follow the script verbatim but between calls you could read nothing but the handbook. Countless people must have read this thing cover to cover over the years. But, apparently, not one person had ever understood what they were reading or proof read it. I found 21 errors. And in one of those errors was a little bit of text that explicitly stated to never read the script verbatim.

In most centers the follow the script thing is for newbies. Then you don’t meet the KPI numbers and they threaten you. Then people get desperate and stop following the script. If they get results then no one cares about the script anymore. The top performers never follow the script.

And as a general rule the absolute top performer not only doesn’t follow the script but is a compulsive liar. But they get results and the returns are justified by the sales.

Except at the radio ratings place. Follow the script or die. Even if the handbook has one tiny section that says don’t follow the script.

I left the building each day and left it behind me. One time my roommate worked at the same call center. I was so good about leaving work behind that I forgot to tell her about a bomb threat we had had 2 months before that wasn’t on her shift.

Autistic. But close enough. I sold monthly shareware subscriptions on CDs, Highlander TV show video sets and trenchcoats, animal videos, long distance, gay men’s clothing, bedding sets, golf clubs, did tech support from the days of the Nokia through birth of the BlackBerry, iPhone, Android etc, saw the death of the Windows phones and even spent time at a defense contractor. I’m one of the most overqualified Helpdesk/CS/TS call center people ever.

As a two decade veteran of call centers I have had this happen to me.