We all have a million horror stories, but I think we all kind of hold on to the good calls to boost our morale when things get hard at work…I know I definitely did anyway. What are the great calls that stand out in your mind?
Here’s mine:
This was a couple years ago, so the exact details are slightly fuzzy, and obviously I can’t give identifying details. I worked in insurance for a company that employed lizards and cavemen…both as spokespeople and metaphorical ones in the call center, typically as upper management.
To set the scene, it was winter and a woman called in with multiple accounts, wanting to discuss billing and had a few legitimate questions (none of the “why are my bills so high?! You’re a ripoff!!!” bullshit). This customer was super nice and very pleasant to talk with. Now, not to brag, but I am a great customer advocate. I try to do right by everyone, but if you’re kind, I will stick my neck out as far as I can to fix things or make you happy. I noticed a minor discrepancy on her accounts and realized we were double charging for her son and had been…for two damn years. Without getting her hopes up, I let her know I saw an issue that I wanted to dig into more and that I’d call her back. My supervisor was great and always had my back, but she was unavailable. So I spoke with a passing supervisor who informed me that protocol is to fix it going forward and apologize for the discrepancy but do nothing more. This did not sit well with me. Teen drivers are expensive, and two years of double charging her due to agent error felt so wrong and just dirty. So I wrote up an email explaining her stellar payment history, zero claims history, etc. and sent it to my supervisor. She read through my case and agreed wholeheartedly but she let me know it was wildly unlikely that the company would be willing to give a customer back thousands of dollars. But we pled our case to her manager, who needed approval from HIS manager. At this point it had been two days and I was a little discouraged. They suggested backdating one policy period, but that wasn’t good enough for me. I had to give her back money that we essentially stole from her because of a fuckup.
Eventually his manager called me in to hear me out. He’s kind of intimidating and I was nervous, but he listened to me and then asked why I was trying so hard to give her the money. I made it clear that it wasn’t ours and that I’d rather have a wildly grateful lifelong customer than a fairly satisfied but still slightly untrusting one if we only gave her a portion of the money. He approved it. Later my supervisor said she had NEVER seen him approve such a large refund and that she had also stuck her neck out to get it done because of how passionately I felt about it. If he had denied it, we could have both had a difficult time getting any exceptions approved ever again.
I was able to call the customer back and inform her that not only was the premium for BOTH policies covered for the rest of the remaining policy period but that she would also be receiving a check for well over a thousand dollars. She revealed that she was a single mom that worked multiple jobs to support her kids and that this was enough money to pay for all of her bills and that she could now give her kids a really great Christmas. She hadn’t used any of her struggles as excuses to not pay or pay late, as so many people did daily, so it was doubly pleasing to help her out like this. She made a point to ask for my name, passed on praise to my supervisor and then made sure to tell the people who answered after to say hello to me when they spoke with her. For the remainder of my time there, I would get emails from coworkers all over the country with her well-wishes every few months. It was so rare for me to have a victory at work and this carried me for ages. When I left, I was truly sad to be leaving some of my frequent callers or contacts like her and I still think about it when I need cheering up,
Tl;dr: customer got ripped off for two years and I got approval to refund her.
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